Workshop | Ronne van Rijn | Get started with Zano | Common S3nse - 2026

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right, let's get started, guys. So, first of all, I want to I want to welcome you welcome you guys here to the beautiful city of Amsterdam. uh the city I once studied business engineering a couple years ago and uh many years later finally ended up at the Zeno project but that's going to be a story for for a different time but before we actually going to get started I actually want to see some hands so who here values financial privacy exactly otherwise you wouldn't be here right so now I want to see uh some new hands who here actually made a private unfreezable transaction this week have but today we're going to close that gap because we're going to take back our financial privacy with Zeno. So this is going to be a workshop for people who who weren't aware. So we're basically going to onboard you to to the Zeno ecosystem.

So after today's workshop you'll be able to make a private transaction. uh you'll never have to worry about transactions getting frozen and you will have true ownership over your funds. So, we're going to do a couple things today. Uh the only thing you're going to need today is uh your phone. We're going to install the Zeno mobile wallet.

Uh then we're going to send you some Zeno. Um in the meantime, I'm going to explore the Zeno ecosystem. Um and afterwards, we're going to send a private transaction to each other's neighbor. And then last but not least, we're going to register an alias. And for the people who weren't aware, uh the venue Wi-Fi is called uh taxation is theft.

Plus the password is fiat is a scam. So because the connection here, if you're like on 5G, it's a bit uh a bit unstable. So take out your phones and um if you pay attention, you will get little less than $5 worth of Zeno. So, first things first, uh we're going to install the mobile wallet. Um so, if you have iPhone, open up the App Store or the Google Play Store.

If you have Android, uh also for the privacy geeks out there, I added uh a QR code to our website where you can uh directly uh download the APK. So, I'm going to give you a minute or so to download the wallet. So, please go ahead and uh when you actually uh manage to download the wallet, um there's going to be it's going to be very straightforward. Uh you're going to see this screen uh after you actually uh uh filled in your uh pin code. Uh you're going to click create wallet.

It's pretty straightforward. Give it a name, give it a password, and um yeah, I'm going to give you give you guys a minute to to do that. And uh then we're going to continue. And if you have any questions in between, please raise your hand. We also have an assistant of mine in the in the audience so he can come by to uh to help you guys out.

And also uh for your information, this is just like uh a throwaway wallet just for workshop purposes. Um, so, uh, if you actually want to create like a like a wallet you're going to add some, uh, more funds to, uh, please make sure to write down your seat phrase on a piece of paper and don't just copy it, uh, into your notes or whatsoever. But for this workshop, you can just put it in your notes and uh, yeah, just play around with it. All right. So, if you actually manage to do all of that, you will see uh this screen.

So, um if it's fully synced, you will see a green dot on the top right of your of your wallet. Um hopefully the internet connection is not going to be that bad. Uh so, hopefully it will turn green um very very fast. Um so, who here already downloaded the wallet and Oh, perfect. What's that?

Not yet. Not yet. The fun part begins uh in the next slide, actually. All right. So, let's continue.

So, now the fun part actually begins. You're going to you're going to receive some Zano. So, you're going to click on receive on the receive button and you will see this screen with the QR code and the address and then um actually my assistant is going to go um send you some some Zano in the meantime. So, please raise your hand if you didn't um received it yet and uh my assistant will uh will send you some. And in the meantime, I'll explain a little bit more about uh the block time.

So the block time is currently one minute. Um, and you need around like 10 confirmations um, in order to respend uh, your Zano. Uh, it's because it's a UTXO based uh, blockchain. So that's why um, in the meantime I'm going to tell a little bit more about the ecosystem. So there's a couple projects already live uh on the Zeno uh ecosystem.

Um most of them actually use our flagship feature called confidential assets. Uh it's basically a way to issue your own privacy token on top of the Zeno blockchain. Um and it it inherents the same privacy uh level as uh native Zeno. And there's a couple I'm going to make a little deep dive into uh into today. Uh so we have Freedom Dollar is by far the most popular uh project on our blockchain is a privacy stable coin.

