Zano Monthly Project Update #17 - February 2026

Welcome zAnons to the 17th Zano Project Update!

February was one of those months where you could feel things accelerating. Gateway addresses hit testnet, putting Hardfork 6 within reach and the team flew to Mexico City and made Zano impossible to miss at Monerotopia 2026. Let's dive in!

Community Member of the Month

Before we get into the month's highlights, let's recognize one of the community members that are making a difference behind the scenes and in plain sight.

Congratulations to Marvelloz for earning this month's award! Having been with us for nearly three years now, Marvelloz is one of those rare community members whose dedication only seems to grow stronger with time. He's been a tireless advocate for Zano on X, never missing an opportunity to spread the word about what makes Zano special.

Marvelloz has been a regular and enthusiastic participant in our community contests, delivering quality entries and earning quite a few wins. He genuinely puts thought and care into his work. We also deeply appreciate his willingness to experiment with new developments in the Zano ecosystem. When new features or Zano dApps roll out, he's among the first to dive in and share his experience with others.

He's unapologetically vocal about the fight against Orwellian surveillance and the erosion of financial privacy, and he backs that belief with action by spreading word about his personal arsenal of privacy tools, with Zano proudly among them. Having community members who understand the stakes of what we're building is something we value immensely. Keep it up, Marvelloz!

Zano at Monerotopia 2026

Speaking of showing up for privacy, the team did exactly that in person last month. Zano was one of the main sponsors of Monerotopia 2026, held February 12-15 in Mexico City. We set up a booth where visitors could learn about the ecosystem and get onboarded using customized Burner cards, giving many people their first hands-on experience with Zano.

On Day 3, Our Head of Community Gonzalo and Elizabeth (@shimmy_moto) from Edge Wallet hosted a workshop showing attendees how to bridge their BTC via the Bridgeless and get BTCx, a private version of Bitcoin on Zano.

The team also joined an open panel featuring Gonzalo, Quinten (Mr. Kwibs), Paul V Puey (Co-Founder of Edge Wallet), and Sal the Agorist as the host. The conversation was Zano-focused, its technical roadmap, and the broader privacy landscape. The discussion was fantastic. You can watch the live recording below:

Gonzalo also joined the closing Privacy Panel along members of Monero, Pirate Chain, Quai and Dash.

It was also a great opportunity to reconnect with friends from Cake Wallet, Edge Wallet, Exolix, PegasusSwap, HoudiniSwap, and many more who are building the privacy ecosystem alongside us. Zano will be attending more events throughout 2026, so stay tuned for the event agenda!

Ecosystem Growth and Integrations

Showing up at conferences matters, but the real proof of progress is what people can do with ZANO when they get home. February brought a meaningful step on that front:

ShopinBit integration

ZANO and fUSD are now accepted on ShopinBit, powered by Exolix. Book flights and hotels, buy retail goods, cars, business supplies, and more on this privacy-first crypto marketplace. Privacy shouldn't stop when you want to spend. Try it out now!

Cake Wallet turns 1 year on Zano: Our partnership with Cake Wallet celebrated its first anniversary last month. Cake lets you hold native ZANO and its Confidential Assets in one place while keeping full control of your keys and data. One year of privacy in your pocket, with more to come!

Zano Fact: Did you know we have an official Zano community on X? You can join here.

Zano MCP Launch

While the ecosystem expanded for everyday users, February also opened a new frontier for developers and builders.

Zano MCP went live last month, giving AI agents the ability to interact with the Zano blockchain directly. If you use Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible tool, you can now connect it to Zano's infrastructure with a simple config block. No wrapper scripts, no manual RPC calls.

Out of the box, Zano MCP provides 45+ tools for querying blocks and transactions, managing wallets and assets, trading on the Zano Trade DEX, and executing ionic swaps. It's a bridge between AI tooling and privacy-first blockchain infrastructure, and we're excited to see what builders do with it.

Read the full blog post

Zano Fact: Besides Freedom Dollar, you can also hold a private version of DAI on Zano. That makes DAI the second stablecoin available as a fully private asset in the ecosystem.

Technical Upgrades

All the integrations and tooling above are built on top of the protocol itself, and that's where February's most important work happened. The first implementation of gateway addresses was completed and deployed on testnet as part of the upcoming Hardfork 6 (HF6). Alongside this, the team continued improving wallet behavior, network infrastructure, and ecosystem tooling across mobile and web platforms.

Core, Protocol & Networking

The main focus this month was the initial implementation of gateway addresses, now live on testnet and undergoing extensive testing.

