Zano Monthly Project Update #14 - November 2025

Welcome zAnons to the 14th Zano Project Update!
November continued the momentum we've built over the year, with new exchange listings, the conclusion of our first on-chain vote, and a major mobile wallet release. We also kicked off an exciting bridge-to-earn campaign with Confidential Layer that's bringing fresh activity to our ecosystem. Let's dive in!

Community Member of the Month

Congratulations to Alex (Nin9fingers) for earning this month's award! Rising rapidly through our Telegram activity leaderboard, Alex has become one of the most engaging members of our community. What truly sets him apart is his genuine enthusiasm for what Zano represents. As an active contributor to our discussions (and proud staker), Alex consistently brings meaningful insights to every conversation. His libertarian values align perfectly with Zano's mission; he believes deeply in the power of peer-to-peer economies and sees Zano as a key tool in unlocking that and thus true economic freedom for everyone. Alex has shown to be well aware that privacy by default is the only real approach to privacy in the digital age, and we couldn't agree more! We're grateful to have such principled voices in our community!

Zano Fact #1: Private VPN, Private Payment. You can pay your VPN subscription at VP.net with $ZANO and $fUSD. VP.net uses Intel SGX technology for verifiable privacy, making it the perfect match for privacy-conscious users who want complete privacy from browsing to payment. Learn more at VP.net.

Bridge-to-Earn with Confidential Layer

New Zano bridge-to-earn task with Confidential Layer! Earn CL1 points for the $CLONE airdrop campaign by bridging $ETH or $BTC between the Bridgeless network and Zano in either direction.

This is your opportunity to experience how Confidential Layer enables seamless cross-chain privacy.

Eligible paths:

• ETH (on Bridgeless network) <> Zano (receive $ETHx)
• BTC (on Bridgeless network) <> Zano (receive $BTCx)

Bridge your assets from Bridgeless to Zano and receive fully private versions on Zano's blockchain. Every transaction earns you CL1 points. You're not just earning points, you're experiencing the privacy bridge that transforms blockchain assets into private versions. This is cross-chain privacy in action.

With the bridge-to-earn campaign now live, we expect to see significant growth in Total Value Locked (TVL) on Zano.

Start bridging here.

Ecosystem Growth and Integrations

• The first Zano on-chain vote has concluded! The vote passed with 99% community approval. $fUSD (Freedom Dollar), $BTCX (Wrapped Bitcoin), and $ETHX (Wrapped Ethereum) are now officially whitelisted. They're displayed by default in all first-party Zano wallets and featured in Zano Trade (DEX). This is what decentralized decision-making looks like. More proposals are coming!
• Zano Mobile v3.0.0 went live! This major update brings an overhauled internal browser with multi-wallet support, device biometric authorization, native QR code scanning for Zano links, the ability to burn and modify assets directly from mobile, an edge-to-edge display on Android, and improved compatibility with older Android devices.
• Zano is featured in Immunefi's Magnus customer spotlight, highlighting our commitment to enterprise-grade security with comprehensive audits, continuous vulnerability monitoring, and proactive threat detection.
• We're live on OurBit! This was a true community-driven effort, and it paid off. The $ZANO/USDT pair is now live on OurBit exchange with zero trading fees. All contributors to the crowdfunding campaign are now eligible for rewards from the community pool. This is what happens when zAnons come together!
• $ZANO is now available on Xgram, a non-custodial crypto swap service with no sign-ups, no data collection, and fully anonymous swaps.
• $ZANO is now available on ETZ Swap, delivering fast, secure crypto swaps with zero registration and KYC.

Zano Fact #2: Zano has a dedicated educational article on CoinGecko explaining our privacy-by-default blockchain, confidential assets, and unique features. A great resource for understanding what sets Zano apart. Read it here

Technical Upgrades

November brought a wide range of stability improvements, interface refinements, and protocol hardening, all while preparing for HF6 rollout. We continued improving the wallet experience across desktop and mobile, enhanced browser reliability, and moved forward with explorer and governance tooling.