Uh we have Zeno X. It's like a multiplatform where you can buy gift cards uh do sport betting. Um even it has a prediction market all settled in Zeno or FUSD. Then we have bridgeless. It's basically a non-custodial trustless bridge where you can um bridge all kinds of assets, transparent assets uh onto Zano um where you get actually a private version and also I'm going to um not uh make a deep dive in the uh two projects that are coming out soon.

Um, Obscura is uh is like a privacy focused NFT platform where you can mint um NFTs on top of the Zeno blockchain and also we have Zeno names coming soon. It's basically like a platform where you can trade uh with aliases. You can also compare it to the uh ENS that Ethereum has. So stay tuned. So, first things first, Freedom Dollar, um it's basically a privacy stable coin.

Um it's built by community members, so it's not part of the of the Zeno team, and they choose to build on the Zeno blockchain because obviously they value privacy, and there's almost none privacy stable coins out there. So, this is pretty unique. Uh they're one to one packed to the uh US dollar. Um and also uh they have provable reserves uh unlike USDT uh actually is more like a trust me bro um type of reserve but uh freedom dollar actually has uh provable reserves with uh also a feature Zeno added um a couple years ago. It's called auditable wallets.

So you can exactly see how much Zeno is in there. And the freedom dollar is uh fully overcolateralized with Zeno. That's what uh gives the value. And unlike um USDT, it is unfreezable. So USDT already froze around 5.

5 billion uh uh dollars in USDT. Uh so if they have like a suspicion um certain bad actors are involved or um you're trading with certain countries that you're not allowed to trade with um they can just freeze it um right away um and already they froze 5 and a half billion USDT and they actually a funny side note uh on their Twitter they have like a USDT freeze tracker so every day you see exactly how much USDT got frozen. Um, and then they also have uh a swap feature on their website on freedomdoll.com. Uh, so you can actually um uh swap over 45 transparent assets onto uh freedom dollar and the fees are extremely low.

So it's around uh 0.2% uh fee. And then uh another side story. So, um, last year me and my brother and also Quinton, head of marketing at Zeno, we went to Porcupine Festival in New Hampshire. Uh, a lot of libertarians are familiar with this, uh, place.

It's actually like ground zero of Bitcoin adoption back in 2012. Uh, some OGs like Roger Ver, Eric Forhees were actually onboarding merchants there to Bitcoin. Um and 13 years later we had the honor to on board people to Freedom Dollar which unlike uh Bitcoin is actually private. Um and also it has uh it doesn't have the volatility Bitcoin has. So we also spoke to a lot of merchants and um they were basically having a hard time running a business um if you're accepting Monero or Bitcoin uh because of the volatility.

So with Freedom Dollar uh we actually solve that issue. Zeno X. Uh so Zeno X like I said before is like a yeah a big platform where you can buy gift cards um with Freedom Dollar and uh FUSD. Uh you can actually do uh sports betting. Um and I think a couple months months ago they actually launched a privacy focused prediction market.

Uh so it's all settled in FUSD and Zeno. It's pretty cool. Uh, and it looks a bit similar like um like how Poly Market has it. Um, so I think they even use a API with with Poly Market. So there's actually a lot of uh bets you can uh you can place there.

So uh yeah, it's pretty cool pretty uh pretty cool use case. Bridgeless. So uh bridgeless is a trustless non-custodial bridge um where it actually is made possible to um bridge any of these transparent assets. So you can uh bridge Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Solana, Ton, B&B and D. You can actually bridge it over to Zeno and get a private version uh of those transparent assets.

