Zano Monthly Project Update #13 - October 2025

Gonbatfire

• 7 min read
Zano Monthly Project Update #13 - October 2025

Welcome zAnons to the 13th Zano Project Update!
October was another landmark month for Zano. The long-awaited on-chain voting system went live, and preparations for Hardfork 6 were completed. We're seeing the ecosystem mature on every front. Let's dive into the details!

Community Member of the Month

First up, a huge congratulations to Derloda for earning this month's award! Derloda has become one of our most active community members, currently ranking as the #2 non-staff member on our Discord, where he consistently engages in meaningful discussions and has pitched thoughtful suggestions that are always welcome for shaping the Zano ecosystem.

On multiple occasions, Derloda has offered his technical expertise to the project. We hope that with the upcoming Zano grants program, we can better collaborate with contributors like him. Derloda has a genuine commitment to privacy technology itself, he once mentioned that he wants privacy to win, regardless of which project makes it happen. That's a philosophy we deeply respect and share. Thank you, Derloda, for your dedication!

Zano Fact #1: Zano's Total Value Locked jumped from $4.94M in September to $6.03M in October, indicating strong momentum and growing confidence in the ecosystem.

Shout Out: Edge Wallet Makes Fixing Bitcoin's Privacy Easy

Confidential Layer solves Bitcoin's privacy problem. Edge Wallet makes it accessible. By now, everyone knows Bitcoin transactions are public and traceable. Last summer, Confidential Layer launched the solution: bridge your BTC to Zano and receive BTCx, a fully private version of Bitcoin.

Edge Wallet has teamed up with Confidential Layer to integrate this bridge natively, enabling conversion of BTC to fully private BTCx in just 3 taps with no external tools or technical expertise required.

How it works
Swapping to BTCx is as simple as any other trade:

  1. Open the Exchange section in Edge 📱
  2. Choose Bitcoin as the asset you want to trade ₿
  3. Select BTCx as the asset you'd like to receive 🔄

Edge takes care of the rest. You get BTCx, a fully private version of your Bitcoin with the same value, living on Zano's private-by-default blockchain.
Coming soon: Private ETH and more!

Download Edge Wallet and swap to BTCx today. If you make a post showcasing this, you can enter to win $600 in prizes! More details here.

Events and giveaways

  • Launched Bridge to Zano campaign with a $600 prize pool, participate by creating a post about bridging assets via Confidential Layer and Edge Wallet.
    • Deadline Friday, November 21st!
Zano Fact #2: Buy your groceries privately with ZANO at over 100 SPAR supermarkets across Switzerland powered by DFX and OpenCryptoPay (Available in Cake Wallet). Real world utility, zero surveillance.

Ecosystem Growth and Integrations

Technical Upgrades

Zano Github illustration

October marked the completion of core upgrades for the upcoming Hardfork 6, alongside final preparations for the 3.0.0 mobile release and the launch of the Zano governance portal. This month focused heavily on stability, privacy, and developer tooling, setting the stage for what’s to come.

Core, Protocol & Hardfork 6

Hardfork 6 (HF6) Ready for Testing

The core refactoring for HF6 is complete and currently in testing. Highlights:

  • Per-output payment IDs (aka intrinsic payment IDs) implemented.
  • Improved transaction uniformness.
  • Seamless wallet transition between legacy and new formats.

Serialization System Improvements

The serialization subsystem was upgraded to better support version transitions and fix legacy edge cases, making future upgrades smoother.

Wallet Performance & Security Enhancements

  • Fixed long loading times after full sync from scratch.
  • Enforced explicit soft limits and implicit hard limits for transaction inputs/outputs.
  • Improved error reporting in wallet RPC.
  • Implemented pubkey-based verification of all build download links and checksums to improve build authenticity and prevent tampering.

Decoy Selection Algorithm

The new decoy selection logic, designed for post-HF4 data, was finalized and entered the testing phase.

