Provide a narrative description of the purpose of the project.
Horizen is a privacy-first appchain built to make privacy simple, powerful, and accessible for everyday apps. With upgraded tokenomics, ZEN brings better liquidity, lower costs, and seamless access to privacy tools across Base and the Ethereum ecosystem.
For each existing entity, list key team members with full name, official title, and prior experience. Explicitly mark non-existent entities.
Full Name | Official Title | Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|
Rob Viglione | Co-Founder & CEO | Former U.S. Air Force physicist who spent his early career at the intersection of military intelligence and aerospace economics. Before co-founding Horizen, he served as an analyst for Special Operations in Afghanistan and an economic consultant, where he used complex cost modeling to support the Air Force’s space launch programs. He migrated to academia prior to co-founding Horizen and launching $ZEN, zkVerify, and ApeCoin. |
Rosario Pabst | Chief Operating Officer | Former U.S. Air Force officer program manager with a deep background in technical leadership. In 2017, she transitioned to the blockchain sector as a founding member of Horizen, where she has since focused on scaling global teams and product development. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Indiana University and a Master of Science from Loyola University, |
Zain Cheng | Chief Technology Officer | Zain holds both a Master of Engineering in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University. He previously held positions at the Federal Reserve BNY, Barclays, Siemens, and RTR. |
Andy Bryant | Chief Strategy Officer | A former engineer who designed advanced robotics for the aerospace and nuclear industries, Bryant later pivoted to Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) at BDA Partners, where he honed his institutional finance expertise. He transitioned into the digital asset space as the COO of bitFlyer Europe, one of the world's most regulated exchanges, and later founded the DeFi platform Vektor. With a Master of Engineering from the University of Bath and research experience at the Tokyo Institute of Technology |
Full Name | Official Title | Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|
Glenn Kennedy | Director | Launched multiple projects as a Cayman Director. |
Rolf Versluis | Co-Founder & Dev Growth Lead | Launched Zen and zkVerify |
Michael Pastko | Ecosystem Growth Lead | Tech and blockchain industry professional with 15 years of experience spanning strategy, design, project management, GTM, and ecosystem development. |
Khushi Panwar | Community & DevRel Operations Coordinator | DevRel Associate and Community Lead with experience across 5 past blockchain projects |
Gustavo Fialho | Program Manager | Front-End Developer and UI/UX Specialist with experience in technical support, product troubleshooting, and community leadership for Horizen. |
Full Name | Official Title | Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|
Johncarlo Maddalena | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Benjamin Charbit | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Jemma Xu | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Lukas Bures | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Vladan Nikolic | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Domenico Minniti | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Paul Mihalche | Special Council Member | Horizen Community member |
Blockworks note: Labs/DevCo (Horizen Labs) |
Describe DAO governance, powers, economic rights, and control surfaces. If no DAO exists, state so and still address current tokenholder governance rights and economic arrangements.
All IP sits with the Horizen Foundation including copyrights, trademarks, domain names, social accounts, software and algorithms. DAO/tokenholders have governance rights over that IP. Tokenholders can approve the use, implementation, enhancement, improvement, management, and licensing of the Horizen DAO Governed IP through the ZenIP governance process.
The Foundation acts as the legal wrapper for the DAO, acting through its Director the Foundation, may enter contracts with service providers and disburse treasury.
Per the prior filing, Horizen does not have any locked staking rewards to insiders.
Per zenIP 42407, the Horizen DAO was allocated ~3m ZEN over four years to bootstrap its treasury (750k unlocked at the migration to Base in July 2025; remainder vests linearly over 48 months). Per zenIP 42411, the Horizen DAO authorized the deployment of its idle capital to support ZEN in DeFi and to diversify the DAO treasury between ZEN, BTC, ETH, and stablecoins, using automated LP strategies that earn yield on rebalancing. 2m of the total ZEN allocated to the DAO is earmarked for the 'ZEN Sustainability Initiative (SI)' to fund investments in Horizen ecosystem projects. The two categories of ZenIPs/EONIPs have different requirements for vote quorums and majorities:
Horizen DAO's governance has multiple layers of protection: all proposals must pass Special Council administrative review before voting, with the Council able to reject proposals that violate mission, threaten safety, or breach law. Technical ZenIPs require a 67% supermajority with 5% quorum, and a 30-day Foundation legal review follows passage. The Special Council are elected through SnapShot by Token Holders. Terms last for 6 months. Election rules can be changed via the ZenIP Process.
