Why CardsRelay accepts Zano, and how to buy gift cards with it

Zano is a coin built for spending without an audience. That is exactly what a gift card checkout needs, so accepting it was an easy call. Here is what Zano does today, where it is heading, and how to spend it here.

Why we accept Zano

CardsRelay is one of the only gift card platforms that accepts Zano, and one of the only platforms that accepts Monero, Zano and Zcash together. We have been part of the Zano community since CardsRelay launched, and we follow its development closely.

The reason is simple. A gift card purchase is a private matter between you and the shop. You pay, we send a code, and nobody else needs the details. Zano is built for that kind of payment.

Private by default

Most blockchains publish every payment for anyone to read: who sent it, who received it and how much. Zano hides all three, on every standard transaction, and there is no setting to turn it off.

It does this with three pieces of cryptography:

• Ring signatures (d/v-CLSAG) sign your payment alongside 15 decoys, so an outsider sees a ring of 16 possible senders and cannot tell which one is you.
• Stealth addresses send each payment to a fresh one-time address, so your public address never shows up on the chain.
• Bulletproofs+ hide the amount, while still proving that no coins were created or destroyed.

Because privacy is not optional, no ZANO carries a visible history. Every coin is the same as every other, which is what you want from money.

That matters for shops as much as for you. A coin with a visible past can be flagged or refused because of where it has been, through no fault of the person spending it. With Zano, a payment is just a payment.

Zano also has a strong lineage. Its lead developer, Andrey Sabelnikov, wrote the original CryptoNote reference implementation, the codebase Monero grew from. The Zano network has been running since 2019.

Zarcanum: staking without showing your balance

Zano blocks alternate between Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake. To attack the network, someone would need most of the mining power and a large share of the staked coins at the same time. That makes an attack expensive.

The staking side is Zarcanum, live since the hard fork of 21 March 2024. It was the first Proof-of-Stake system with hidden amounts: you earn rewards without anyone seeing how much you hold. There are no validator nodes, no minimum stake and no lock-up period. You stake from the desktop wallet, and your staked blocks also count as votes on proposals at vote.zano.org.

Built to be spent

The day-to-day details are what make Zano practical:

• A flat fee of 0.01 ZANO per transaction, and every fee is burned. The block reward is a fixed 1 ZANO, so with enough use, more ZANO could be burned each day than is created.
• A new block about once a minute.
• Aliases, so friends can pay @yourname instead of a long address. Payments to an alias still go to stealth addresses.
• Official wallets for desktop and mobile, plus support in Cake Wallet, Edge and the Bitcoin.com wallet.
• Auditable wallets for organisations that want to prove their balance in public. Zano's own foundation fund uses one, and it does not affect anyone else's privacy.

More than one coin on one chain

Confidential Assets let anyone issue a token on Zano with the same protection as ZANO itself. The addresses and amounts are hidden, and so is which asset moved.

Freedom Dollar (fUSD) is one example: a dollar stablecoin with Zano's privacy built in. CardsRelay accepts fUSD at checkout too, so you can pay in ZANO or in dollars without leaving the Zano chain.

Ionic Swaps let two people trade Zano assets directly, in one transaction that both of them sign. Neither side can cheat, and no middleman holds the funds. They power Zano Trade, the Zano DEX, and the Swap button in the official wallets.

Where Zano is going

The direction is clear: keep the base layer private and build doors to the rest of crypto around it. Zano has set out its current priorities, and the Zano roadmap is being updated to match.

• Gateway addresses are account-style addresses for bridges, exchanges and payment services. Amounts going to or from a gateway address are public by design, but the other side of the payment stays hidden, and normal addresses keep full privacy. They will be released after a third-party audit, taking place in Q4 2026. They are the key to Zano's integration with THORChain, which would let people swap between ZANO and other chains' coins without a central exchange.
• ZEL, the Zano Execution Layer, is an EVM-compatible chain for smart contracts, lending and trading. It makes ZANO easier to reach, adds new uses for it, and brings programmability to Confidential Assets such as fUSD. It is public by design: funds moved there lose Zano's privacy until they come back. ZEL is on testnet now and also depends on gateway addresses.
• Zenith moves Zano to full Proof-of-Stake with hidden amounts. Zano expects blocks every 15 to 20 seconds, with received coins spendable after 4 to 6 confirmations and fully confirmed in 60 to 90 seconds.
• Zano Quest is a platform where people can publish content, complete on-chain tasks and bring in new users, and earn ZANO for it.
• Around the chain, ZanoNames is about to launch a market for trading Zano aliases, and Freedom Dollar keeps adding to services such as FreedomSwap and FreedomWallet.

Each of these makes ZANO easier to get and easier to spend. That is good for people who hold it, and good for the shops that accept it. Faster blocks under Zenith would also mean faster checkouts for anyone paying in ZANO.

How to buy gift cards with Zano

1. Choose a card from the gift card catalogue.
2. Enter your email. The code goes there.
3. Pay in ZANO. Send the exact amount shown. The minimum order is 0.5 ZANO, and the rate is locked while the checkout timer runs.
4. Get your code by email once the payment confirms, and redeem it on the brand's site or app.

What to buy with ZANO

Every card in the catalogue takes Zano. Three good places to start:

• Amazon, USD 5 to 1,000 or GBP 1 to 1,500, in 20 countries.
• Steam, USD 5 to 200 or EUR 5 to 100. Match your Steam wallet's region.
• Airalo eSIM Global, USD 5 to 50, for mobile data anywhere you travel.

For a month of spending, see surviving on only Zano in the USA.

Things to know before you buy

• Region: each card works only in its own country or region.
• Minimum order: 0.5 ZANO, so choose a card worth at least that much.
• Single use, no refunds: match the amount to what you plan to spend. Codes cannot be refunded once revealed.
• Validity: some brands set an expiry date, shown on the brand page.
• Just an email: CardsRelay asks only for an email address. Some stores may ask for ID when you spend a card in person.

FAQ

Can I buy gift cards with Zano on CardsRelay?

Yes. All 4,400+ gift cards from 1,500+ brands can be paid for in ZANO.

Is every Zano transaction private?

Yes. Ring signatures, stealth addresses and Bulletproofs+ hide the sender, the receiver and the amount of every standard transaction, and you cannot turn it off. Opt-in auditable wallets, and gateway addresses once they are released, are the exceptions, and they show only their own side.

What is Zarcanum?

Zarcanum is Zano's Proof-of-Stake system, live since March 2024. You earn staking rewards without revealing your balance, with no minimum amount and no lock-up.

Can I pay with Freedom Dollar (fUSD)?

Yes. fUSD is a dollar stablecoin issued on Zano as a Confidential Asset, and CardsRelay accepts it at checkout alongside ZANO.

What is next for Zano?

Gateway addresses will be released after a third-party audit in Q4 2026, which unblocks the THORChain integration and the Zano Execution Layer. After that comes Zenith: full Proof-of-Stake with blocks every 15 to 20 seconds.

What do I need to buy a card?

An email address and a Zano wallet. CardsRelay asks only for an email address. Some stores may ask for ID when you spend a card in person.

Spend your ZANO

Pick a card, send ZANO and check your inbox. Browse the gift card catalogue, or read how CardsRelay works.