Debugging & Resource Handling

  • Improved debug stack tracing for Linux.
  • HTML data now embedded into Qt resources, while preserving compatibility with legacy loading methods.

Testing & QA

  • Continued to expand core test coverage.
  • Upgraded the test engine infrastructure to make tests easier to run and debug.
  • Added more automation to streamline regression detection and HF testing.

Web Tools

Zano Voting Platform Launched

  • The governance portal is now live at https://vote.zano.org.
  • The first batch of proposals is already live, including:
    • Proposals to whitelist new Confidential Assets: FUSD, BTCX, and ETHX

Explorer Backend Overhaul

  • Work has started on a complete backend rewrite of the Zano block explorer — release expected next month.

Mobile (Zano Wallet 3.0.0)

While most of the work this month focused on final testing and polish for the 3.0.0 release, here’s what was finalized:

Internal Browser Overhaul

  • Now supports per-tab wallet selection.
  • Includes a Default Wallet setting for browser use.

Security Enhancements

  • Biometric authentication supported (can be enabled in settings).
  • Assets received from others are no longer whitelisted by default.
  • New disclaimer indicators on Asset Details screen show if assets are globally, locally, or not whitelisted.

Zano Service Integration

  • Zano links and QR codes can now be opened from the system browser or scanned via camera.
  • Deep link and QR scanning formats now support:
    • zano://transfer/... (Send screen).
    • zano://browser/?link=... (opens inside ZanoBrowser).
    • Legacy zano:<address>?amount=... formats also supported,

Under-the-Hood Upgrades

  • Began support for Android devices with 16KB page sizes.
  • Improved compatibility with older Android versions.
  • Implemented edge-to-edge display on Android.
  • Improved swipe gesture support for managing browser tabs, bookmarks, aliases, and asset lists.
  • Finalized CI/CD pipeline for zano_native_lib.
  • Developed but not yet published:
    • → @zano-project/react-native-zano npm package (SDK for RN developers, hardfork-aware logic still in progress).

Media Content & Coverage

  • Check out this clip from Mr Kwibs explaining what Zano is for those who haven’t heard of it yet:
  • Great breakdown by Aaron Day on why centralized tokenization enables total control over every asset you own and why privacy-preserving blockchains like Zano matter:
Zano Fact #3: Rack up XP points by staying active in our official Telegram community and earn special perks!

Zano Around the World

Zano Africa
October was a month of pure energy and relentless Zano evangelism! From podcasts to street interviews and creative threads, the 14 Days of Zano Challenge brought Africans together to spread Zano’s message across the continent.

Zano Latam/Spain
October was a month full of exciting announcements and activities that boosted engagement on our social media. Our community took part in the first Zano On-Chain vote, and they’re thrilled to receive fUSD, BTCX, and ETHX on the whitelist. We’re now preparing new events to showcase the latest features.

Zano Indonesia
Starting from zero, Zano Indonesia has grown steadily, gaining 18 followers on Twitter and 19 members on Telegram, while acquiring existing Instagram (188 followers) and TikTok (2,148 followers) accounts. The team also joined 3 Twitter Space AMAs to share Zano’s vision for privacy.

Zano Venezuela
Also starting from zero, the Zano Venezuela community has successfully begun its growth, already gathering a base of 30 followers. The focus has been on creating original educational material and custom infographics specifically tailored for the Venezuelan public to effectively communicate Zano's value proposition.

Miscellaneous

In case you missed it, we dedicated a blogpost to showcase the real world activity of Zano Confidential Assets, it's no longer just a theory!

Conclusion

This month proved what we've been building towards: a privacy ecosystem that actually works in the real world. While others talk about theory and potential, we're seeing integrations that let you bridge Bitcoin into Zano in three taps, vote on-chain with full privacy, and even buy groceries with untraceable money, today. The infrastructure is live, the tools are ready, and the community is expanding globally. Now comes the fun part: showing the world what private money can do. Keep spreading the word, zAnons. The next wave is coming!

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