What Is Zano?

Zano (ticker ZANO) is a privacy-focused blockchain where confidentiality is the default rather than an option. Amounts, sender and receiver addresses, and even the type of asset being moved are hidden on every transaction using ring signatures, stealth addresses, and confidential transaction techniques. Beyond simple private payments, Zano is built as a platform: anyone can issue confidential assets on its chain, register human-readable aliases in place of long addresses, and use built-in escrow contracts.

Overview - Table of Contents
What Is Zano?
Getting Started With Zano
How To Get A Zano Wallet?
Zano Resources
How To Buy Zano?
Latest Zano News

Zano was founded by Andrey Sabelnikov, a developer with an unusually deep pedigree in privacy technology. The CryptoNote protocol was described in a whitepaper by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen, but Sabelnikov wrote its original reference implementation, the codebase first used by Bytecoin and later forked into Monero and many other privacy coins. After leaving Bytecoin he launched Boolberry in 2014 under the handle crypto_zoidberg, an early CryptoNote coin with its own improvements. Zano grew out of that lineage: Sabelnikov co-founded the project with Pavel Nikienkov, published the Zano whitepaper in December 2018, and the mainnet launched in May 2019, with Boolberry holders able to swap their coins for ZANO during the first year (at a 1:1 ratio for the first three months, declining to zero by the first anniversary, with unswapped coins from the pool burned).

Zano's consensus is a hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake. Both miners and stakers produce blocks, so an attacker would need to control a majority of hashpower and a large share of staked coins at the same time to rewrite the chain. There is no minimum stake required to participate, and the official wallet lets ordinary holders stake directly from their desktop.

The project's signature innovation is Zarcanum, described in a cryptography paper published on the IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive as the first proof-of-stake scheme that works with confidential transactions and hidden amounts. In traditional PoS systems, stakers must reveal how many coins they hold; under Zarcanum, the staked amount stays hidden and the staking output is concealed among decoys. The Zarcanum hard fork activated on the Zano mainnet in early 2024 (at block 2,555,000), and the same upgrade enabled Confidential Assets, which let anyone issue tokens that inherit Zano's privacy guarantees, hiding amounts, parties, and even the asset type, without running a separate blockchain.

ZANO's monetary policy favors security over a hard cap. Blocks arrive roughly every minute and each block mints 1 ZANO indefinitely, a linear tail emission designed to keep paying for network security forever. As of mid-2026 the supply is around 15.3 million ZANO. The launch included a 20 percent premine reserved for the team to fund development, and all transaction fees are burned, which offsets part of the ongoing emission as usage grows.

Zano also anchors a broader confidential ecosystem. The Confidential Layer bridge, launched in 2025, lets assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum be wrapped into private versions of themselves on Zano, with hidden senders, receivers, and amounts. Other ecosystem pieces include Zano Trade, a peer-to-peer trading platform, an encrypted messenger, and an on-chain voting system used for community governance.

Getting Started With Zano

Getting started with Zano means setting up a wallet, acquiring some ZANO, and optionally putting it to work staking:

Step 1: Download the official Zano wallet from the project's website for Windows, macOS, or Linux, or install the mobile wallet on iOS or Android.
Step 2: Acquire ZANO on an exchange that lists it and withdraw it to your own wallet. Privacy coins are best held in self-custody.
Step 3: Consider registering an alias, a short human-readable name that others can use to send you ZANO instead of a long address.
Step 4: Stake your coins. The full desktop wallet runs a node and can stake any amount, earning block rewards while your balance stays hidden thanks to Zarcanum.

How to Get a Zano Wallet?

Because privacy features live at the protocol level, you get the full benefit simply by using a wallet that supports Zano natively.

Zano Official Wallet

The official desktop wallet for Windows, macOS, and Linux runs a full node and supports staking, aliases, and confidential assets. A lighter "lite wallet" version connects to a remote node instead of syncing the full chain, and an official mobile wallet is available for iOS and Android.

Cake Wallet

Cake Wallet, a popular open-source mobile wallet known for its Monero support, also supports ZANO on iOS and Android, making it a convenient option for holding several privacy coins in one app.

Edge Wallet

Edge is a multi-asset mobile wallet for iOS and Android that supports ZANO alongside Bitcoin and many other assets, with built-in exchange features.

Zano Resources

How to Buy Zano?

Like most privacy coins, ZANO is not listed on the largest US exchanges, which have broadly delisted privacy-focused assets, but it trades actively elsewhere.

Centralized Exchanges

ZANO is listed on exchanges including MEXC, CoinEx, BitMart, XT.com, and DigiFinex, typically against USDT or BTC. A common route is to buy USDT on a major exchange, transfer it to one of these venues, and trade it for ZANO.

Decentralized and Peer-to-Peer Options

Zano Trade, the project's own peer-to-peer trading platform, allows direct trading of ZANO and confidential assets. Instant swap services also support ZANO, and the Confidential Layer bridge lets users move value between Zano and other chains without a custodian.

Latest Zano News

Zano's recent development has centered on interoperability and real-world usability. The Confidential Layer bridge went live in 2025, letting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other supported assets be upgraded into private wrapped versions on Zano. An on-chain voting system launched in late 2025, and in early 2026 an integration with AEON Pay opened ZANO payments to a large merchant network, while support arrived in additional third-party wallets.

The next major milestone is Hard Fork 6, targeted for 2026, which introduces gateway addresses and is planned to make native ZANO and confidential assets bridgeable to EVM networks, TON, and Solana through a non-custodial mechanism. Because staking parameters, listings, and roadmap timing change, the official website, documentation, and block explorer are the best sources for the current state of the network.