Zama x korea AMA

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ETH_APPLE🇰🇷
@eth_appleJan 13, 2026

The Spaces featured Rand, CEO at Zama, explaining how Zama brings on-chain privacy to public blockchains via Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). Zama acts as a confidentiality layer so users can shield existing assets (e.g., USDT) and perform transfers, swaps, and staking with encrypted balances and transaction data, without changing blockchain semantics. Rand contrasted FHE with ZK, MPC, and TEEs, emphasizing FHE’s security (even against quantum), verifiability, and composability. Compliance is programmable: smart contract developers define who can decrypt under what conditions (e.g., a stablecoin issuer), enabling institutional-grade use while preserving user privacy. Zama is live on Ethereum mainnet and designed cross-chain, with EVM support coming and Solana planned in 2026. The confidential token standard is ERC‑7984; br0n.org supports it, and a Zama portfolio app will help users while mainstream wallets integrate. The upcoming sealed-bid Dutch auction encrypts bids using Zama; participants shield USDT, bid, and receive refunds above the clearing price. Rand highlighted ecosystem growth via acquisitions and urged tracking “Total Value Shielded” (TVS) as the key adoption metric, closing with appreciation for the Korean community.

Zama AMA: FHE-powered on-chain privacy and sealed-bid Dutch auction

Participants

  • Rand (CEO at Zama; based in Paris). Veteran developer and AI PhD; co-founded Zama in 2020 with Pascal Payee, associated with foundational work in homomorphic encryption.
  • Yuanxin (host; Korean-space moderator).

What Zama is and the origin of its name

  • Zama is positioned as a confidentiality layer for public blockchains (currently on Ethereum, designed to be cross-chain). It enables users to "shield" existing assets (e.g., USDT/USDC) into confidential tokens so that balances and operations (transfers, swaps, staking) are encrypted while remaining on-chain.
  • Technology basis: Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), developed by Zama over the past six years.
  • Name origin: Zama comes from the historic Battle of Zama between Rome and Carthage—a decisive turning point. Rand frames FHE and Zama similarly as a turning point for on-chain and off-chain privacy, moving the industry toward an encrypted-by-default future.

Technology positioning: FHE vs ZK, MPC, and TEEs

  • Rand’s viewpoint:
    • FHE is secure, verifiable, and composable, and—importantly—secure against quantum adversaries. Data encrypted today using FHE should remain safe even against future quantum computers.
    • TEEs (Trusted Execution Environments): Rand asserts these have been thoroughly compromised to the point that Intel advises against using TEEs for blockchain contexts.
    • MPC (Multi-Party Computation): useful (Zama uses MPC for key management) but challenging for verifiable state computation on-chain.
    • ZK proofs: excellent for proving correctness without revealing underlying data, but typically limited in composability for full token lifecycle privacy (e.g., he points to shielded tokens like Zcash that allow private transfers but not private swaps/staking). FHE preserves composability—confidential tokens can be used across transfers, swaps, staking, mirroring standard ERC token behavior, just privately.
  • Core claim: FHE adds privacy on top of existing chains without changing how blockchains work, enabling familiar workflows to remain intact.

Demonstrated use cases and practical impacts

  • Demo highlight: Shield USDT to confidential USDT, then perform a $2 transfer privately—all on Ethereum mainnet. The transaction remains a standard Ethereum transaction; what changes is that balances and amounts are encrypted.
  • Practical benefits:
    • Trading: Large traders can maintain private positions and avoid information leakage.
    • Payroll: On-chain salary payments can be private, protecting employee compensation data.
    • Investing: Movements to exchanges and portfolio rebalancing won’t trigger public scrutiny linked to identifiable wallets.

Access control and compliance design in an FHE environment

  • Rand emphasizes that professional, global finance use cases (~$200T industry) require compliance features. Zama’s protocol is designed so the smart contract developer can program access control: who can decrypt, when, and under what conditions.
  • Example: A stablecoin issuer enabling confidential payments could permit itself to decrypt its users’ transactions for compliance (akin to a bank: you and your bank see your account, your neighbor does not). This allows on-chain finance to reuse off-chain compliance tools while maintaining end-user privacy.
  • Guiding principle: Programmable compliance tailored to the application’s needs.

