The Zcash Foundation has deployed a new Rust-based DNS seeder designed to strengthen the performance and reliability of the Zcash blockchain by improving how new nodes discover peers when they join the network.
DNS seeders are essential in decentralised networks: when a node first starts, it doesn’t yet know any other participants, so it must query a DNS seeder to obtain a list of active, healthy peers and begin syncing. Traditionally, Zcash relied on older seeder implementations, leaving a potential bottleneck during periods of network growth or heavy traffic.
The new seeder is built using Rust, the same language and networking stack used by Zebra, the Foundation’s Rust-based full node implementation. This alignment means the seeder operates under the same rules and protocols as the nodes it supports, reducing inconsistencies and improving overall network coherence. The Rust rewrite also brings memory safety benefits, a lock-free architecture for faster DNS requests, and per-IP rate limiting to protect against abuse such as DNS amplification attacks.
In addition to a more robust codebase, the infrastructure deployment includes support for both IPv4 and IPv6, real-time observability via Prometheus metrics, and ease of deployment through Docker tools, all designed to make the system easier for operators to run and monitor. The entire codebase is open-source and available for testing on both mainnet and testnet.
The upgrade arrives after previous issues highlighted the risks of relying on legacy seeders and reinforces the Foundation’s commitment to removing single points of failure. By modernising a core but often overlooked part of the network stack, the Zcash Foundation aims to ensure smoother onboarding for nodes and better uptime overall, helping users and developers maintain a more resilient blockchain environment.
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