Zano WalletNo counterparty risk
Atomicity guarantees the trade either completes for both sides or rolls back.
Atomic Swaps — Trade Without an Exchange
Swap ZANO for Confidential Assets directly between wallets. No exchange custody, no escrow agent, no counterparty advantage.
Centralized exchanges defeat self-custody.
To trade through a centralized exchange, you must first send funds to the exchange — meaning the exchange holds your private keys. While funds are on the exchange, they can be frozen, seized, lost in a hack, or subpoenaed. The exchange is also a known data point linking your identity (via KYC) to your activity. Most users accept this for liquidity reasons. The trade-off is real.
How atomic swaps work
A swap is a multi-step protocol that executes either fully or not at all. Party A locks ZANO in a contract. Party B locks the asset they are trading in a parallel contract. Each contract has a hashlock — a cryptographic commitment that lets the counterparty unlock the funds by revealing a shared secret. The protocol guarantees: either both transfers happen and both parties get their counterparty's asset, or both transfers time out and both parties recover their original funds. Neither party can run away with both.
The Zano implementation is called Ionic Swaps. It is accessible from the Zano Wallet via the Zano Trade interface. Common use cases include trading ZANO for Confidential Assets (fUSD), or trading one Confidential Asset for another.
No exchange custody
Funds never leave your wallet to sit in a centralized exchange's hot wallet.
Multi-asset
Swap native ZANO or any Confidential Asset issued on the Zano chain.
P2P pricing
Prices are negotiated directly between participants on Zano Trade.
Honest tradeoffs
Liquidity is thinner. Atomic swaps depend on finding a counterparty willing to trade your specific pair at a specific size. Centralized exchanges aggregate liquidity, so spreads are tighter and order books deeper. P2P swaps may take time and price patience.
No fiat off-ramp. Atomic swaps are crypto-to-crypto. Converting to fiat (USD, EUR) still requires an exchange or off-ramp service.
Cross-chain swaps are more complex. Swapping ZANO for BTC or XMR (different chains) is technically possible but requires both chains to support compatible primitives. The cleanest Ionic Swaps experience is between Zano-chain assets.
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