• HF6 Gateway Addresses
  • Completed the first implementation of gateway addresses in the core
  • Deployed to testnet for thorough testing
  • Continued extensive refactoring across core components to support the new feature
• Consensus & Cryptography
  • Balance proof / ASP proof mechanisms adapted for gateway address support
  • Integrated the new decoy selection algorithm
  • Fixed a rare issue in the upcoming fork-choice rule formula
• Core Improvements
  • Added DB chunked array accessor to support future gateway address data structures
  • Fixed overly strict transaction input size limits for pre-HF4 transactions
• Networking
  • Implemented HTTPS support for SOCKS5
  • Improved P2P API access by making COMMAND_REQUEST_ANONYMIZED_PEERS publicly accessible
• RPC & Wallet Core
  • Gateway addresses are now accessible through the daemon RPC API
  • Fixed an issue where search_for_transaction could return zero fee values after wallet save/load cycles
  • Implemented HF6 rule enforcement for self-directed transfers with payment IDs (now disallowed)
• CLI Wallet
  • Updated payment ID handling in simplewallet for HF6 readiness
  • Added pre-hardfork freeze period checks
  • Introduced "self" alias to simplify sending funds to the same wallet

Mobile

A new mobile release Zano Wallet v3.0.3 was published, focusing on stability, usability improvements, and asset handling.

Key improvements include:

• Fixed inability to view seed phrase for existing wallets
• Fixed alias registration issues
• Fixed Restore Wallet screen closing immediately
• Corrected synchronization speed display showing 0 Bps
• Reduced excessive transaction history refreshing
• Implemented global whitelist caching
• Added asset badges ("native" / "whitelisted") in asset lists
• Sharing a transaction now creates a direct blockchain explorer link
• Added confirmation dialogs when sharing potentially sensitive information
• Improved PIN creation flow with stronger validation and guidance
• Introduced a wallet closing state for better lifecycle handling

Desktop Light Wallet

Development of the desktop version of the wallet continues to progress steadily. Most of the architectural groundwork is complete, and the team is currently addressing remaining platform-specific details before preparing the first public release.

Web & Ecosystem

Zano Trade

Several improvements were made to improve consistency, security, and usability:

• Implemented automatic deletion of orders older than one month
• Improved authorization security
• Updated Orders API (breaking changes documented here)
• Added trading pair filtering to ensure compatibility with blockchain data
• Fixed validation issues with amount inputs in both Zano Trade and Zano Companion

Zano Companion

• UI improvements
• Added balance checks before sending transactions
• Released updated Companion version (latest release available in browser extension stores)

Wrapped Zano

Integrated Burner Wallet connection into wrapped.zano.org

Zano Website

• Launched the first version of the new zano.org website
• Integrated ZanoStats API for dynamic network statistics
• The website is still a work in progress, expect major improvements and a full announcement next month!

February marked an important step toward HF6 and gateway addresses, while continuing to strengthen the wallet ecosystem and developer tooling. Testing will continue throughout March as we prepare the new protocol features for mainnet deployment.

Media Content & Coverage

For our Monerotopia sponsorship, the team also put out a piece of content that captured the "why" behind all of this.

"Bitcoin promised peer-to-peer electronic cash. It became trackable institutional gold." A reminder of the cypherpunk vision Zano is built to fulfill.

Zano Around the World

While the core team was heads-down on protocol work and conferences, the regional communities were doing what they do best: growing privacy adoption on the ground.

Zano Africa

February closed out on a high note as Zano Africa held its first community meetup and workshop of 2026 on the 28th! With over 700 registrations and 400+ attendees showing up in full force, the energy was undeniable. Every attendee was successfully onboarded into the Zano ecosystem, marking a massive win for grassroots adoption.

Zano Latam/Spain

February marked the first month of applying the new content strategy. The team collaborated again with the most influential privacy creator in the Spanish-speaking space and continued growing the community. The next focus is engaging the new users who follow us. Interest in privacy and Zano is clearly rising across this language community.

Zano Indonesia

Zano Indonesia's momentum is skyrocketing. The Telegram is buzzing with high activity, backed by a dedicated "Zano Army" that amplifies every X post. Community members are now consistently producing high-quality creative content on X, driving organic reach to new levels.

Zano Venezuela

We've reached the 100 followers milestone! In Venezuela, privacy matters deeply, and it starts with the basics. This month, the team was focused on steady, organic growth, real freedom is built one step at a time. To celebrate the milestone, new giveaways are on the way for the community. Stay tuned!

Zano Fact: Accept ZANO and fUSD on your webshop using the official Zano Payment Widgets. Simple integration, direct payments, no intermediaries. Start here: https://pay.zano.me/

Conclusion

In February, the distance between "privacy coin" and "private money you can actually use" kept getting smaller. March will be focused on hardening the HF6 testnet, rolling out the new website properly, and pushing the desktop light wallet toward its first public release. There's a lot of momentum to carry forward, and we're not slowing down.

Thank you for being part of this, zAnons. See you next month!

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