And it it it not only sounds cool, it also has like a use case and in my opinion they're very very important. Um so obviously safety. So criminals are also getting smarter by the day. So, uh, you see a lot of criminals now, uh, combining onchain analysis, uh, with leaked with leaked, uh, data from exchanges, and they're actually able to track down wealthy crypto investors and kidnap them, uh, or rob them, um, with a gun. And, um, they even cut off the CEO, they cut off the finger of the CEO of of Ledger, I think already a year ago.

Um, so it's getting dark, especially in France. uh there's already been like over 41 uh crypto kidnappings and and robberies. So it it's like every two and a half day there's basically a wrench attack in in France. So yeah, it's pretty gnarly. Um another one is fungeability.

Um so with the rise of companies like chain analysis um who actually made it possible to figure out if a bitcoin was used by uh bad actors um or people that got involved in some scam or whatever um they actually mark these coins and if some average Joe just bought this bitcoin from someone or somewhere else and wants to like deposit it to coinbase or whatsoever they can actually uh be denied because uh it's a tainted coin. So if you actually bridge over your Bitcoin onto Zano, it becomes Bitcoin X. So it's a private version and all uh Bitcoin X coins or tokens are exactly the same. So fungeibility is basically restored. And then I also have to give a quick shout out to uh to one of our partners uh Edgewallet.

So Edgew Wallet actually integrated um Bridgeless inside of their wallet. So, it's really easy to swap any of those assets into a private version um just like any other swap. Um so, yeah, that's a pretty cool feature. And actually, since yesterday, uh they enabled all of those uh um assets. Before it was only Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Uh but now you can actually swap all of them. All right. So, I think around 10 minutes has already been passed. I'm I'm curious if you guys are able to respend your Zeno that you just received. Um it says like uh it has like a circle where you see like zero of 10 confirmations.

I'm curious if people are still waiting for the 10 confirmations. If so, please raise your hand. If not, then we can actually continue to the next part. Still waiting. How many confir?

Six out of 10. All right. Um, yeah, it's it's basically a a must to to wait a little. So, let let's wait a little longer. Um, because yeah, this is going to be uh needed to go to uh to go to the next part.

So, I'm going to give it like five more minutes or two more minutes and then uh we can uh we can continue. Gentleman in the front, uh is the is the Zeno already respendable in your wallet or not yet? Let me click here. History more confirmations. Takes a little longer.

Um maybe in the meantime I can already give a a little sneak peek. Um so um with hard fork 7 that will go probably live in uh in a couple months or next early u um early next year. the finality is going to be improved uh massively because right now we are a hybrid uh proof ofstake proof of work and uh with with the new hard fork we're going to go full proof of stake so there are two reasons for that so one is security um so our developers uh actually um did the math and um the cost of an attack is going to be way way more higher um when we go full proof of stake. Uh so that's one of the one of the important reasons why. But another one is finality.

So currently uh um we have uh a block time of uh one minute and you need 10 confirmations in order to respend it. Uh but the block time is actually going to go from 1 minute to 15 seconds and we're only only going to need like four to six uh confirmations in order to respend. So it's going to be approximately like one minute. So we are already like twice as fast as the competition. But once this go goes live the the the new proof of stake consensus then yeah we'll be like 20 times faster than than the competition.

So that's pretty exciting. Yeah. But it's not private and that's uh that's a problem. And that's actually the USB of of Zeno, right? So we are privacy by default.

So you al also have like Zcash, it's like optional privacy, but we're actually like more like Monero. We're like privacy by default. So speed has already has always been like yeah like um tradeoff, right? So uh it's like a trma you always have within the the privacy blockchain uh industry. Um but yeah, with one minute finality, we're going to be way ahead of the competition.

So, it's going to be really exciting to uh to have uh to have that uh coming very very soon. So, uh yeah, but as of now, it's just only uh uh 10 confirmations. Um which I think we're going to need a little bit longer. Or is it already uh already there? Three more.