The Foundation (legal wrapper for the DAO) can be wound up either by a Tokenholder Vote under the Governance Documentation, or by a directors’ resolution.
Blockworks note: The Horizen DAO exists. Governance documentation is publicly available at: https://docs.horizen.io/governance/overview/constitution
Describe the Primary Foundation, including entity details, IP ownership, governance or token powers, contract/admin powers, and economic arrangements. If it does not exist, state so explicitly.
The Horizen Foundation is a Cayman Foundation.
The Horizen Foundation, holds ownership rights in the intellectual property underlying the ZEN and EON blockchains, including source code, software, trademarks, trade names, service marks, domain names, social media accounts, designs, and related works of authorship. Network IP is developed and maintained on the Foundation's behalf by Horizen Labs, Inc. (Delaware) pursuant to a Services Agreement dated 26 September 2023, under which all deliverables vest in the Foundation as Service Recipient. The Foundation governs the use, licensing, enhancement, and management of this IP through the ZenIP / EONIP process under the Horizen DAO Constitution, with Tokenholder approval required for material decisions affecting DAO-Governed IP.
— Per zenIP 42407, the Horizen Foundation was allocated 2m ZEN over four years to bootstrap its long-term operations (500k unlocked at the migration to Base in July 2025; remainder vests linearly over 48 months). The Foundation deploys its idle capital to support ZEN capital markets and produce yield to fund the Foundation's operational runway. Decisions across all material governance areas are exercised by Tokenholders through the ZenIP improvement-proposal process. Proposals are categorised as Technical or Non-Technical. Following a passed Tokenholder proposal, implementation is carried out by the Foundation in its stewardship capacity. Decisions requiring legal-entity action (entering contracts, holding accounts, signing instruments, engaging counterparties, and effecting commercial arrangements) are executed by the Foundation directors in accordance with the Articles of Association. Foundation’s governance powers over the DAO: Stewardship and administration - facilitating the operation of the DAO, maintaining its Governing Documents, and undertaking actions conducive to its stewardship role. Treasury custody and disbursement -holding DAO treasury assets and disbursing them in accordance with Tokenholder- approved ZenIPs and Foundation policies. Contracting authority - entering into commercial agreements with service providers, counterparties, and regulated venues in furtherance of the DAO's purpose.
The Horizen Foundation has a master services agreement (MSA) with Horizen Labs (the DevCo) under which Horizen Labs builds and maintains various Horizen network and community infrastructure. The Foundation can not exert direct or indirect influence over decision-making of the DevCo beyond the contractual MSA relationship.
The DAO’s Wallet is controlled as a 4/8 signer. With three signers contracted to the Foundation as service providers, one Special Council member, three signers from Labs and then the Director.
No core team members are compensated by any tokens allocated to the Foundation through advisory services or similar agreements. Excess cash or revenue from the DevCo would flow into the non-profit Foundation for the purposes of growing the token and its utility. The Foundation may use token-based revenue to pay Horizen Labs for development work under a contractual service-provider relationship; this does not accrue to DevCo equity holders via the token.
Describe the Primary Developer Company, including entity details, IP ownership, governance or token powers, contract/admin powers, and economic arrangements. If it does not exist, state so explicitly.
Horizen Labs is a Delaware Corporation.
IP has been transferred from Horizen Labs to The Horizen Foundation under an MSA.
— Horizen Labs has a master services agreement with the Horizen Foundation to build and maintain various Horizen network and community infrastructure. The work done under the Labs Co. MSA was historically more extensive when Horizen existed as a layer-1 blockchain with an EVM sidechain (Horizen EON). With the launch of Horizen on Base, Horizen Labs is transitioning to a product-centric revenue model focused on the development of dApps on Horizen. Labs does not have specific governance powers over DAO, treasury, protocol-controlled resources, token administration or reward parameters.
Labs can not exert direct or indirect influence over the desicion making of the Horizen Foundation.
