It's under your key
Most Zcash collectibles today are entries a marketplace keeps. A zote is a note on the chain that only your key can spend. No company holds the list.
zote /zōt/
noun
A collectible that lives on Zcash as a shielded note, in a vault only your key controls. You prove you own it by answering a challenge, not by pointing at someone's records.
Anyone you show it to can check it
Hand someone a proof and they can confirm your zote is genuine, traces back to the sealed collection, and is still yours. Fakes and old owners fail.
Nobody can watch it
On the chain, a sale looks like any other shielded transaction. Who owns what, who bought and who sold stay private.
Lagos Lights
Three zotes, minted and sealed on mainnet. Run the real check: it asks two independent Zcash servers and refuses if they disagree.
Tobi sells Lagos Lights #2 to Kemi
One shielded transaction moved the zote to Kemi and the ZEC to Tobi. Neither could cheat the other. Every step below is a real mainnet transaction.
Same transaction, two views
The sale to Kemi is public on Zcash, yet it gives nothing away. What it proves depends on whether Kemi chooses to show you.
What anyone watching sees
- Transaction
- c08b51ee…cdda0
- Block
- 3,531,732
- Pool
- Shielded
- Sender
- hidden
- Recipients
- hidden
- Amounts
- hidden
- What moved
- hidden
What Kemi can prove to you
- Zote
- Lagos Lights #2
- Genuine
- Traces to the sealed mint
- Owner now
- Held by whoever answers
- Previous owner
- Proof no longer works
- Her wallet
- still hidden
- Her other zotes
- still hidden
Ask Kemi to prove it
You get a fresh code. Kemi's vault answers it with a signature only the owner of zote #2 can make. Nobody learns her address or anything else she holds.
Your challenge code and Kemi's answer will appear here.
Try to cheat
Each button sends a dishonest claim to the real checker, running against Zcash mainnet. None of them should get through.
Tobi says he still owns #2
He presents the proof that worked before he sold it.
Someone forges Kemi's answer
Her real proof, with one byte of the signature changed.
A stranger claims #2
A proof for zote #2, signed with a key that never owned it.
Also tested and rejected, on a test chain: selling the same zote twice, minting a fourth zote after the seal, and a fake successor note. See the recorded results.
What stays private, and what's real
Privacy is the point, so here is exactly who learns what.
| Who | Learns | Never learns |
|---|---|---|
| Anyone watching the chain | That shielded transactions happened | Who holds a zote, who bought, who sold, the price |
| A verifier | That a zote is genuine and still held | The holder's wallet, balance or other zotes |
| The seller | The buyer's one-time vault for this zote | The buyer's funding wallet and history |
| The buyer | This zote's hop count and dates | Earlier owners' identities or wallets |
| The light-wallet servers | Request timing and IP address | Keys, owners, amounts |
- Live on mainnet: the sealed collection, the transfer to Tobi, the sale to Kemi, and the checks on this page.
- Recorded on a test chain: the attack tests (double spend, forged zote, minting after the seal), all rejected.
- Seeded by us: the collection and its owners. This is a working demo, not user traction.
- Superseded: an earlier collection whose seal had a bug, fixed and replaced by Lagos Lights.