Research & Audits
The papers behind Zano's cryptography, and the independent third-party audits of those protocols.
Third-party audits
Zarcanum review by Cypher Stack
Review of the Zarcanum Proof of Stake scheme with hidden amounts.
https://github.com/cypherstack/zarcanum-review/releases/tag/final
Zano d/v-CLSAG review by Cypher Stack
Review of Zano's ring signature scheme used for untraceable transactions.
https://github.com/cypherstack/zano-clsag-review/releases/tag/final
Research papers
Zano Whitepaper (2019)
The original Zano whitepaper, describing the general concepts used in the project.
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/Zano_WP_latest.pdf
PoS Analysis and improvements proposal (2019)
With the help of Maxwell Sanches we came up with a more effective PoS model and upgraded the network; this document holds the details of that research and improvement.
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/arch/PoS_Analysis_and_improvements_proposal.pdf
Auditable wallets in CryptoNote (2020)
This article explores several possible implementations of extending CryptoNote 2.0 with full-scale wallets auditing
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/arch/Auditing%20wallets%20in%20CryptoNote.pdf
Zarcanum: A Proof-of-Stake Scheme for Confidential Transactions with Hidden Amounts (2021)
Presenting a Proof-of-Stake mining scheme that does not reveal amounts and is compatible with ring confidential transactions. Paper also introduces an extension to the Bulletproofs+ protocol that allows range proofs on double-blinded commitments, with corresponding security statements.
https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1478
Zano: Confidential Assets Scheme for RingCT and Zarcanum (2024)
In this paper, we describe a practical way of implementing confidential assets (a.k.a. tokens or colored coins) in Zano with unlimited decoy mixing capability and hidden amounts, as an extension to the Ring Confidential Transactions scheme. Our approach preserves public verifiability that no transaction either creates or destroys coins. We further extend this approach to show how it can be combined with Zarcanum, a Proof-of-Stake scheme for transaction with hidden amounts
https://hyle-team.github.io/docs/zano/CA_paper/Zano_CA_for_RingCT_and_Zarcanum_v1.1.pdf
d/v-CLSAG: Extension for Concise Linkable Spontaneous Anonymous Group Signatures (2025)
Extension for the CLSAG (Concise Linkable Spontaneous Anonymous Group Signatures)
https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/2335
Additional research papers
The following papers represent research toward a novel logarithmic-sized linkable ring signature scheme.
- Lin2-Xor Lemma and Log-size Linkable Ring Signature (2020)
In this paper we introduce a novel method for constructing an efficient linkable ring signature without a trusted setup which is logarithmic in the size of the signer anonymity set, its verification complexity is linear in the anonymity set size
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/arch/Lin2-Xor_Lemma_and-Log-size_Linkable_Ring_Signature.pdf - Hidden amounts scheme on the base of a ring signature for independent generators (2021)
Draft of a hidden amounts scheme based on Lin2-Xor Linkable Ring Signature
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/arch/Hidden%20amounts%20scheme%20v6%20Sokolov.pdf - Log-size Linkable Ring Signature and Hidden Amounts integrated listing (2021)
Unified pseudo-code listing for the Lin2-Xor Signature and Hidden Amounts schemes
https://github.com/hyle-team/docs/blob/master/zano/arch/Log-size%20Linkable%20Ring%20Signature%20and%20Hid-den%20Amounts%20integrated%20listing%20v3.pdf
Archive: drafts and legacy docs for history and context
Zano Tokenization Platform (2022)
Introducing a solution that allows users to issue tokens that work inside Zano blockchain, which have the same properties as transactions with a native token: hidden amounts and hidden addresses, as well as auditable wallets.
Note: this paper used one of the early approaches to implementing assets, where each asset has a unique scalar identifier but a common asset-type generator; it is now outdated.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyle-team/docs/master/zano/arch/Zano_tokenization_platform.pdf
Zano: confidential assets scheme (2022 - DRAFT)
Paper describes a practical way of implementing confidential assets (a.k.a. tokens) in Zano with unlimited decoy mixing capability and hidden amounts as an extension to the Ring Confidential Transactions scheme