About ZeroFi

ZeroFi is a bridge between Monero and Ethereum run by a network of bonded nodes rather than by a company. The network holds deposited XMR in threshold custody, and for every deposit it mints zXMR, an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, to the address the depositor named. Burning zXMR pays the same amount of XMR back to a Monero address of the holder's choice. No custodian, administrative key, relayer or pause switch exists anywhere in the system: the four contracts on Ethereum have no owner and no upgrade path, and no machine ever holds a cluster's key.

To the ZeroFi team's knowledge, it is the first publicly joinable network that holds Monero in threshold custody under an open, bonded and rotating set of operators and issues a wrapped asset on an EVM chain with no custodian or administrative key. The explorer shows the network's state block by block.

How does the bridge work?

Every node runs the same software beside its own Monero daemon, and every shared fact is decided on the network's own ledger, a chain certified block by block by a committee drawn from the bonded nodes. The nodes that hold custody are grouped into clusters of 20 to 50. A cluster's Monero wallet key exists only as shares spread over its members, and a transaction is signed only when a threshold of them agree. A faulty minority can neither spend alone nor block the rest.

When operators join or leave, the cluster passes the same keys to the new roster instead of moving the funds, so a deposit address stays valid through every change of membership. Every wallet can be audited from its public view key, and every answer a node gives about the ledger carries the newest committed block with its certificate.

What is zXMR?

zXMR is the wrapped form of Monero on Ethereum. It is minted in exactly one way: against a deposit that the custody has received and credited, signed by the cluster that holds it. The supply of zXMR can never exceed the XMR in custody minus the XMR paid out, and only a burn reduces it. It has twelve decimals, the same as Monero's own unit, and moves like any other ERC-20 token.

How do I wrap XMR?

1. Sign a deposit request with your Ethereum wallet, naming the address that should receive the zXMR. The request costs no gas.
2. The network assigns a cluster and gives you a fresh Monero subaddress. You can derive the same address yourself from the cluster's public keys and check that it is genuine.
3. Send XMR to that address. The address stays valid for 24 hours; a late or partial payment inside that window is credited as it arrived.
4. After ten Monero confirmations the nodes report your payment and the ledger credits it. Credits close into a signed batch every few minutes.
5. Claim on Ethereum with your own gas. The claim mints the deposit, less the bridge fee, to the recipient you named.

From the mining of your payment to its credit takes about twenty minutes, and the claim can follow at the next batch.

How do I unwrap zXMR?

Burn zXMR on Ethereum, naming a Monero address: a standard address, a subaddress or an integrated address on Monero mainnet. Once the burn is final on Ethereum, the ledger assigns it to a cluster, the cluster's members sign a payout to your address, and members that see it confirmed record its transaction id. Every burn is paid exactly once. A large burn may be paid in several pieces from several clusters, or may wait for balance; the bridge promises no delivery time, and the explorer shows each step as it happens.

What does it cost?

The bridge fee is 1% at mint and 1% at burn, taken at source. All of it goes to the nodes and their delegators; the ZeroFi team keeps none of it. You pay Ethereum gas for your claim and for your burn, and nothing else to the bridge. A payout carries its share of Monero's own network fee. The minimum deposit, burn and payout piece is 0.01 XMR; amounts below it are not credited.

How long does it take?

A deposit is credited about twenty minutes after its payment is mined (ten Monero confirmations), and the claim can follow at the next batch, which closes every five minutes. A burn enters the ledger once Ethereum has finalized it, thirteen to nineteen minutes after the transaction; the payout then takes one Monero transaction and ten confirmations to be recorded as paid. Nothing in the bridge waits for a person.

Who runs the nodes?

Anyone. A node is one binary on an ordinary server, installed with one command, and it joins the network by posting a bond of ZFI, the network's staking token, in the staking contract. Every node posts the same bond and is equal to every other: there are no special nodes, no hardware security modules and no gas paid by nodes. A node that signs something false can be slashed by anyone who submits the proof. Holders of ZFI who do not run a node can delegate to a listed node and receive a share of its fee income; a delegation buys income only, never a vote or a seat.

What is ZFI?

ZFI is the staking and reward token of the network, with a fixed supply minted once. Operators lock it as their bond, delegators earn a share of the bridge fees with it, and a scheduled emission pays stake weight from a reward pool while the pool lasts. The emission that accrues to delegated weight is destroyed at the delegator's claim and its yield is paid in zXMR, so delegation reduces the supply of ZFI over time. The ZFI token sale is a separate matter from the bridge and is described on its own page.

What can I verify myself?

Everything the bridge does leaves a public record. Every node answers with the newest committed block and its certificate, so two nodes can be checked against each other. Every custody wallet can be audited on Monero from its public view key. The contracts on Ethereum are plain, immutable and verifiable from their source. The explorer at explorer.zerofi.io reads all of it from the nodes and shows, for every figure, which node it came from and at which height. The whitepaper describes every rule an outsider can check and is published with the node software.

What happens when something fails?

The network is built to keep running with nobody on call. A node restarts from its own durable state and rejoins by verifying the ledger's certificates; a node that stays away is replaced in its seat and its cluster by the rules, and a key ceremony passes the cluster's keys to the new roster without moving the funds. A payout that does not reach the Monero chain is replaced, and at most one version of it can ever be mined, so a burn is paid once whatever happens to the node that built the first attempt. The one state in which custody waits is a cluster with fewer live share holders than its signing threshold; its funds wait, untouched, until enough members return.