How we got here
The first ZooBC was built in Go by a team of 27: a complete Layer 1 with wallets, explorer, and documentation, financed entirely by the founder with personal funds. It proved the concept and never launched, for operational reasons, not technical ones.
Nothing was dead. Lessons were absorbed, the architecture was rethought, and the ground was prepared to rebuild everything properly.
The rebuild begins, from scratch, in C++, coded solo by the original architect. One year of sleepless nights to get to the testnet you can use today.
Month by month to mainnet
Public testnet live
The chain runs, the explorer and browser wallet are open to everyone, free test coins from the faucet, and the developer portal with full API reference is online.
Genesis supporter sale Phase 1 opens (40 percent off list until 15 Sep). Testnet node onboarding opens: nodes that run now on the testnet for at least 2 months are first in line for mainnet genesis.
Sale Phase 1 closes
The deepest discount of the entire sale ends.
Mobile wallet beta
Community and ambassador programs launch, the testnet bug bounty goes active, and sale Phase 2 opens (25 percent off).
Browser signing extension beta
The browser signing extension enters beta and the external code audit begins. Sale Phase 3 opens (10 percent off).
Hardware wallet signing MVP
Hardware wallet signing for the core transaction types. Audit findings remediation. Sale Phase 4 (list price).
Last comfortable month to start a testnet node, 3 months before genesis.
Node eligibility deadline
To join the mainnet registry from the genesis block, a node must be registered and running on testnet by this date (2 months minimum, 3 or more recommended).
Release candidate
Genesis dress rehearsal on a staging network, mobile wallet v1, and the final documentation pass.
Genesis sale closes
Genesis account submissions close. The genesis block is assembled and published for review.
Mainnet genesis
Testnet-proven nodes start earning from block zero: about 2.87 ZBC per 15-second block at launch, roughly 16,500 ZBC emitted on day one, every block's coinbase and fees shared among up to 15 winning nodes weighted by participation score.
Launching on Valentine's Day, on purpose: a love letter to decentralization.
The genesis target is Q1 2027. 14 February is confirmed when the network readiness goals are met (funding, community size, and registered node count), because the safety of a public chain depends on the people running it.
Registry admission queue open
Anyone can queue a node by locking a refundable stake of at least 100 ZBC. The protocol admits one node per admission window, and on mainnet the window never drops below 14 days once the network is large, so flooding the registry is arithmetically impossible.
Queue order follows locked stake, and genesis entry through the testnet path is the only way to skip the queue entirely.
Bridges to other networks
The built-in exchange opens deposits and withdrawals from other blockchains, constellation nodes connect ZooBC to partner chains, and agreements with other foundations extend compatibility.
Exchange listings and integrations
External exchange listings, and web application partnerships that pay for real usage in ZBC.
Full open source release
The complete node source code is published under a permissive license. The 6-month window exists for one honest reason: the people who built and funded this deserve to ride the first wave of what they made before anyone can fork it.
Where the architecture was always headed
The decentralized application layer
Subsets of nodes running specific applications: the self-sharding model the whole architecture was designed for.
Volume Two of the book
The story of this rebuild, where early supporters, node operators, and contributors are part of the story, by name.
The story is being written now
Nodes that run on testnet today earn from block zero at genesis.