Horizen News

🗓 Horizen Discord Community Call - Thursday

Momentum's building. Here's what's on deck:

• Acceleration Program: 2 weeks in, cohort's already shipping.
• Layrs: private LP, delta-neutral, one vault. ZEN/USDC/WETH live first.
• Ecosystem & ZENDEX updates.

📅 Sept 24 · 16:00 UTC / 12:00 ET

Pull up 👇

https://discord.com/events/334085157441110017/1552059438733459566

📢 Special Council Election

The Special Council Election kicks off September 23rd

The first vote to run under Horizen's updated setup.

Snapshot now counts self-custodied $ZEN across three forms:
• On Base
• On Horizen L3
• Staked in ZEN Staking

Get ready to vote! 🗳️

Meet the candidates and join the discussion:

https://horizen.discourse.group/t/special-council-elections-september-2026-cohort/1129

Horizen open Season 2 of the Builder Ecosystem Fund ⚡️🏴‍☠️

100K+ ZEN / up to $150K per team to stop leaking user state onchain & ship private DeFi on Base.

• RFPs: Private Agentic Vaults & Borrow-Lend
• Stack: Vela (TEE) & zkVerify (ZK) preferred
• Perks: Direct DevRel support and audit/launch funding

In partnership with Thrive Protocol. Lock in your grant here:

https://tally.so/r/MeQGxl

Staking is Live!

First reward cycle starts July 27. Have your $ZEN in the pool ahead of time so you're ready when distribution goes live

Stake → http://horizen.io/staking

The next chapter of Horizen is here

Tune in our X Space tomorrow Thursday, 16 July 2026 at 16:00 UTC as we unpack what changes, why confidential execution becomes essential for onchain apps, and where the ecosystem is headed.

https://x.com/horizenglobal/status/2077148413515411748?s=20

Crypto projects have historically shared very little about how they operate behind the scenes

the B-2 Token Transparency Framework creates a standard way for mature crypto projects to disclose this information.

Horizen just completed the B-2 Token Transparency Framework, opening the books on how the protocol operates while keeping user privacy intact.

https://x.com/horizenglobal/status/2072306547628429474?s=20

What if you could move assets across chains without broadcasting your wallet trail to the entire internet?

Wallets, size, timing, counterparties... all public the second you click confirm.

Tachyon now live on Horizen mainnet bringing private cross-chain transfers + swaps with native asset settlement, no wrapper maze, no public trail.

Privacy infra entering its utility era.

send your first private crosschain transfer today at: https://www.tachyon.pe/bridge

Most systems force the transparency-or-privacy tradeoff.

Obscura proves the signal, hides the noise.

ZK on Horizen makes that viable at scale.

Deep dive: https://x.com/useobscura/status/2051718577061785737?s=46

Zenrise Season 2 is live.

Less "points farming”, more actually exploring what ships on Horizen.

Zenrise towards real activity across the ecosystem.

Good entry point if you missed Season 1 👍

https://zenrise.horizen.io

🔊Zenrise Season 1 Update:

Out of an abundance of caution following the NPM package security incident last week, we temporarily heightened our OpSec protocols. Your security is not something we take shortcuts on.

We're targeting April 7th or 8th as the opening claim date and will confirm as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience, we'll keep you posted.

Horizen has introduced Vela, a confidential compute layer designed to enable private, verifiable execution on the Horizen Chain. Built on a "blind operator" architecture, Vela utilizes Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to isolate application logic and data at the hardware level, ensuring that even network operators cannot observe the computation. For developers, this infrastructure offers a way to build regulatory compliant, privacy first applications using familiar languages like Go and Rust or any language that compiles to WebAssembly (WASM). https://blog.horizen.io/introducing-vela-the-confidential-compute-layer-on-horizen

The Special Council Election is LIVE! Three seats are up for election and your vote decides who fills them. The Special Council is the 7-member body responsible for overseeing proposals, safeguarding the security of the DAO, and ensuring the financial stability of the Horizen ecosystem. These are not ceremonial roles, they have real influence over the direction of the project. Voting is open now until March 24 at 17:00 UTC on Snapshot, and you can spread your voting power across multiple candidates. Every ZEN counts, so head over and make your voice heard! :point_down:

https://snapshot.org/#/s:horizenfoundationnontechnical.eth/proposal/0xa7dc914a86c0b5261b6361457c2f1c03ebcb2d8fc0b918b6bc9d3b500c62c2d4

ZEN Staking is coming back! ZenIP 42408 has passed with overwhelming community support, authorizing a phased, alignment-first ZEN staking program for the Horizen ecosystem. This is a big moment for the DAO and a clear signal that our community is committed to long-term growth. A massive thank you to everyone who voted, engaged in the discussion, and helped shape this proposal. You made this happen. Stay tuned for updates on Phase 1 implementation.

