--- title: "ZooBC network: a Proof-of-Participation blockchain" description: "How the ZooBC blockchain works: Proof-of-Participation consensus, nodes, gateways and a live testnet. Mainnet is not launched yet; every figure here is verifiable." url: https://zoobc.foundation/network/ language: en publisher: ZooBC Foundation retrieved: 2026-10-19 --- The network # An open blockchain, already running. ZooBC is a Proof-of-Participation blockchain with a live public testnet. Mainnet is not launched yet. Everything on this page can be re-checked in your terminal, from any machine, without an API key. Testnet live at zoobc.network Mainnet not launched Chain height [121,796](https://zoobc.network/explorer) updated 2026-10-19 05:41 UTC Registered nodes [13](https://zoobc.network/explorer#/nodes) updated 2026-10-19 05:41 UTC Gateways [1](https://zoobc.network/api/v1/registry/gateways) updated 2026-10-19 05:41 UTC Archival nodes [1](https://zoobc.network/api/v1/registry/archivals) updated 2026-10-19 05:41 UTC On-chain releases [26](https://zoobc.network/verify) updated 2026-10-19 05:39 UTC User-issued tokens [17](https://zoobc.network/api/v1/tokens) updated 2026-10-19 05:41 UTC Numbers refresh in your browser from the public API. Server-cached fallback shown when the live fetch fails, with the time of the last successful reading. ## Proof of Participation, in plain language Traditional blockchains lean on Proof of Work (spend electricity to earn the right to write a block) or Proof of Stake (lock capital to earn that right). ZooBC's consensus, Proof of Participation, is closer to the second than the first — but the metric that determines who writes the next block is behavioural rather than purely financial. Nodes accrue a *participation score* by staying online, serving requests correctly, and completing their assigned work over time; that score is what gets weighed when the network picks the next block producer, roughly every 15 seconds. The practical consequence: you do not have to be rich to matter to the network, but you do have to be reliable. A misbehaving or absent node loses participation score; a diligent small operator can outweigh a lazy large one. ## What ships with every release Every ZooBC release is a bundle of about **76 command-line tools**. The largest single one, `zbc-cli`, is 50 commands that all take JSON in and emit JSON out — the chain is designed to be operated by scripts and agents as a first-class use case, not as a browser afterthought. `zbc-account-gen` creates a key offline, no network needed. `zbc-send` pays a recipient in ZBC (or Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Ripple, Tron, and Tezos addresses on the same chain). Every published binary has its SHA-256 hash written to the chain by a release authority, so a downloader can verify a binary they got against consensus rather than against the website that served it. That mechanism is what the on-chain *release registry* is for — see [/verify](https://zoobc.network/verify) to drag a file in and check it. ## Made to be talked to by agents ZooBC's public API is 82 endpoints, no key, no authentication, CORS wide open — so a static page in any browser can query it, and any script anywhere can too. There's no "developer portal" gating access. The chain also ships on-chain primitives suited to agents transacting with each other: scheduled and vesting transfers, escrow with automatic timeouts that return funds, N-of-M multisig, per-account datasets. An agent can be given a spendable allowance with a ceiling enforced by consensus, and every action it takes leaves a permanent audit trail a human can inspect afterwards. There is a step-by-step walkthrough of exactly that, from a first testnet transaction to enforced ceilings and approval deadlines, at [ZooBC for AI Agents ↗](https://zoobc.com/ai-agents/). ## Accounts pay rent Storage is not free forever. Accounts pay for the space they occupy over time, so abandoned state does not accumulate at everyone else's expense. The rent is small; the point is not to extract, it is to keep the ledger useful decades from now. Try it yourself, without a browser Everything on this page is verifiable with curl. Copy any of these. Chain height ``` curl -s https://zoobc.network/api/v1/blockchain/status ``` Faucet (5 test coins) ``` curl -s -X POST https://zoobc.network/faucet/claim \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{"address":"ZBC_...","amount":5}' ``` Generate a key, offline ``` zbc-account-gen ``` [Full quickstart with a working example →](https://zoobc.foundation/build/) Working surfaces - [Block explorer](https://zoobc.network/explorer) — blocks, transactions, accounts, network map - [Web wallet](https://zoobc.network/wallet) — self-custody, one HTML file - [Faucet](https://zoobc.network/faucet/) — test coins, no signup - [Verify](https://zoobc.network/verify) — check a binary hash against consensus - [Public REST API](https://zoobc.network/api-docs) — 82 endpoints, CORS * - [agents.md](https://zoobc.network/agents.md) — the chain from an agent's POV - [llms.txt](https://zoobc.network/llms.txt) — discovery file for language models ## Read further, on zoobc.com Three longer pieces about what the chain is for. They live on the project site rather than here, and each is at a different stage — the label says which. Runnable on testnet ### [ZooBC for AI Agents ↗](https://zoobc.com/ai-agents/) Network-enforced spending ceilings, approval deadlines, multisig control and a permanent audit trail — worked through as a sequence you can run today against the testnet. Direction, after mainnet ### [Decentralized AI ↗](https://zoobc.com/decentralized-ai/) Independently operated AI specialists, assembly on the user's side, open settlement between them. This one is a stated direction for after mainnet, not something that exists. Working paper ### [ProxCell ↗](https://zoobc.com/proxcell/) Geo-federated mobile payments: local optimistic confirmation, geographic settlement layers, phones as nodes. A proposal by Roberto Capodieci — a paper, not a commitment. Mainnet timing Mainnet is not launched. When it is, this page will be updated with the mainnet base URL and the migration path from testnet participation. The Foundation will not print a date until one is anchored on the testnet by the network operators themselves. Source code The core node software will be open-sourced within six months of mainnet going live, or sooner if the community reaches a level of adoption that warrants earlier opening. Utilities and CLI tools are already scheduled to open before mainnet. In the meantime the on-chain release registry lets you verify that a binary you downloaded matches what was published by consensus. API stability The current API surface at `/api/v1` is stable for read operations. Write operations sign transactions locally — the chain never sees a private key. See [Build](https://zoobc.foundation/build/) for the exact byte layout of a send transaction and a runnable Python example that takes an account from empty to a confirmed transfer in ~200 lines of standard library. --- Source: https://zoobc.foundation/network/ All pages: https://zoobc.foundation/llms.txt Full text: https://zoobc.foundation/llms-full.txt