Zip, explained.

Getting started

1. Install a Solana wallet such as Phantom, Solflare or Backpack.
2. Put some SOL in it.
3. Open Shield, connect, and sign the one-time message that creates your private keys. It's free and sends nothing.
4. Shield an amount. After that, pay anyone from Send.

How it works

When you shield, your SOL goes into a shared pool and becomes a note: a commitment only your keys can open. Your keys come from a signature by your wallet, so the same wallet always reopens the same private account.

When you pay someone, your browser builds a zero-knowledge proof that you own one of the notes in the pool, without saying which one. A relayer submits that proof and pays the network fee, so your wallet never signs the payment. The pool pays the recipient, and whatever is left becomes a new private note for you.

Each note can only be spent once. Spending it publishes a nullifier that can't be linked back to the note.

What is public

• Public: that a wallet deposited, and how much.
• Public: each payout's amount and recipient.
• Zipped: which note paid for a payout, who sent it, and your private balance.

Sending well

Privacy grows with the pool. You are harder to pick out when the pool has many notes, when time has passed since you shielded, and when you send an amount that differs from your deposit. The Send screen checks all three before you send.

Zippad

Zippad launches a token on pump.fun from a brand-new wallet that the pool pays for. That wallet is derived from your private key and a launch number, so you can always recover it and nobody else can link it to you. Dev buys are capped at 2 SOL, and every description says the launch was anonymous.

Perps

Perps are in beta: SOL only, up to $100,000 per position, priced live by Pyth's on-chain feed. During the beta, trades use a 10,000 USDC test balance kept in your browser, and no funds move on chain. Sealed on-chain positions come next.

Fees

• Shielding: free. You only pay the network fee.
• Zip fee: 1% of every private send, taken by the program on chain and paid to the Zip treasury. It can never be raised above 5%, and a send is refused if the rate changes after you saw it.
• Relayer fee: a flat 0.002 SOL per send, which covers the network fee and the nullifier account.
• Zippad launches: the dev wallet is funded by a private send, so the 1% applies to that, plus about 0.02 SOL in rent and fees and your dev buy.
• The Send screen shows both fees and the total before you send. The recipient always gets exactly the amount you type.

Security

Zip is pre-audit software. The trusted setup for the proving key is a development setup, and a public multi-party ceremony is planned to replace it.