Core, Wallet & Desktop

Zano GUI & Qt Integration

• HTML files used in the desktop app are now embedded as Qt resource files (.qrc), reducing external dependencies
• Improved GUI/RPC interoperability by refactoring the GUI C++ interface to align with wallet RPC calls
• Added --allow-legacy-payment-id-size flag to Zano GUI, enabling compatibility with legacy integrated addresses

Wallet & RPC

• Added support to restore a wallet from secret key derivation
• In preparation for HF6:
  • Deprecated RPC fields in transfer() were refined and documented

Core Protocol

• Improved KV serialization for better handling of ephemeral fields
• Updated LMDB to the latest version
• Hardened transaction input/output limits to reduce abuse risk
• Fixed potential memory issues in portable storage
• Fixed a bug in alias enumeration and added enumerate_item_by_prefix() to DB interface

P2P & Networking

• Added a check for unsolicited packets
• Fixed issue with incoming connection limits, raising the default cap to 200 peers

Consensus Research

Ran additional simulation tests as part of ongoing work on consensus model refinements for future network evolution

Mobile (Zano Wallet)

Much of the mobile work this month focused on stability improvements, browser UX, and feature expansion in Zano Companion.

Crash Fixes & Stability

• Fixed crash when opening wallets that had no ZANO in balances
• Fixed crash in internal browser with certain addresses
• Fixed Android scroll bug and glitch with tab switching (#25)
• Fixed Zano to Ethereum wrapping bug

Browser & UX Improvements

• Improved search across browser history and bookmarks
• Properly handle unsupported links and target="_blank" behavior
• Adopted a wheel picker component from the updated design spec
• Enhanced offline usability so Zano Wallet works even when services are down

Mobile Zano Companion Enhancements

ZanoCompanion now has its own UI screens for:

• Transfers
• Swap proposals
• Alias creation
• Asset whitelisting

Additional improvements:

• Unified balance formatting and display precision
• Improved whitelist asset screen
• Grouped related items in the settings screen
• Added predefined nodes to the daemon URL settings
• Added new error message for over-precision amount inputs
• Added a loading state for file parsing during wallet unlock
• Created an automated test suite for Zano Companion

Infrastructure

Improved CI/CD pipeline for zano_native_lib

Web & Ecosystem

Zano Companion v1.1.7 Released

• Fixed fullscreen issues on macOS
• Updated core libraries and dependencies

Zano Governance

Updated the Zano Vote portal with backend improvements

Explorer

Backend was resynced and updated, now shifting focus to frontend overhaul (expected next month)

Media Content & Coverage

• Check out this clip from Mr_Kwibs explaining how crypto salaries paid in USDT or USDC come with CBDC-like risks; they can be frozen, are fully monitored, and offer no privacy. $fUSD, the private stablecoin built on Zano, offers a better alternative. It's censorship-resistant, unfreezable, overcollateralized by $ZANO with verifiable reserves, and completely private.
• Great clip from @MarkEdgeShow and @paullinator breaking down why bank deposits aren't truly yours, reinforcing the need for private money.

Zano Fact #3: The custom Zano Zebec card lets you spend ZANO at any Mastercard-accepting merchant. Compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay, it bridges privacy-focused crypto with everyday payments. Get yours here

Zano Around the World

Zano Africa
November was a great month for us in the Zano African community. We welcomed several new community members who have been actively engaging and learning about Zano's privacy technology. We also introduced zAfrican of the Week, a weekly initiative designed to recognize our most active community members, celebrate their contributions, and possibly reward them with some ZANO for their dedication and support.

Zano Latam/Spain
Zano Spain continued the strategy and made valuable content. This month we grew 10% and reached new organic users attracted to Zano innovation. We are seeing that people in our language take our project more seriously and use the currency for holding. The interest is reaching new ATH. Hope we can continue with some giveaways next month.

Zano Indonesia
Zano Indonesia continued its steady growth throughout November, reaching 35 followers on Twitter, 30 members on Telegram, and increasing Instagram to 190 followers and TikTok to 2,299 followers. Telegram activity has become noticeably more lively after organically finding someone who is genuinely interested in Zano's technology.

Zano Venezuela
Zano Venezuela ended November strong! We hit 51 followers on Twitter. We also celebrated our growth with a community giveaway. The passion for Zano's technology here is truly building momentum!

Conclusion

November proved that momentum is building across every part of the Zano ecosystem. The bridge-to-earn campaign with Confidential Layer will open new doors for TVL growth, which is the vital metric for ecosystem growth. As we head into December, we're excited to keep pushing forward on Hardfork 6 and everything else in the pipeline. Thank you for being part of this journey, zAnons. Here's to closing out the year strong!

Zano Links