🚨 24 Hours Left: Help us reach quorum on ZenIP-42408! 🚨

Voting is currently open and ends tomorrow! It is great to see that we are already 87% of the way to quorum with 100% in favor, but we need your help to tip it over the threshold.

About the Proposal:
ZenIP-42408 proposes authorizing a 50,000 ZEN allocation to fund a phased, alignment-first ZEN staking program on Horizen L3. This is an important vote for the direction of the ecosystem.

If you haven't yet, we encourage all community members to review the proposal and cast your vote before time runs out:
👉 https://snapshot.org/#/s:horizenfoundationnontechnical.eth/proposal/0x42044af02bd15a2dda1984c0e035601be083e608b14e1c8a1f4f956f9477aa24

The vote is live your participation matters.

ZenIP 42408 is now open for community voting on Snapshot. This proposal seeks DAO authorization for a phased, alignment-first ZEN staking program, beginning with a conservative 50,000 ZEN allocation for Year 1, time-bounded to 12 months and subject to annual renewal. The framework is designed with clear guardrails: modest, capped emissions, no liquid staking in Phase 1, and an explicit roadmap to layer in sustainable ecosystem-generated reward streams including zkVerify validator earnings and DAO liquidity provisioning returns reducing reliance on fixed emissions over time. Each subsequent year of funding requires explicit DAO reauthorization based on observed outcomes. If you hold ZEN, your vote directly shapes how this program moves forward. Cast your vote now:

https://snapshot.org/#/s:horizenfoundationnontechnical.eth/proposal/0x42044af02bd15a2dda1984c0e035601be083e608b14e1c8a1f4f956f9477aa24

⭐️Voting for ZenIP42408 Opens on 3/10⭐️

The Horizen community will soon begin voting on authorizing a $ZEN allocation to support the development of a phased staking program designed to align long-term ecosystem participation.

⚠️Important Voting Eligibility Details⚠️

To ensure your vote is counted, please note the following:

✅ Only $ZEN held in wallets you control on Base will count toward voting power.

The following will NOT count toward voting power:
❌ ZEN held on the Horizen L3 chain
❌ ZEN held in liquidity pools

🧾 Balance Snapshot:
Your voting power will be determined by the ZEN balance in your wallet at the time the proposal goes live on Tuesday.

⏳ What to Do Before 3/10

If you plan to vote:

1. Ensure your ZEN is held in a wallet on Base
2. Ensure it is not in LP positions
3. Move any tokens before the snapshot occurs

We encourage all $ZEN holders to review the proposal and participate in the vote once it goes live:
https://horizen.discourse.group/t/zenip-42408-authorization-of-zen-allocation-for-a-phased-alignment-first-zen-staking-program/1086

@everyone Special Council Elections March 2026 Cohort

Hello everyone,

The March 2026 Special Council elections are now open for nominations. Three seats are available on the Council this cycle.

Voting will take place via Snapshot from March 15 through March 22.

If you have experience in the web3 space and are interested in contributing to Horizen's governance at a meaningful level, we encourage you to apply. To do so, please visit the forum thread, express your interest, and create a dedicated candidate thread outlining your background and what you would bring to the role.

Forum thread: https://horizen.discourse.group/t/special-council-elections-march-2026-cohort/1089

If you know someone in the community who would be a strong candidate, please encourage them to apply. A competitive election benefits everyone.

Horizen News pinned «ZenIP 42408 is now live for Discussion. It proposes a phased relaunch of ZEN staking, starting with a conservative 50,000 ZEN allocation for Year 1, focused on long term alignment and simplicity (no liquid staking or complex mechanics in Phase 1). Funding…»

ZenIP 42408 is now live for Discussion.

It proposes a phased relaunch of ZEN staking, starting with a conservative 50,000 ZEN allocation for Year 1, focused on long term alignment and simplicity (no liquid staking or complex mechanics in Phase 1). Funding would require DAO renewal each year based on results.

Please read through it and share your feedback. https://horizen.discourse.group/t/zenip-42408-authorization-of-zen-allocation-for-a-phased-alignment-first-zen-staking-program/1086