What is Zano (ZANO)?
Zano (ZANO) is a layer-1 blockchain that embeds privacy directly into its protocol rather than treating it as an optional feature. Its native asset ZANO functions as fuel for transaction fees, staking, asset issuance, and on-chain governance voting.
How does Zano keep transactions private?
Zano combines three cryptographic techniques to shield sender and recipient details. Ring signatures mix each real input with a set of decoy outputs, making it impossible to tell which one is actually being spent. Stealth addresses create a brand-new one-time destination for every payment, so two transfers to the same wallet leave no on-chain link. Bulletproofs+ and Pedersen commitments hide the amount moved while still allowing the network to verify that inputs and outputs balance.
The Zarcanum mechanism extends this privacy to staking. Validators can lock their ZANO to secure the network without revealing their balance. There is no minimum stake and no fixed lock-up—participants can join or leave staking freely whenever they want.
What role does ZANO play in the ecosystem?
Every action on the network draws on ZANO. Transaction fees are paid in ZANO and then permanently burned by the protocol. If daily burns outpace the emission from block rewards, the circulating supply shrinks over time. Holders can stake ZANO to earn rewards while helping to protect the chain, and the hybrid PoW model also supports CPU-friendly mining.
Alias registrations and the creation of new confidential assets also require ZANO fees. Through on-chain voting, stakers use ZANO to influence protocol decisions. The AEON Pay integration meanwhile brings ZANO into real-world commerce by connecting it to millions of merchants in emerging markets.
What can builders create with Confidential Assets?
Zano acts as a platform, not just a coin. Confidential Assets allow anyone to issue their own privacy-preserving tokens, which inherit ring-signature and stealth-address protections automatically—no need to launch a separate blockchain. This infrastructure already hosts projects like the Freedom Dollar (fUSD) private stablecoin, the Obscura NFT platform, and the Zanobay marketplace.
A planned upgrade known as Hard Fork 6 aims to make native ZANO trustlessly bridgeable to EVM networks and other chains, lowering the barrier for cross-chain usage without custodial dependencies.
