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What ZKas is

Chain

fork of rusty-kaspa (kaspad v2.0.1 lineage), GHOSTDAG BlockDAG

Block rate

1 BPS (target_time_per_block = 1000 ms), ~1s confirmation

Proof of work

kHeavyHash, byte-identical to Kaspa mainnet — unmodified ASICs work with zero configuration

Privacy

shielded-by-default. Value lives in an Orchard (Halo 2) pool; the coinbase reward is minted directly as a shielded note. There is no transparent output type on mainnet

Units

1 ZKAS = 100,000,000 sompi (8 decimals)

Addresses

bech32, HRP zkas: · zkastest: · zkasdev: · zkassim:

Network id

zkas-mainnet (wire and datadir identity)

Merged mining

with Kaspa via aux-PoW, active from genesis. Optional — native mining always works

Coinbase maturity

100 blocks (~100 s)

Shielded spendable

600 blocks (~10 min) — a note is spendable once its anchor matures

Four constraints that invalidate most feature ideas

1. No virtual machineNo contracts, no shared mutable state, no scripts on notes. An AMM, order book, perpetual or lending pool cannot exist on the base chain.
2. Single assetA note carries one NoteValue: u64 with no asset id. A stablecoin or any second asset requires a circuit fork.
3. No ZIP-32 accountsOne seed → one full viewing key → one incoming viewing key. Scoped or revocable disclosure means using a separate seed.
4. Nullifiers are a MuHash accumulatorNo non-membership proof exists, so uniqueness registries and anti-double-pledge semantics cannot be enforced on-chain.

The Limits page lists what is unbuilt, what is structurally impossible, and what can be done beside the chain instead.

Networks and ports

Run a mainnet node

kaspad --appdir=./zkas-node \
  --rpclisten=127.0.0.1:16810 \
  --listen=0.0.0.0:16811 \
  --utxoindex

That is a pruned node and it is what most people should run. Whether you also need --shielded-history=on or --archival depends entirely on how old the coins you must see are — pick your node mode.

Send your first payment

1. Start the wallet daemonIt scans, proves and broadcasts. Point it at your node.

   zkas-walletd --network mainnet \
     --rpc-server 127.0.0.1:16810 \
     --listen 127.0.0.1:8501 \
     --wallet-dir ./wallets --allow-default-token

2. Create a walletThe seed is returned once. Store it like any private key.

   curl -s -X POST localhost:8501/api/wallet/create \
     -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"birthday":0}'

3. Wait for spendability, not just syncPoll spend_ready. A freshly received note needs ~10 minutes before it can be spent, because spends prove against a matured anchor.

   curl -s localhost:8501/api/status | jq '{synced,spend_ready,blocks_behind}'

4. SendThe memo is encrypted and readable only by the recipient — up to 512 bytes.

   curl -s -X POST localhost:8501/api/wallet/send \
     -H 'content-type: application/json' \
     -d '{"to":"zkas:...","amount_fc":1.0,"memo":"hello"}'

Try it on testnet-10 first

testnet-10 mirrors mainnet's full feature set — shielded coinbase, Toccata, multi-producer anchors, dev fee, 1-BPS emission — but keeps an easy-PoW genesis so a CPU can bootstrap it. It has no public seeder, so run it standalone.

# node
kaspad --testnet --utxoindex --enable-unsynced-mining

# miner: native kHeavyHash, all cores
zkas-miner -s 127.0.0.1:16820 -a <your zkastest: address> -t 0

# join a peer manually (no seeder on testnet)
kaspad --testnet --addpeer=<ip>:16821

Get a zkastest: address from a --network testnet walletd. Everything else behaves as mainnet does.

Where to go next