> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.zer0.build/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.zer0.build/token-economics/tokenomics.md).

# Tokenomics Overview

$zer0 is the native utility token powering the zer0 browser economy. With a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens, $zer0 enables privacy-preserving browsing rewards, Zer0 Node operations, and agent marketplace transactions—all while implementing deflationary mechanics to drive long-term value.

***

## 📊 Token Fundamentals

| Parameter               | Value                                                     |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Token Name**          | zer0                                                      |
| **Symbol**              | $zer0                                                     |
| **Total Supply**        | 1,000,000,000 (fixed, hard cap)                           |
| **Blockchain**          | Solana                                                    |
| **Contract Address**    | `Cf9hZDWdJsQPrt9q8yrTcyc9PSDmQUyXktHz6rFu8amJ`            |
| **DEX**                 | Meteora                                                   |
| **Consensus**           | Proof of Stake (zk-shielded)                              |
| **Minimum Stake**       | 5,000 $zer0 (Virtual Node) / 10,000 $zer0 (Physical Node) |
| **Transaction Privacy** | zk-SNARKs (Sapling pools)                                 |
| **Block Time**          | \~2.5 minutes                                             |
| **Finality**            | \~10 minutes                                              |

***

## 🎯 Token Utility

### 1. Browsing Rewards Currency

**Users earn $zer0 for private browsing:**

* 0.13 $zer0 per minute of active tab time
* Distributed from advertiser pool
* 2x multiplier with privacy-preserving ads enabled

### 2. Network Access & Staking (Zer0 Nodes)

**Required for running Zer0 Nodes:**

* Virtual Mixnode: 5,000 $zer0 minimum stake
* Physical Node: 10,000 $zer0 minimum stake
* Earn 15-22% base APY + compute fees + guild boosts
* Lock periods: 6 or 12 months (higher APY for longer locks)
* Node License NFT minted upon activation (transferable after 3-month cliff)

### 3. Agent Marketplace

**Currency for AI agent rentals:**

* Rent specialized agents: 3-50 $zer0/day
* Creators earn 70% of rentals
* 20% burned (deflationary)
* 10% to zer0 DAO treasury

### 4. Governance

**DAO voting rights:**

* 1 staked $zer0 = 1 vote
* Longer stake duration = vote multiplier (up to 4x)
* Proposal creation requires 10,000 $zer0 stake

### 5. Cross-Chain Operations

**Bridge currency for multi-chain DeFi:**

* Bridges to Ethereum, Cosmos
* 5% fee on shielded swaps (2% burned, 3% to stakers)
* Required for zk-shielded DeFi operations

### 6. Premium Features

**Access to zer0 Pro and enterprise tools:**

* zer0 Pro: 100 $zer0/month
* Priority support: 10 $zer0/month
* Custom agent training: 500-5,000 $zer0
* Hardware wallet integration: 50 $zer0 one-time

***

## 📈 Token Distribution

| Allocation            | % of Supply | Tokens      | Vesting        | Purpose                                      |
| --------------------- | ----------- | ----------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Community Rewards** | 50%         | 500,000,000 | Linear 4 years | Browse-to-earn, referrals, airdrops          |
| **Ecosystem Fund**    | 25%         | 250,000,000 | 2-year cliff   | Agent dev grants, dApp incentives, liquidity |
| **Team & Advisors**   | 15%         | 150,000,000 | 3-year linear  | Core team, advisors (locked from TGE)        |
| **Treasury**          | 10%         | 100,000,000 | Gov-controlled | Buybacks, liquidity, strategic reserves      |

### Detailed Breakdown

#### Community Rewards (50%)

**Browse-to-Earn Pool:** 40% (400,000,000 $zer0)

* Year 1: 25% of pool (100,000,000 $zer0)
* Year 2: 20% of pool (80,000,000 $zer0)
* Year 3: 15% of pool (60,000,000 $zer0)
* Year 4: 10% of pool (40,000,000 $zer0)
* Years 5-10: Remaining 30% (120,000,000 $zer0)