Horizen Labs does not have contract/admin powers over the DAO.
Token holders have no ownership or governance rights in the DevCo. No value (e.g., dividends or profit-sharing) is accrued to equity holders of the DevCo, and any excess cash or revenue would flow into the non-profit Foundation for the purposes of growing the token and its utility. The Foundation may use token-based revenue to pay Horizen Labs for development work under a contractual service-provider relationship; this does not accrue to DevCo equity holders via the token. Equity holders of the DevCo may benefit from its commercial success (such as profits or a future sale of the business), but that value does not flow to token holders.
Blockworks note: The Primary Developer Company is Horizen Labs.
Identify affiliated protocol contributors and explain their control, funding, or operational relationship to the project. If none exist, state so explicitly.
Autonomous Limited is engaged by The Horizen Foundation as its outsourced operational manager. Its remit covers internal controls and policy design, treasury administration, bookkeeping and quarterly management accounts, invoice review and payment execution, service provider engagement, regulatory and compliance liaison, and strategic advisory.
Constellation Labs, Inc. (trading as Caldera) is engaged by The Horizen Foundation to provide dedicated blockchain rollup hosting and infrastructure. Services include operating the sequencer and ongoing maintenance.
Autonomous exercises operational authority over the Foundation's treasury and external relationships at Board direction, including initiating wallet transfers with multisig operators, opening and monitoring banking/custody/exchange accounts, and actioning asset diversification. All material decisions require Board sign-off; Autonomous prepares and executes rather than decides unilaterally. No on-chain governance or protocol-parameter authority is granted.
Caldera holds no authority over protocol parameters or governance mechanisms. Its role is purely infrastructural — executing block production as a managed service under the Foundation's direction.
Autonomous participates in multisig wallet operations (initiates and broadcasts transfers).
Caldera manages infrastructure maintenance. A 99.999% monthly uptime SLA is committed.
The Foundation pays Autonomous a fixed annual base fee, invoiced quarterly in advance, subject to annual inflation-linked adjustment. Out-of-pocket and third-party professional expenses are reimbursed at cost with prior written approval. No protocol-generated on-chain revenue is routed to Autonomous. APC 2: Constellation Labs, Inc. (Caldera)
The Foundation pays Caldera a fixed monthly service fee, payable in advance.
Blockworks note: APC 1: Autonomous Limited
Disclose launch and initial supply details in a single initial allocation schedule covering the token's launch. Include:
Horizen had a fair-launch token in 2017 with no founder allocations, team allocations, ICOs, or private sales. With its origins as a fork of the Zcash codebase, Horizen began as a proof-of-work layer-1 blockchain. There was no initial supply of ZEN nor pre-launch grants to any entity (team, investor, foundation, community). The first ZEN were emitted with the mining of the first block. Block-zero totals: tokens issued at launch = 0; locked = 0; unlocked = 0. The first ZEN entered circulation as the block subsidy paid to the miner of block 1.
During the PoW phase, ZEN block rewards were split between ecosystem participants. Post-migration to Base in July 2025, 25% of the remaining token supply was minted for the community, with the rest subject to a linear vesting period over 48 months.
No fixed offering price was set. ZEN launched via a fair-launch PoW emission mechanism with no ICO or private sale; the price was set by the open market as miners began to sell emitted ZEN.
ZEN
ZEN has a fixed maximum supply of 21,000,000 tokens.
The supply is capped (not inflationary) and has no native burn mechanism. https://mirror.xyz/horizenofficial.eth/wZY9WrXuAcwVW48gOlfnLEwvf6yz5uVE0BJFWCk6DEg
Post-migration to Base (July 2025) —
Reference: https://mirror.xyz/horizenofficial.eth/wZY9WrXuAcwVW48gOlfnLEwvf6yz5uVE0BJFWCk6DEg
If there are not post-TGE token compensation plans state explicitly they do not exist. If there are then state the:
No post-TGE token compensation plans exist for the employees of the Foundation or DevCo.
