Zcash and shielded trades are live on Hokori

Hokori now runs a second launchpad, paired with Zcash: coins launched on it are bought and sold with ZEC on Starknet. And every Hokori coin, on either launchpad, can now be traded from a shielded balance in Starknet’s STRK20 privacy pool, so your wallet isn’t named as the trader. This piece explains how ZEC reaches Hokori, what happens inside a shielded trade, and exactly what stays public.

The ZEC launchpad

Coins on the ZEC launchpad trade against ZEC instead of STRK. A buy pays ZEC, a sell pays out ZEC, and the coin’s page shows its figures in ZEC, and in dollars when ZEC’s price is known, with a badge saying which currency it’s paired with. To launch one, choose ZEC in the launch form.

Everything else works as on every Hokori coin:

• The curve and graduation. A coin starts on its own bonding curve. When the curve has raised 4 ZEC, the buy that takes its last tokens graduates the coin into an Ekubo pool, with its liquidity held by a contract that has no way to withdraw it.
• Fees. Every trade, on the curve and in the pool, pays 0.9%, and 85% of it goes to the coin’s fee recipients. On a ZEC coin they are paid in ZEC on Starknet, and claim it from the coin’s page.
• Network fees. These are paid in STRK, as on all of Starknet, so keep a little STRK beside your ZEC.

How ZEC reaches Hokori

ZEC on Starknet is Zcash’s coin brought over by NEAR Intents’ Omni bridge, as a Starknet token with ZEC’s own 8 decimals; Hokori quotes and settles every amount in those units. There are two ways to get it: bridge ZEC from Zcash through NEAR Intents, or swap STRK or USDC for it on Ekubo or AVNU. Once it is in your Starknet account, a ZEC coin trades like any other: on its curve first, then in its pool.

Shielded trades

A shielded trade spends from your private balance, and what you get back lands there too. Only shielding in and unshielding out touch public balances. It works on every Hokori coin, on both launchpads:

1. Shield. In your wallet, move STRK, ZEC or a coin from your account into Starknet’s privacy pool. The pool’s fee is paid in shielded STRK, so shield some STRK either way.
2. Switch Protected on. In the coin’s trade panel, turn on Protected trade and type an amount. The quote comes from your private balance, with the fees shown beside it.
3. Protected buy or sell. The site checks the privacy contracts, your wallet proves and signs the trade, and a relayer sends it.
4. Unshield whenever you like, in your wallet, to any Starknet address.

Inside one shielded trade

Your private balance is a set of encrypted notes in the privacy pool. To trade, your wallet proves that you own enough of them without revealing which ones, and a relayer sends the transaction for you. The pool spends your note and hands the input to Hokori’s privacy adapter, which makes the trade on the coin’s curve or in its pool and puts what you get back into the pool as a new note for you.

On chain, the sender is the relayer and the trader is Hokori’s adapter. On the coin’s page the trade shows as a Protected trade, with no wallet, and it isn’t counted in any wallet’s history, profit and loss or holdings. Shielded balances are shown as shielded supply, not as one large holder.

The site follows each protected trade until it settles. It shows as gone through once its own transaction appears among the coin’s published trades. Every protected trade also has a 10-minute time limit: once the chain has passed it, the trade can no longer go through, and the panel says so and asks you to check your wallet’s activity. Nothing new is signed while one is still open.

What’s private, and what’s public

A shielded trade doesn’t name your wallet as the trader, but its amounts and timing are public, and so are shielding and unshielding. Funding, withdrawals and other activity may link a trade to you. Unshielding to a fresh address avoids reusing your old one, but it doesn’t make the withdrawal unlinkable.

• Your IP address. Hokori’s services and your wallet’s relayer can see it. A VPN or Tor can conceal it only for traffic routed through that service, including your wallet’s requests. It doesn’t prevent all activity correlation.
• Authorized auditing. The privacy pool supports auditing by its auditor, and screens deposits and trades.

Safety

Shielded trades run on contracts nobody can change, and every trade is checked before you sign.

• The adapter can’t be changed. Hokori’s privacy adapter has no owner, no pause and no upgrade. It only trades coins of the launchpad it’s pinned to, and only when the privacy pool calls it. The contract enforces your minimum and your deadline, and spends exactly your input.
• Checked before every signature. The site reads the privacy pool, the adapter and Ekubo’s router from the chain and compares them with the values it was built with. If anything has changed, shielded trading stops.
• No public fallback. A shielded trade goes through privately or is refused, with the reason. Hokori never sends a public trade in its place.
• Your keys stay yours. Proofs are made and trades signed in your wallet. Hokori never asks for your viewing key or your private keys, and the record of your shielded trades stays in your browser.

Fees and requirements

• Wallet for shielded trades: Ready X 5.33 or newer, on Chrome. Ordinary trading works with every wallet Hokori supports.
• Before your first shielded trade: set up privacy in your wallet and shield some STRK. Shield the ZEC or coins you want to trade from as well.
• Small trades: every quote shows the pool’s fee, and the panel warns when it is more than 10% of the trade’s value. A quote is used for up to 9 minutes; after that the panel quotes again.

What’s next

Next comes connecting Hokori straight to Zcash wallets:

1. Payouts to shielded Zcash wallets. Send or claim straight to a shielded Zcash address, such as one in Zashi, through NEAR Intents.
2. Funding from Zcash. Bring ZEC from Zcash onto Starknet from the site, in one step.
3. Confidential bridging. NEAR’s confidential mode, to remove the public link between a Starknet account and a Zcash address.
4. Shield and unshield on the site. Today you do these in your wallet.

Questions

Does a shielded trade hide everything? No. Your wallet address isn’t named as the trader, but amounts and timing are public, and shielding and unshielding are public. Other activity can still link a trade to you.

Do I have to shield to trade ZEC coins? No. Ordinary buys and sells work as on any coin. Shielding is only for shielded trades.

Why do I need STRK on the ZEC market? Starknet’s network fees are paid in STRK, and the privacy pool’s fee comes from shielded STRK.

What is a “Protected trade” in a coin’s activity? A trade made from the privacy pool. It shows no wallet and doesn’t count toward anyone’s holdings or history.

Can Hokori see my shielded trades? Hokori never receives your viewing key, and the record of your shielded trades stays in your browser. The amounts are public on Starknet, as for every trade, and Hokori’s services can see your IP address, as above.

What this does not claim

The privacy pool is Starknet’s STRK20 pool and the bridge is NEAR Intents’; Hokori’s adapter connects the pool to Hokori’s coins, and Hokori wrote neither the pool nor the bridge. ZEC on Starknet is a bridged token, not ZEC on Zcash itself. A memecoin can go to zero, and most do; Hokori does not review coins or their creators, and nothing on this page is advice. Read the risks page, the Privacy page and the Terms before you trade.

More: Protected trades on the About page, how Hokori works, and @HOKORI_QUANTUM on X.