**Airdrops & Incentives:** 10% (100,000,000 $zer0)

* Beta testers: 25,000,000 $zer0
* Referral bonuses: 38,000,000 $zer0
* Community contests: 19,000,000 $zer0
* Strategic partners: 18,000,000 $zer0

#### Ecosystem Fund (25%)

**Agent Developer Grants:** 40% (100,000,000 $zer0)

* Support agent creators
* Bug bounties and audits
* Education and documentation

**dApp Incentives:** 30% (75,000,000 $zer0)

* Privacy-preserving dApps
* Integration partnerships
* Developer evangelism

**Liquidity Provision:** 30% (75,000,000 $zer0)

* DEX liquidity pairs
* Market making
* CEX listings

***

## 🔥 Deflationary Mechanisms

### Burn Sources

| Mechanism             | Burn Rate       | Annual Burn (1M Users) |
| --------------------- | --------------- | ---------------------- |
| **Agent Marketplace** | 20% of fees     | 35,000,000 $zer0       |
| **Cross-Chain Exits** | 2% of volume    | 19,000,000 $zer0       |
| **Premium Features**  | 30-100% of fees | 7,000,000 $zer0        |
| **Treasury Buybacks** | Variable        | 57,000,000 $zer0       |
| **Total Annual Burn** | -               | **118,000,000 $zer0**  |

### Burn Impact Over Time

| Year     | Emissions   | Burns        | Net Supply Change | Circulating Supply |
| -------- | ----------- | ------------ | ----------------- | ------------------ |
| **2025** | 100,000,000 | -24,000,000  | +76,000,000       | 362,000,000        |
| **2026** | 80,000,000  | -95,000,000  | -15,000,000       | 347,000,000        |
| **2027** | 60,000,000  | -133,000,000 | -73,000,000       | 274,000,000        |
| **2028** | 40,000,000  | -152,000,000 | -112,000,000      | 162,000,000        |
| **2030** | 24,000,000  | -167,000,000 | -143,000,000      | 71,000,000         |

**Result:** Token becomes increasingly scarce while utility grows

***

## 💎 Tokenomics at Scale

### Scenario: 1 Million DAU (Conservative)

**Daily Metrics:**

* **User Earnings:** 15.6 $zer0/user × 1M = 15.6M $zer0/day
* **Ad Revenue:** $2M/day (@ $50 CPM, 40M ad impressions)
* **Treasury Buyback:** $800K/day (40% of ad revenue)
* **Daily Burns:** 50,000 $zer0 (from all sources)

**Monthly Metrics:**

* **Total Earned by Users:** 468M $zer0
* **Total Burned:** 1.5M $zer0
* **Net Inflation:** 466.5M $zer0
* **Buyback Support:** $24M/month

**Price Implications:**

* **Minimum Price Floor:** $24M buyback ÷ 466.5M earned = **$0.051/token**
* **With Staking (80% locked):** Only 93.3M liquid = **$0.26/token floor**
* **With Speculative Premium:** Likely **$0.01-0.02/token**

### Scenario: 5 Million DAU (Optimistic)

**Daily Metrics:**

* **User Earnings:** 78M $zer0/day
* **Ad Revenue:** $12M/day (network effects, higher CPM)
* **Treasury Buyback:** $4.8M/day
* **Daily Burns:** 15,000,000 $zer0

**Monthly Metrics:**

* **Total Earned by Users:** 2.34B $zer0
* **Total Burned:** 450M $zer0
* **Net Inflation:** 1.89B $zer0
* **Buyback Support:** $144M/month

**Price Implications:**

* **Minimum Price Floor:** $144M ÷ 1.89B = **$0.076/token**
* **With Staking (80% locked):** Only 378M liquid = **$0.38/token floor**
* **With Speculative Premium:** Likely **$0.02-0.05/token**