Disclose token-based compensation for external advisors and service providers (e.g., legal, marketing, technical, growth) funded from the on-chain treasury or token reserves held by the Foundation, Labs/DevCo, or similar entities. You do not need to disclose individual names, roles, salaries, or any advisors receiving fiat-only compensation. Provide:
Existence: The Foundation contracts the seven Special Council Members of the DAO, four
Moderators and one consultant who acts as a regional representative in China, they are paid in ZEN which is based on a fixed fiat value each month. Special Council members are paid $2,000.00 each a month and the regional representative is paid $1,625.00 a month. The Foundation contracts with Thrive for its Grant management programme. The agreement is for five years. It started in August 2025. Each year the Foundation pays Thrive 40,000 Zen for service fees.
Total token allocation: Contracts are paid in ZEN based on a fixed amount of USD each month. This is paid from the Foundation’s Treasury.
Payer entity: The Horizen Foundation
Description of advisory/services: Special Council - Review submitted ZenIP proposals prior to community vote and act in the interests of the Horizen Ecosystem. Moderators - Facilitate community discussion channels and governance forums, support proposal-discussion threads through the proposal lifecycle, and maintain adherence to community guidelines. Regional Representative Consultant - Promote the ZEN brand, communicate with the community and produce in-depth market feasibility studies.
Disclose ongoing KOL/influencer relationships that partially or fully received tokens for payment. Do not need to disclose KOL/influencers that do not receive tokens for payment. Use lettered sub-items:
Blockworks note: KOLs do not receive tokens and are not disclosed.
Publicly label all wallets that hold Unissued Tokens (e.g., foundation, operations, treasury, investor reserve), keep each category in distinct wallets (a unique address per category), and disclose who controls each wallet (DAO multisig, foundation, labs/devco, operations, or contract controller + admin). Include one verification link per wallet (docs or explorer). Definition: Unissued Supply = tokens authorized by the contract but not yet issued to any party; where they sit (treasury or mint authority) does not change that they are unissued. For instance: if a token has a total supply cap of 1B, and 400M tokens have been issued to investors, the team, and users (whether vested or unlocked), then those 400M count as issued supply. The remaining 600M are authorized but unissued supply, even if they are already minted into a DAO treasury wallet.
Title | Primary Function | Chain | Address | Control Mechanism | Explorer Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DAO Treasury Wallet | DAO treasury holdings | Base | 0x4eE5979612066AC58edd3bB1Fd9bd6E0A55edAf1 | 4 of 8 mutlisig | https://app.saf e.global/settin gs/setup?safe =base: 0x4eE5979612066AC58edd3bB1Fd9bd6E0A55ed Af1 |
Foundatio n Treasury Wallet | Foundation treasury holdings | Base | 0x57Ea5Db2f794f4FeA8cd4E3F3135B12ecE24bEa4 | 4 of 8 multisig | https://app.saf e.global/settin gs/setup?safe =base: 0x57Ea5Db2f794f4FeA8cd4E3F313 |
5B12ecE24bE a4 | |||||
Foundatio n Ops Wallet | Foundation operations | Base | 0x2dCe406A45e264c2D171Bc4f8b4F34207643839D | 2 of 3 multsig | https://app.saf e.global/settin gs/setup?safe =base: 0x2dCe406A45e264c2D171Bc4f8b4F3420764383 9D |
Blockworks note: Unissued |
Projects must disclose all material terms of market-making arrangements that affect token liquidity. If the project has no agreements or deals with market makers, state that explicitly; doing so earns full credit. For each market maker, include in a table:
If the project has no agreements or deals with market makers, state that explicitly; doing so earns full credit. If no native tokens were loaned or allocated to market makers, state that explicitly; cash/fiat retainers or fees are not required for this item.
Blockworks note: The Horizen Foundation has worked with Auros and Wintermute in the past; those engagements are not currently active. Currently active engagements:
Projects must disclose all material terms of centralized or decentralized exchange listings that affect token liquidity. For each listing, include in a table:
If the project has no agreements or deals with CEX or DEX, state that explicitly; doing so earns full credit. If no native-token listing fees were paid, state that explicitly; cash/fiat fee amounts are not required for this item.
Blockworks note: N.B. There could be other exchanges not included on this list however agreements would pre-date The Horizen Foundation.
If a category does not exist or is not applicable, make that clear in plain language (no specific wording required).