Yeah. So it's approximately 10 minutes but sometimes you can be unlucky or lucky that it gets uh 25%. Um yeah uh is also going to be needed for the for the next part. So yeah let's let's wait a little bit more and then we can continue to the next part. Uh yeah.

Um so like I said before, the the main one is the the confidential assets uh where you can um issue any any privacy token uh on top of the the Zeno blockchain. Uh that's like by far the the most interesting one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So for for the like uh more newbies out there. So um um Monero is like purely uh built to be a um peer-to-peer private um like ecosystem. But Zeno is is also that you can also use it to like make transactions P2P privately. But it's like also like a whole ecosystem. So you can actually build on top of our blockchain uh which is not possible on uh So that's like the main difference in a nutshell.

By the way, if there are any more questions, it's actually a good time to ask some questions. Yes. Um well I I wouldn't say like like well there's actually one feature I actually added it uh on the end of the of the presentation to hype you guys a little bit up but if we're waiting uh I'm just going to tell anyway. So uh in a I would say in a couple months we're going to uh we're going to go live with the Zeno execution layer. So it's basically also a layer one besides uh Zeno but uh it's it's like an EVM chain built on the Cosmos SDK uh which basically will enable like more defi so you'll be uh able to do borrowing lending u to get yield or provide liquidity um but that blockchain is transparent but that's the whole point of it because if you want to interact with like a smart contract you want to like verify what's in Um, so we're basically going to do like the the Zcash reverse.

So we're actually privacy by default. The layer one is still going to be private, but there's going to be another uh layer one that is like transparent, but with the goal of enabling [snorts] DeFi basically. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

This is by the way co-founder Andre of the Zeno project. So for technical questions, he's he's the guy to ask. So your question was about what's going to happen when the proof of stake will be on. So it's a good question actually. Um the pure proof of stake is just a consensus and the only job for a consensus is to secure a history of transactions.

So what happens is the security of the transactions in Zana became like way way way harder and stronger. And not only this, because of this protocol, we actually also introduced uh faster blocks, not because of proof of stake, but with the proof of stake, it make it possible for us to because of security that this protocol gives to this uh to to our blockchain, we can make little tweaks and make block faster. So what actually happens, Zana will have a confirmation time about one minute or one minute and a half like in a modern industry like a transparent blockchain is. So that's the main advantage that Zana will have with switching to pure proof state. That's it.

If if you have more questions, of course. Yes. The the everything will be private by default. So the the smart contracts is it's a it's a way it's absolutely different thing. It's not connected directly to a proof of stake itself.

The the smart contract is a infrastructure that we built. It will be called Zan execution layer. And for this we already actually activated a week ago hard fork uh six with a gateway address. special type of address that basically simplify um integration of Zana S layer one with typical uh tool chains that exist in the industry normally with terium tool chain and it will be connected to the uh Z execution layer itself it's another L1 made on Cosmos it will be uh seamless connected to this getaway addresses so it's little bit different stack of technology that we Brilliant. Proof of stake is a very separate and very unique technologies that we developed uh through the many years of research.

It's been five years of research. The first part the first big step was zaranum which basically introduced first industry proof of stake on top of hidden amount. So people doesn't reveal amounts of the stake that they have. Nobody see who is taking. Nobody knows how much money on the wallet.

The network is secured with the holders of Zana and the pure proof of stake. It's another step that built on top of this. It was like took few years for us to figure out how to build this and it was made in collaboration with a common prefix. It's another research company from the ATN that helped us actually to build this Andre. Um I heard uh the 10 confirmations were already in.

gentleman in the back also at perfect. So, uh right now we're going to send a private transaction uh to each other's neighbor. Um so, you're going to basically um click the send button in your uh Zeno wallet. Uh it's going to be very straightforward. Uh you're going to um see this screen where you can create a transfer.

Uh so, we're going to just send 0.2 Zeno to each other. Uh so I have to first click the the first section and uh put in the amount 0.2 Zeno and then go back and I have to click on the on the address section. Um and it basically uh has a section built in where you can uh scan the QR code.

