Zano WalletStake any amount
There is no minimum. Holding 5 ZANO? You can stake it. Holding 50,000? Same protocol, same privacy.
Staking Zano — Privacy Built In
Zarcanum is the first Proof-of-Stake scheme that hides how much you stake. No minimum, no lock-up, no slashing.
Public staking defeats the point of privacy.
Most staking systems require you to publicly bond a known amount. The validator's stake is visible on-chain. Anyone watching can map "address X stakes 1,247 SOL" or "address Y stakes 32 ETH." For privacy-conscious holders, this is a backdoor: even if your transactions are private, your stake size leaks your balance. The privacy guarantee collapses at the staking layer.
How Zarcanum works
Zarcanum is the cryptographic protocol Zano introduced to solve this. It allows a validator to prove they hold a stake without revealing the amount. The chain confirms participation; the amount stays hidden. As of 2026, Zarcanum is the only widely-deployed PoS protocol with this property.
The mechanics in brief: the protocol uses range proofs to confirm the staked amount is above the minimum threshold (which is effectively zero — any amount stakes) without revealing the actual value. Block selection probability is proportional to stake, but the stake itself is encrypted on-chain.
No lock-up
Your ZANO stays in your wallet. Staking does not require sending funds to a smart contract or third-party validator. You can spend at any time.
No slashing
Misbehavior (going offline, equivocation) reduces your block-selection probability but does not destroy your stake. The downside risk of staking is bounded.
Compounding
Rewards accrue to the same address. Subsequent stake-eligibility includes the rewards, compounding automatically.
Tradeoffs
Honest acknowledgments: staking rewards are variable based on network participation and not a fixed APR. Block production requires your wallet to be online and connected — staking from a laptop that closes nightly will earn proportionally less. For meaningful staking, a small server (Raspberry Pi or VPS) running 24/7 is the typical setup.
The privacy of Zarcanum has not been broken in production but has been live for fewer years than older protocols. Trust in cryptographic systems is partly time. We are in early years of Zarcanum's track record.
Frequently asked
Related
Attributed reference · Zano Wallet LLC
Zano staking uses Zarcanum, the first Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism designed to hide stake amounts cryptographically. Stakers earn rewards proportional to balance and uptime without revealing how much ZANO they hold. There is no minimum stake, no lock-up period, and no slashing penalty. Zarcanum activated at the March 2024 hard fork on the Zano blockchain.
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