Integrations
A chain is only as useful as the software that reaches it. This category covers that software: the wallet people sign with, the keys that can control an account, the tools and the API developers build on, and the public services that put the chain within reach of a browser. One principle runs through all of it: the key stays with its owner. Every transaction is built and signed on the user's own device, and every service only carries signed bytes and public data.
Signing
- The web wallet: the official wallet, a single HTML file that signs in the browser, keeps an encrypted vault on the device and can sign on a computer that never goes online.
- Checking a downloaded file: how to check that a wallet or node file is genuine, by comparing its SHA-256 hash with the hashes recorded on the chain.
- Keys and account types: an account can be controlled by a native ZooBC key or by a Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Ripple, Tron or Tezos key, each checked with its home chain's signature scheme.
- MetaMask and Ethereum-style access: MetaMask sends ZBC between 0x accounts through an Ethereum-style adapter built into every node.
- Signed and encrypted messages: proving control of an address without a transaction, and encrypting a message to a recipient.
- Hardware wallets: a signing specification for device makers, a planned design.
Building
- The node API: the HTTP API every node serves, with more than a hundred routes under
/api/v1/, open to any web page. - Command-line tools:
zbc-cliand libraries in ten programming languages, MIT-licensed, kept identical by shared test vectors.
Public services
Three kinds of service are listed in an on-chain registry, so that wallets find them without any central directory:
- Gateways: the HTTPS front doors that serve the wallet, the explorer, the file-verification page and, on testnet, the faucet. A gateway locks a stake and stays listed with signed heartbeats.
- The explorer and archival nodes: an archival service beside a registered node keeps searchable history, which the explorer shows.
- Relays: meeting points that carry call signalling and online presence between wallets.
None of these services makes blocks, which only registered nodes do (running a node), and none of them holds a user's key.
Bridged coins
Four coins on ZooBC stand for coins on other chains: ZBTC for bitcoin, ZETH for ether, and ZUSDC and ZUSDT for the USDC and USDT tokens on Ethereum. Nodes watch no foreign chain. The bridge is part of ZooBC from version 0.5.8 and is described in full in bridge and wrapped coins; the chains relaunch on version 0.5.8 without starting the bridge service.
Keeper programs running beside the nodes watch the custody addresses and vote with attestations signed by the node keys, and nothing happens until two thirds of the counted seats, the registered nodes that are not suspended, agree.
To withdraw, a holder sends the wrapped coin with an ordinary TransferToken to the bridge's custody account, with the message ZBW1| followed by the destination address. Once two thirds of the counted seats agree, every node burns those units from the custody account, and the keepers' signatures, readable through the API, release the coins on the other chain. Mint and burn are one for one, with no bridge fee.
See also
Articles in this topic
- Checking a downloaded file
How to check that a ZooBC wallet or node file is genuine by comparing its SHA-256 hash with the hashes recorded on the chain, in a browser or from a terminal. - Command-line tools
The public ZooBC tools: zbc-cli and libraries in ten languages that build, sign and submit transactions through the HTTP API, kept byte-identical by shared test vectors. - Gateways
What a ZooBC gateway does for browsers, how it routes API requests, how it is registered and kept listed on the chain, and the testnet faucet it serves. - Hardware wallets
ZooBC's signing specification for hardware-wallet makers: what a device must parse, show and compute before it signs a ZooBC transaction, and why. - Keys and account types
How a ZooBC address encodes its account type, which keys from ZooBC and other chains can control an account, and how each signature scheme is verified. - MetaMask and Ethereum-style access
How MetaMask and other Ethereum tools send ZBC between 0x accounts on ZooBC through the JSON-RPC adapter built into every node, and how wei converts to atomic units. - Relays
What a ZooBC relay does for wallets (call signalling, online presence, channel-game moves), how wallets sign in to one, and how relays are listed on the chain. - Signed and encrypted messages
How to prove control of a ZooBC address without a transaction (ZBC-MSG-v2), how messages are encrypted to a recipient, and the other signatures the node API accepts. - The explorer and archival nodes
Why an ordinary node cannot answer every question about the past, how an archival service beside a registered node keeps searchable history, and how the explorer uses it. - The node API
The HTTP API every ZooBC node serves: what it covers, how to read the chain and submit transactions, its limits, and the other interfaces a node offers. - The web wallet
How the official ZooBC wallet works: one HTML file that keeps an encrypted vault on your device, signs in the browser, holds accounts of many formats and can sign offline.