Zcash community proposes a new dynamic fee market to prevent users from leaving due to high fees According to CoinDesk, Shielded Labs has introduced a new proposal suggesting the establishment of a dynamic fee market for Zcash to address rising transaction costs and network congestion. The proposal recommends abandoning Zcash's long-standing static fee model—initially set at 10,000 'zatoshis,' later reduced to 1,000. While this model worked during periods of low demand, it eventually led to a surge of 'sandblasting' spam transactions, causing wallet congestion and on-chain transaction delays. Previously, the ZIP-317 proposal adopted an operation-based accounting method, which resolved abuse issues but kept fees predictable and relatively low, unable to adjust based on usage. The latest proposal introduces a simple, stateless dynamic fee design built around 'comparables,' using the median fee per operation observed in the past 50 blocks as a baseline. Synthetic transactions would be added to simulate ongoing congestion. The median fee would serve as the standard fee, divided into intervals by powers of ten to reduce linkability and protect user privacy. During periods of stress, a temporary priority lane would be opened, with fees set at 10 times the standard fee, allowing users to compete for block space without redesigning the protocol. This system is planned to roll out in phases. Initially, it will be monitored off-chain, then implemented as a wallet strategy, and only introduced as a simple consensus change after approval, with expiration height limits and powers-of-ten fee rules. This avoids the complexity and fork risks of mechanisms like EIP-1559 while maintaining Zcash's privacy constraints. Other proposed ideas include using mining difficulty as a long-term heuristic indicator for fees denominated in USD and adjusting prices based on mempool pressure.