Um so I don't I don't know if uh this maybe the gentleman in the in the front also has uh has need your help. And in the meantime, I'm going to tell a little bit more about what uh every um uh party in the transaction actually sees. So the sender, the recipient, and also what everyone else well not sees on chain, but uh this is an example I made. So, so let's say for example, um Alice um has to uh has to basically pay for the the medical bills uh for Bob um because he basically gambled all of his money away on Zano X. Uh so she's sending 250 uh Zeno to him.

Uh she can even include uh a memo and basically Alice will see all the components uh of the transaction. So, it's basically obviously from her, she's going to send it to Bob. She's going to see the amount. Uh, she she also sees the asset and also obviously the the memo. So, then we're going to go to Bob.

So, Bob doesn't see in his Zeno wallet uh from who uh he received the the Zeno. Uh but obviously he knows it's from Alice, but on chain he doesn't see it. Um, but all the rest of the details obviously he actually sees it in it in his wallet. Um, and then everyone else on chain doesn't see a thing which is like the whole beauty of this. So, did you guys manage to do a transaction?

Perfect. And now we're going to register an alias. So, you'll have enough Zeno in your wallet to register an alias. Um so basically um an alias is like more of a convenient feature I would say. So for example, if you want to send uh I don't know u some some Zeno to your daughter who wants to go to a party uh you just type in her alias instead of like copying uh her her address or like her QR code.

Um and you can basically just send uh to at daughter uh the amount of Zeno or Freedom dollar you want to send. Um, it's also going to be very straightforward. So, in your wallet, you will see this screen and you will see a section there uh called register an alias. So, if you're going to click uh that section, you're going to see this screen where you can um come up with with an alias. So, an alias has a couple of rules.

So, as of now, um you can register an alias that has six to 25 characters. Um, it needs to be like only letters and uh numbers. Um, and if your alias is available, you will see like a green section um that is still available. If it's red, obviously it's not available. So, you have to come up with a new name.

So, to basically keep off spammers um of like um creating a lot of aliases, uh the price is uh 0.1 Zeno in order to register one. Uh and then for the transaction fee uh you pay 0.01 Zeno and fun fact all the fees are basically getting burnt. Um so the blockchain is not earning any fees whatsoever.

Um so hopefully somewhere in the future we're we're going to be deflationary. Who knows? But um as of now everything is getting uh getting burnt. So this this process should be uh pretty pretty straightforward. So I think everyone u has done this and [snorts] now this is going to be uh my most favorite part of uh the workshop.

Um I'm going to tell you a little bit about how you can actually spend your Zeno and Freedom dollar in the real world. So we have a couple of solutions. So actually last year Eve we were also uh one of the sponsors. None of these solutions were actually live. So it was very hard to spend your Zeno or Freedom dollar in the real world.

So within a year, we managed to get some uh some pretty decent collaborations uh that actually make it very convenient and very easy to actually use your Zeno or Freedom Dollar in the real world. Um I'm going to make a little deep dive into the Zeb one. Uh but we also have a a new partner. A couple months ago, we integrated with them uh called Aon Pay. Uh Aon Pay is mainly uh used in emerging markets.

Uh it's like a a a telegram mini app. So you can create an account inside of your telegram account um and basically start uh scanning QR codes at over 50 million plus merchants uh around the world. uh because in emerging markets QR code payments are like almost the standard and AON pay basically built a whole business model um behind this and it's only I think like 0.88% a 8% top-up fee. So, it's pretty uh pretty nice and they're adding new countries like every month.

Um so, yeah, that's a a decent solution. Then we have uh DFX uh in collaboration with Open Crypto Pay. This is like a very niche one, I would say. Uh so, this is basically makes it possible to spend Zeno and FUSD at uh at a certain supermarket called Spar Supermarket. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but in Switzerland, it's pretty big.