***

## 📊 Valuation Models

### Price Discovery Mechanisms

**1. Treasury Buyback Floor**

```
Price Floor = (Monthly Ad Revenue × 40%) ÷ (Monthly Emissions × 20% Liquid)
```

**2. Staking Demand**

```
With 15% APY target, price rises until APY normalizes:
If supply earning 15% = demand to stake
```

**3. Network Value**

```
FDV = (Annual Ad Revenue × P/S Multiple) 
Conservative P/S = 5-10x (vs Brave/Arweave)
```

### Comparable Analysis

| Project              | FDV    | P/S Ratio | MAU  | Token Utility    |
| -------------------- | ------ | --------- | ---- | ---------------- |
| **Brave (BAT)**      | $420M  | 8.5x      | 101M | Basic rewards    |
| **Arweave (AR)**     | $1.2B  | 4.2x      | N/A  | Storage payments |
| **Helium (HNT)**     | $1.8B  | 3.8x      | 600K | Network rewards  |
| **zer0 (Projected)** | $5-10B | 5-10x     | 5M   | Full economy     |

**Why higher valuation?**

* ✅ More utility (agents, staking, governance)
* ✅ Deflationary vs inflationary
* ✅ Higher revenue per user ($200+ vs $5 for Brave)
* ✅ Premium audience (crypto-native)

***

## 🎯 Token Launch Strategy

### Phase 1: TGE (Token Generation Event)

**Launch Details:**

* **Date:** Q1 2026
* **Initial Circulating Supply:** 286,000,000 $zer0 (28.6% of total)
* **Initial Price:** $0.002-0.004 (seed/private rounds)
* **Public Price:** $0.005-0.007 (IDO)

**Initial Liquidity:**

* $2M DEX liquidity ($1M from treasury + $1M from LPs)
* Listed on Meteora, Raydium
* Liquidity locked for 2 years

### Phase 2: CEX Listings (Q2 2026)

**Target Exchanges:**

* Tier 2: OKX, Bybit, Gate.io (Q2 2026)
* Tier 1: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken (Q3 2026)

**Listing Requirements:**

* $10M+ daily volume for 30 days
* 100,000+ token holders
* Clean audit reports

### Phase 3: Mainstream Adoption (2027+)

**Growth Milestones:**

* 1M MAU → Coinbase listing
* 5M MAU → Top 50 token by FDV
* 10M MAU → Top 20 token by FDV

***

## 🔒 Security & Audits

### Smart Contract Audits

**Completed:**

* ✅ Trail of Bits (Q1 2026) - Token contract, staking
* ✅ Least Authority (Q1 2026) - zk-circuits

**Ongoing:**

* 🔄 Bug bounty: $500,000 pool on HackerOne
* 🔄 Quarterly audits as features added

### Decentralization

**Progressive Decentralization:**

* **Year 1:** Core team-controlled (security)
* **Year 2:** DAO proposals (community input)
* **Year 3:** Full DAO (on-chain execution)

***

## 📚 Learn More

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Earning Mechanisms</strong></td><td>All the ways to earn $zer0</td><td><a href="/pages/rKtFh6rPvH4xVwqiGuHg">/pages/rKtFh6rPvH4xVwqiGuHg</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Staking Guide</strong></td><td>How to stake and run mixnodes</td><td><a href="/pages/kn9DnwG5SbEQp4Hf7Snh">/pages/kn9DnwG5SbEQp4Hf7Snh</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Burn Mechanisms</strong></td><td>How token burns drive scarcity</td><td><a href="/pages/Og7ZaJhl82XZJYV4GTcH">/pages/Og7ZaJhl82XZJYV4GTcH</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

***

{% hint style="info" %}
**$zer0 is a utility token, not a security.** It's used solely for network access, governance, and services within the zer0 ecosystem. See our [Risk Disclosure](https://github.com/Onesignature/Zer0-gitbook/blob/main/legal/risks.md) for full details.
{% endhint %}


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