Disclose all prior token sales by the Project — including fundraising rounds, any material OTC sales to investors, and any discounted market-maker sales. For each sale, provide:
If no prior sales occurred, state that explicitly (e.g., "No prior fundraising, OTC, or discounted MM sales have occurred.")
Blockworks note: Horizen had a fair launch in 2017 with no team allocations, no founder allocations, no ICOs, and no private token sale. No prior fundraising, OTC, or discounted MM sales have occurred via the Project.
Provide a narrative description of the Project's material funding sources, economic flows, and operational provisioning, broken out by entity: Foundation, Lab/DevCo, and DAO. If an entity does not exist, state that explicitly. If an entity exists but does not pursue revenue-generating activity, state how it funds or provisions its operations.
The original filing references ZEN holder Token Holder Relations Reports and the post-migration emission schedule at https://mirror.xyz/horizenofficial.eth/wZY9WrXuAcwVW48gOlfnLEwvf6yz5uVE0BJFWCk6DEg. There are no public dashboards for the Treasury Foundation wallets: https://app.safe.global/settings/setup?safe=base:0x57Ea5Db2f794f4FeA8cd4E3F3135B12ecE24bEa4
https://app.safe.global/settings/setup?safe=eth:0x4eE5979612066AC58edd3bB1Fd9bd6E0A55edAf1
https://app.safe.global/settings/setup?safe=bnb:0x57Ea5Db2f794f4FeA8cd4E3F3135B12ecE24bEa4
DeBank: Portfolio of 0x57ea…bea4 | DeBank | Your go-to portfolio tracker for Ethereum and EVM
DAO Wallets: https://app.safe.global/settings/setup?safe=base:0x4eE5979612066AC58edd3bB1Fd9bd6E0A55edAf1
https://app.safe.global/settings/setup?safe=eth:0x4eE5979612066AC58edd3bB1Fd9bd6E0A55edAf1
DeBank: Portfolio of 0x4ee5…daf1 | DeBank | Your go-to portfolio tracker for Ethereum and EVM
If any, list prior exploits or incidents that directly affected the token, token supply, tokenholder balances, token contract, minting controls, burn mechanics, or custody of token supply. This question is not asking about general protocol, application, or smart contract exploits unless the incident directly affected the native token itself. If no prior incidents, state this explicitly (e.g., "No exploits affecting tokenholders or protocol funds as of YYYY-MM-DD").
No incident has affected the current ZEN ERC-20 token contract on Base as of 2026-05-22.
Prior to August 2018, Horizon was branded as ZenCash.
2018-06-02 (attack initiated; response began 2018-06-03) - legacy Horizen mainchain.
A 51% / double-spend attack. The attacker gained control of a majority of the network's hashrate and privately mined a longer chain, and broadcast it to reverse deposits that had already been credited to an exchange partner.
Three double-spend transactions of 3,317.4, 6,600, and 13,234.9 ZEN — approximately 23,000 ZEN in total. Worth around $550,000 at the time. No tokenholder balances, token supply, minting, or burn mechanics were affected, and custody of the broader token supply was unaffected.
Horizen developed and deployed a modification to Nakamoto/Satoshi Consensus introducing a quadratic penalty for delayed block submission, raising the cost of private-mining attacks (See section 3.1 https://downloads.horizen.io/file/web-assets/Horizen-White-Paper.pdf). Exchange partners were also asked to raise minimum confirmations as an interim measure.
Fully resolved. The legacy mainchain itself has now been discontinued — on 23 July 2025, Horizen migrated all ZEN balances from the legacy mainchain and the EON EVM chain to an ERC-20 smart contract on Base, and both old chains were discontinued.
Provide a single income statement, expense summary, or comparable operating statement for the primary Foundation or Developer Company. A consolidated or entity-level presentation is acceptable. Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows may be included but are not required. This item is intended to provide transparency into offchain operating resources and expenditures only.
Line Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Blockworks note: N/A |
This Token Transparency Filing is provided for general informational purposes only. Blockworks reviews completeness only and does not verify or warrant the accuracy of individual answers. Horizen is solely responsible for the content, accuracy, and legality of its disclosures.