Cross-chain scope and timeline

  • Architecture: Zama’s protocol is cross-chain by design.
  • Deployment plan:
    • Live: Ethereum mainnet.
    • Near-term: Additional EVM-compatible chains in the coming months.
    • Longer-term: Solana planned for 2026.

Wallet support and standards

  • Confidential token standard: ERC-7984, developed with OpenZeppelin.
  • Current wallet UX:
    • Native display support for confidential tokens is limited (e.g., MetaMask, Phantom, OKX Wallet do not yet show confidential balances). Users can still own and sign with these wallets.
    • Interim solution: Use portfolio apps (including one Zama plans to publish) to manage confidential balances while signing with your preferred wallet.
    • BR0N (br0n.org) wallet has native integration for confidential tokens and supports shielding and confidential transfers.
  • Strategic goal: Broad wallet integration by 2026, driven by user adoption (“shielding first” to motivate wallet teams to add native support).

Auction: sealed-bid Dutch auction for Zama token

  • Mechanism: Sealed-bid Dutch auction with bids encrypted using Zama’s tech. Participants shield USDT into confidential USDT, place encrypted bids, and the auction clears from highest to lowest price.
  • Clearing price and refunds:
    • Bids are filled descending from highest to lowest price; the lowest price at which someone is filled becomes the clearing price.
    • If you bid above the clearing price, you receive your tokens plus a refund of the excess over the clearing price.
    • If you bid below the clearing price, you receive a full refund.
  • Supply: 8% of total supply is sold via the auction; there’s no per-bid limit to preserve genuine price discovery.
  • Strategy tip from Rand: Place multiple bids at different prices to improve the chance of partial fills.
  • Participation:
    • Site: auction.zama.org. Users can register, shield, and bid directly.
    • Wallets: Any wallet can be used to sign transactions; the auction flow has been made simple.

Readiness, ecosystem, and adoption plans

  • Status: FHE features are already live on Ethereum mainnet—users can shield and transfer confidential tokens today.
  • Emerging products:
    • Example: RayCashed.xyz—an on-chain banking experience using confidential stablecoins (user-owned funds with privacy; non-ruggable by design).
  • Growth strategy:
    • Zama plans to aggressively acquire startups over the next two years that have strong products which become more compelling with FHE embedded (fintech apps, Web3 dApps, games, etc.), then relaunch them on the Zama protocol to bootstrap a robust app ecosystem.
  • Funding: Zama has raised significant capital (e.g., from Multicoin, Pantera), supporting protocol development and ecosystem growth.

Adoption metric: Total Value Shielded (TVS)

  • Definition: TVS measures the dollar value of assets that have been converted into confidential tokens using Zama.
  • Importance: Rand identifies TVS as the key metric to track the growth and pace of privacy adoption on-chain.

Conceptual analogy for clarity

  • Rand’s analogy: Zama is to blockchain transactions what HTTPS is to web traffic—your data stays encrypted end-to-end while you continue using familiar interfaces and infrastructure.

Community notes and closing

  • Community: Zama has longstanding engagement with the Korean crypto community and offered OG NFT rewards for participants of this AMA. Rand praised Korea’s crypto ecosystem for sophistication and quality.
  • Outlook: Rand intends to visit Seoul in 2026 and welcomes community involvement to make Zama successful.

Key takeaways and highlights

  • Zama delivers private, fully composable on-chain asset operations via FHE without altering core blockchain mechanics.
  • Programmable access control enables compliance-friendly privacy for institutional and consumer finance scenarios.
  • Live today on Ethereum; cross-chain expansion is planned (EVM next, Solana in 2026).
  • ERC-7984 defines confidential tokens; broader wallet support is targeted for 2026, with BR0N already integrated and portfolio apps available.
  • Zama’s sealed-bid Dutch auction uses Zama’s own privacy tech; mechanics prioritize fair price discovery and confidentiality of bids.
  • Adoption efforts include real-world apps and strategic acquisitions; track growth via Total Value Shielded (TVS).