Privacy-centric blockchain Zano has brought its network back online, rolling back to block 3,833,000 following an exploit of the Gateway Address feature that injected unauthorized ZANO and Freedom Dollar (fUSD) tokens into the supply. This rollback reverts the blockchain to the exact state right before the August 26 activation of Hard Fork 6, which initially rolled out Gateway Addresses.
Consequently, approximately one month of network history has been wiped from the restored chain, erasing both the malicious transactions and any legitimate user activity that took place during that timeframe.
Zano reported that its probe uncovered no evidence that wallet spending keys were compromised or that the confidentiality of standard transactions was breached. Furthermore, the team emphasized that the network’s underlying consensus mechanism remained secure.
Gateway Address Vulnerability Triggered the Crisis
Hard Fork 6 brought in Gateway Addresses to streamline integrations for platforms like exchanges and bridges. The functionality aimed to provide service operators with account-style balances while preserving Zano’s privacy features.
Nevertheless, a flaw in how these addresses handled asset issuance allowed bad actors to flood circulation with illicit ZANO and fUSD, forcing the emergency rollback.
A complete technical post-mortem has not yet been released by the project. Zano stated that an in-depth breakdown of the bug and the results of a comprehensive code audit surrounding Gateway Addresses will be shared later.
Exchanges and Network Operators Must Update
Because this recovery goes beyond a routine software update handled solely by the core team, network participants—including nodes, miners, stakers, mining pools, and exchanges—must manually deploy the emergency software update and transition over to the restarted chain.
Additionally, Zano cautioned users to verify that third-party wallets, payment processors, and exchanges have fully completed their migrations before attempting any transfers. Because transactions validated during the rollback window do not exist on the new chain, individuals are urged to hold onto their transaction IDs and trading logs, as well as double-check previous transfers before initiating new payments.
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Reimbursement Process Still Being Prepared
The rollback presents significant hurdles for everyday users and commercial partners whose valid transactions fell within the impacted month. Zano announced it is actively collaborating with impacted partner projects and counterparties to evaluate damages.
A formal claims and reimbursement framework is currently in development. The organization noted that the recovery plan will purge illegitimate activity without minting brand-new ZANO tokens. Meanwhile, Zano has started bringing its own infrastructure back online one service at a time as network validators adopt the update.
The project confirmed that Gateway Addresses will undergo strict scrutiny prior to any future reactivation. The upcoming technical disclosures and criteria for safely bringing the feature back are anticipated to shed light on the subsequent phases of the remediation effort.
