Zero was announced on February 10, 2026. This page covers Zero’s architecture at a high level. Details may change as development continues.
Validator classes
Zero has two validator classes:- Block Validators run on consumer hardware. They verify ZK proofs rather than re-executing transactions, so hardware requirements stay low regardless of network throughput.
- Block Producers are optional higher-performance nodes that execute transactions within zones and generate ZK proofs.
Scaling approach
Zero targets 2 million transactions per second (TPS) per Zone. Four purpose-built components handle the main bottlenecks:| Bottleneck | Solution | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| State storage | QMDB | State updates with minimal disk I/O |
| Parallel compute | FAFO | Transaction scheduling across CPU cores |
| ZK proving | Jolt Pro | Real-time proof generation that keeps pace with execution |
| Networking | SVID | Data distribution across validators |
Atomicity Zones
Atomicity Zones are to Zero what concurrent processes are to a modern CPU. Each zone is a separate execution environment — smart contracts, trading, payments — that processes transactions and produces ZK proofs. All zones share Zero’s validator set and the same security guarantees. Zones scale independently. Adding a new zone increases total network capacity without degrading the performance of existing zones.Timeline
| Milestone | Timing |
|---|---|
| Announcement | February 10, 2026 |
| Testnet | Prior to mainnet |
| Mainnet | 2026 |
Get involved
Build on Zero
Learn more about building on Zero.
Positioning paper
Read the technical positioning paper.
Blog overview
Read the announcement blog post.