What this isZecnero is a fork of Zebra, the Rust node for Zcash. It keeps the Sapling and Orchard shielded pools and swaps Equihash for RandomX, the CPU-oriented proof of work that has secured Monero since 2019.
The goal is narrow. No machine class should hold a large efficiency edge per watt over a normal desktop CPU. Farms can still win on scale. They can't win by owning better hardware, because better hardware for RandomX looks like the CPU you already have.
This thread exists so the design gets picked apart before mainnet, while changing it is still cheap.
TestnetTestnet launched on September 24, 2026 at 21:11 UTC. Anyone can mine it today with the guide at
zecnero.org/mine.
| Genesis hash | 004aa9ae10c69d42dfba2ecd1485aab0881109c73d49796336a5c976461df0a8 |
| Commits to | Bitcoin block 968452 |
| Seed nodes | seed1.zecnero.org (Toronto), seed2.zecnero.org (Coventry), port 18733 |
| Founder address | n2RY7SPTGa9K9YRQvZokbh3jUpAX9W8LNWc (2-of-3 P2SH) |
| My mining address | nmNLhptcyBUTKPAFoYwNAKps6TAZnaRoBCq |
Transparent and shielded Sapling transactions have both been sent and confirmed on testnet with exact balances.
On the first day a miner brought about 14 kH/s for a few hours, which was most of the network, and then left. Blocks slowed until ASERT walked difficulty back down, which took a few hours at the 2 hour half-life. It's the same pattern a rented or profit-switching miner would cause on a small mainnet, so I'm now testing shorter half-lives on a private network before mainnet genesis.
Testnet coins have no value. Testnet may be reset before mainnet if the proof of work or difficulty parameters change. Any reset gets announced here and on Discord first.
Allocation| Premine | None |
| ICO / presale / token sale | None |
| Dev fund / treasury | None |
| Blocks reserved for anyone | None |
| Founder stream | 3% of each block subsidy, from block 1 until the first halving at block 1,680,000 |
The founder stream totals
314,999.8125 ZMR, which is
1.5% of total supply. Consensus enforces it. Every block pays it regardless of who mined that block, and it stops permanently at the first halving. It goes to a P2SH multisig script. The testnet one is live and listed above. The mainnet one gets published before launch.
How the founder fund is run:
- The multisig is separate from my own mining wallet.
- Any spending from it is posted publicly.
- Any sale gets announced before it happens.
- I'm open to adding an outside keyholder.
I will also mine at mainnet launch with the same public software everyone else uses, from addresses published in advance, so anyone can measure my share of early blocks. On testnet that address is already public, above.
Specifications| Ticker | ZMR |
| Proof of work | RandomX-Zecnero: RandomX v1 reference configuration, only the Argon2 salt changed. RandomX v2 is under evaluation for mainnet. |
| Block time | 75 seconds |
| Difficulty | ASERT (aserti3-2d), 2 hour half-life on testnet, anchored at genesis. Mainnet half-life under review. |
| Block reward | 6.25 ZMR |
| Halving | Every 1,680,000 blocks (about 4 years) |
| Total supply | 20,999,993.5652 ZMR. Issuance ends after 30 halvings. No tail emission. |
| Privacy | Transparent, Sapling and Orchard pools. Sprout removed. |
| Transactions | Version 5 only |
| Coinbase maturity | 100 blocks |
| Max reorg depth | 20 blocks |
| Address prefixes | Mainnet N1 / N3. Testnet nm / n2. |
Design choices worth arguing about- A private RandomX salt. Monero's RandomX hardware and the rigs on rental markets can't mine Zecnero at launch. Anyone can add the variant to a miner later, and the design doesn't depend on keeping them out. Every other parameter stays at the audited defaults.
- RandomX v1 or v2 for mainnet. Monero plans to move to RandomX v2 at its next hard fork. v2 gets more work out of modern CPUs per joule and makes dedicated hardware harder to build. Zecnero can adopt it before mainnet with no fork. Opinions welcome.
- ASERT half-life. Two hours recovered from the day one hashrate drop in a few hours. Shorter recovers faster but makes difficulty noisier. The testnet data and a comparison of candidate values will be posted here.
