Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zano has announced its upcoming Hard Fork 6, scheduled for the second quarter of 2026, which will introduce a trustless cross-chain bridge protocol called Bridgeless, enabling native ZANO tokens to be transferred to and from EVM-compatible networks, TON, and Solana without relying on any centralized custodian. Currently, Zano uses a wrapped version of its token on Ethereum, wZANO (an ERC-20 token issued by the core team), which operates on a centralized server infrastructure. This creates a single point of failure and forces users to trust a custodian with their funds. Hard Fork 6 aims to eliminate that system entirely.
How Bridgeless Works: Threshold Signatures and Gateway Addresses
The key upgrade in Hard Fork 6 is the introduction of a new address type called “gateway addresses.” These use an account-based model instead of Zano’s native UTXO model and are designed for large-scale programmatic interaction. When a user transfers ZANO across the Bridgeless protocol, the native tokens are locked inside a gateway address on the Zano side. The protocol — not any human or entity — retains the funds. On the destination chain, an equivalent amount of wZANO is minted and sent to the user’s wallet. When bridging back, wZANO is burned and the native ZANO is unlocked. Every wZANO in circulation will be backed 1:1 by native ZANO and secured via threshold signatures, meaning no single party ever holds the full private key necessary to authorize a transfer.
Bridgeless operates on a decentralized network of validator nodes using Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). A cryptographic threshold of validators must cooperate to sign any cross-chain operation. On the EVM, TON, and Solana sides, smart contracts manage deposits and withdrawals without a central server or a single controlling team. The platform is currently in an alpha proof-of-concept stage; its native token, BRIDGE, has not yet been listed.
Privacy vs. Compliance: Balancing Transparency and Anonymity
One important trade-off in this new bridge design is transparency of amounts. Gateway addresses are transparent by design — the amounts moving through them are visible on-chain. However, the sender’s identity remains protected through Zano’s stealth addresses and ring signatures, which conceal user addresses and prevent external observers from determining which output was spent. Once a user bridges to a public chain like Ethereum, Solana, or TON, the privacy is not maintained — any wZANO balance on those chains is publicly visible just like any other token. Only when the user bridges back to native Zano do all privacy protections fully restore.
This transparency is intentional. Native ZANO has been rejected by several top-tier exchanges due to its default transaction privacy, which raises regulatory compliance concerns. By being a transparent asset, wZANO does not present the same compliance hurdles, making it more viable for listing on major centralized platforms. “This isn’t just a technical upgrade — it’s the infrastructure that could bring ZANO to top-tier exchanges and DeFi liquidity pools for the first time,” the Zano team stated.
Base Launch and Fiat On-Ramp
The deployment of wZANO on Base — a layer-2 chain built by Coinbase — is part of Zano’s rollout plan. Any token on the Base ecosystem can be purchased with fiat money via the Coinbase app, offering new users a direct entry point. A user can buy wZANO with a bank card, withdraw it to a wallet, and bridge it into native ZANO in a few steps. This creates a straightforward path for newcomers to access Zano’s full privacy stack without needing accounts on specialized exchanges.
Broader Ecosystem Impact
As a standard ERC-20 token, wZANO can participate in lending protocols, yield strategies, and liquidity provision on platforms like Uniswap. A wZANO liquidity pool could replace the existing custodial setup with a trustless equivalent. The bridge will be accessible via the Confidential Layer website and app. Zano’s testnet for gateway addresses is already operational, ahead of the Hard Fork 6 target in Q2 2026. With this upgrade, Zano aims to strike a careful balance between preserving user privacy and meeting regulatory expectations, potentially paving the way for broader adoption of privacy coins in mainstream decentralized finance.