So you can spend over uh 100 plus sup uh sparse supermarkets. You can actually spend your uh Zeno and FUSD. So uh Zebex. So Zeb is basically um like a card issuer um that runs on the the Mastercard uh network. Um and they have two types of cards.

So they have a silver card and they have a carbon card. So they're both prepaid cards. So you cannot use it for your claw or chat GPT uh subscription. Uh but you can use it for to buy your groceries or to book a hotel or a flight. I do it uh almost daily.

So it's uh it's a pretty amazing uh and the beauty of this they have a 0% topup fee um unlike many other card issuers issuers issuers. So uh yeah it's a a big USB they have and you can spend up to 10k uh a day. So, uh, yeah, these are beautiful, uh, solutions we have. So, in this workshop, um, I'm not going to have the time to actually on board you onto the ZEC card. Uh, but if you're interested, uh, you can, uh, come by the booth, uh, at the pool area, um, in the in the other section and we will help you to, uh, to get on boarded.

Um, so I already uh told you guys a little bit about the also Andre about the execution layer that is coming. Um, so I'm not going to uh go into that one. Um, and also Zenith as well that is uh that is also coming very soon. But one um like development that has been going on lately which is a really exciting one and especially for us it's going to be uh yeah like very very convenient uh because right now one of the issues of Zeno is uh accessibility. So it's pretty hard to get into Zeno because well obvious obviously it's a privacy blockchain and listings with exchanges is going to be uh is going to be really hard.

Uh well it is really hard. So, uh, with the torch chain, um, um, integration, uh, that is actually already, um, in the works, that's going to, uh, basically make accessibility way more easy. Uh, also, our swap providers are going to be way more happy, uh, with that. Um, but they actually said they're going to integrate after they integrated Monero and uh, and Zcash. So, it's like a whole uh, privacy run going on at TorchChain.

So, it's uh, pretty exciting. Uh and obviously it's going to be a way to trade um Zeno permissionlessly without KYC. It has all the values we have. So uh it's going to be an amazing collaboration. Um and like Andre said, we had a hard fork uh just a couple days ago, last week um where one of the main features called gateway addresses are going to make it way more easy to integrate for services like tour chain.

So uh right now we have like a UTXO um u blockchain um and with gateway addresses they actually run on an accountbased uh address. So it's like more like a bank transfer it's going to be instant and uh with the UTXO one it's like a transaction uh being split into uh tiny parts. So it's way harder for the for the receiving party to figure out the amount. Um so yeah hopefully after tour chain uh more dexes like near intense will follow to uh yeah to make the access accessibility problem um basically non-existent. So that's going to be uh pretty exciting.

Yes. So I want to congratulate you guys today. Uh you just took your financial privacy uh back today and you made a a private transaction. you registered an alias. Uh but obviously there's way more to tell about uh the Zeno ecosystem.

Um otherwise I'll be talking for another another hour. Um so if you actually are interested in learning more about Zano uh please come by uh at our booth. We are we are in the other section where there's like a second floor uh where there's like a pool area. We're there. So please come by um to ask your questions.

And I just want to remind everyone that if we actually start using this technology uh today um and actually start like adopting it um we will eventually win. That's the mantra we go by. I want to thank you guys. Thank you. Any questions?

Happy to answer them. Also technical questions because uh our technical guy Andre is in the house. So, uh, feel free to, uh, to ask any questions. If not, please come by to the booth and, uh, yes. Well, actually, you can, so please come by and, uh, and claim some more Zeno and uh, maybe you can even get a free lunch with the with the Zeno you receive.

So, uh, so yeah, and also for the for the more uh like uh shy people, you can also scan this QR code uh, all the the links there, our docs, our social media. Uh we also recently launched a explainer series where you can uh basically if you're a visual learner, it's a really um yeah convenient way to learn more about Zeno. And um yeah, that's it. Thank you everyone.