- Orchard circuit fix from NU6.2 applied at block 1. Zecnero's rules follow Zcash NU6, except for the NU6.2 Orchard soundness fix and the canonical proof size rule, which apply from the first block.
- Genesis commits to a recent Bitcoin block hash. The genesis timestamp is the public release time. Blocks mined before release would show up against the difficulty schedule.
- 20 block reorg limit plus checkpoints. A small new chain is cheap to attack with rented CPU. Running nodes refuse deep reorganizations. A hashrate-independent finality layer is planned before any exchange listing.
- No tail emission. Same shape as Bitcoin and Zcash. The tradeoff is a fee-only security budget in the long run, and it's open for debate.
MiningThe miner is a fork of XMRig with an
rx/zecnero algorithm, built for Linux and Windows, with the dev donation set to 0. Solo mining goes through a small bridge between the node and XMRig. The full setup is at
zecnero.org/mine. A pool comes with mainnet launch, and a P2Pool-style decentralized pool is planned afterward.
Downloads are at
downloads.zecnero.org. Every release ships a SHA256SUMS file signed with the Zecnero key below. Check both before running anything.
Reference benchmark:
about 8,200 H/s on an i7-13700KF at 16 threads, Windows, huge pages and MSR mod on, VBS enabled. Under WSL2 without huge pages it drops to about 6,000 H/s. RandomX wants roughly 2 MB of L3 cache per thread, so running every thread is often slower.
Windows Defender flags the miner as
Program:Win32/Contebrew. It flags stock XMRig the same way. Verify the release SHA-256 and add a folder exclusion. Don't turn off your antivirus.
Pool operators: the node supports getblocktemplate and submitblock, and the zecnerod repo has an integration guide. Email me if you want to run a testnet pool.
Hashrate earns its share of blocks. Nothing more is promised. Nobody should buy hardware to mine this.
WalletWallet 0.2 is a full-node wallet. It syncs from your own zecnerod, the way the Monero GUI does, and never hands your addresses to a server. It supports transparent and Sapling sends with memos. There's a command line build for Linux and Windows and a desktop app for Windows. Orchard support comes after the proving-key fix below.
It will be posted at
zecnero.org/wallets, with a note in this thread when it goes up.
Status| Protocol specification | Draft published |
| Node: chain identity, issuance, founder stream | Done, running on testnet |
| Node: RandomX proof of work | Done, running on testnet |
| Node: ASERT difficulty, reorg limit | Done, running on testnet |
| Miner (XMRig fork) | Working, verified against test vectors |
| Node to miner bridge | Working |
| Block explorer | Live at explorer.zecnero.org |
| Wallet 0.2 (CLI + Windows desktop) | Testnet beta, release being signed |
| Orchard wallet proving-key fix | Required before Orchard spends and before mainnet |
| Testnet faucet | Next |
| Public testnet | Live since September 24, 2026 |
| Mainnet | Not scheduled |
The RandomX-Zecnero hash has been checked across four separate implementations (reference C++, the Rust binding, XMRig on Linux, XMRig on Windows), which agree on all 17 published test vectors.
Public testnet runs for several weeks before any mainnet date gets set. The launch date will be announced here at least a week ahead, together with the founder addresses and the genesis parameters.
Known risks- A new chain has little hashrate. Majority attacks are cheap until it grows, and one large miner joining or leaving swings block times for hours. Testnet has already shown this.
- CPU-friendly proof of work also suits botnets and stolen cloud accounts.
- Sapling depends on the Zcash Sapling trusted setup. Orchard needs none, and wallets should default to it once wallet support lands.
- The node modifies consensus code. It needs outside review before mainnet, and review is welcome now.
- Privacy coins face delisting pressure in several jurisdictions.
Looking for- Review of the protocol specification, the consensus changes in particular
- Rust developers with Zebra or Zcash experience
- Testnet miners on any hardware, especially older machines and ARM
- People willing to run nodes
- Pool operators willing to run a testnet pool
Criticism in this thread is useful. Posting it before mainnet costs nobody anything.
LinksSecurity issues go to
zecnero@proton.me privately, before any public post.
Zecnero has no price, no market, and no token on any other chain. Any "Zecnero" token you find elsewhere belongs to someone else.
