Let me tell you a story about two French legends who met in 2015 and decided to solve the hardest problem in cryptography Today, they run the largest FHE research team on Earth This is @zama 🧵👇 #ZamaCreatorProgram

Let me break down what just happened with @zama. Mainnet went live. First confidential USDT transfer executed on Ethereum. No testnet hype. No "soon" tweets. No countdown posts. Just shipping. For the first time in blockchain history, a stablecoin transfer happened on Ethereum where the transfer amount stayed encrypted end-to-end. Not a zero-knowledge proof. Not a sidechain. Not a mixer. Not a privacy layer on top. Fully Homomorphic Encryption. Native on Ethereum. Mainnet. Production. This is the breakthrough everyone said was 10 years away. Why this matters for DeFi: Every transaction on Ethereum is public by default. Your positions, your trading strategy, your wallet balance—completely exposed to MEV bots, competitors, and anyone watching the mempool. Zama just proved you can execute value transfers on Ethereum with full confidentiality while maintaining full composability with existing protocols. Privacy isn't a nice-to-have feature anymore. It's foundational infrastructure that just went live. Team promised mainnet delivery in 2025. They delivered on December 2025. That's what execution looks like. What happens next: January 12-15, 2026: Public auction opens (10% of total $ZAMA supply available) January 20, 2026: Token Generation Event (TGE) claiming begins Q1 2026: Ecosystem apps deploy (Zaiffer for confidential ERC-20 wrapping, TokenOps for private vesting/airdrops, Bron Wallet with native ERC-7984 support, Raycash for encrypted stablecoin banking, Deberrys for sealed-bid auctions, tGBP for confidential GBP stablecoin, and more) Mainnet just went live. The real deployment phase is starting now. This is what separates serious teams from noise. No hype threads for months leading up to launch. No countdowns. No "we're so close" updates every week. Just: "We shipped mainnet. Here's the first confidential transaction on Ethereum. Technical breakdown next week." Most teams talk about privacy as a future vision. Zama just made it production infrastructure. Privacy on-chain isn't coming anymore. It's executing transactions right now. Congratulations @zama #ZamaCreatorProgram

🚨🚨 Post number 05 for the #ZamaCreatorProgram season hidden 06 🚨🚨 Everyone knows that the @zama token is coming soon, and what better way to explain its usefulness than with a friendly reminder? All presented by your favourite mascot ! F_0xHE ! L E T S G O ! Today's lesson : What makes the $ZAMA token special? Why isn't this just another governance token? 1 ) THE CORE UTILITY: POWERING THE FHE ENGINE The $ZAMA utility token plays a central role in the protocol. It is used to pay for encryption and decryption, as well as reward operators and stakers for running and securing the network. Think of it this way: Every time you want privacy on-chain, you're using computational power. And computational power needs fuel. That fuel is $ZAMA. What you're paying for: - Verifying proofs - Decrypting results - Bridging encrypted assets - Processing encrypted transactions on-chain 2 ) THE ECONOMIC MODEL: BURN-AND-MINT Here's where $ZAMA becomes FUNDAMENTALLY different from typical tokens: All fees are burned, while rewards are minted following a yearly emission schedule. What does this mean? Every confidential transaction, every encrypted operation, every privacy-preserving computation = tokens BURNED 🔥 Meanwhile, network operators and stakers earn minted rewards for securing the protocol. This creates a dynamic supply model where network usage directly reduces supply while utility increases demand. The more people use Zama for privacy, the more deflationary pressure on $ZAMA! 3 ) STAKING: SECURING THE ENCRYPTED FUTURE Token holders will participate in protocol governance through on-chain voting for critical decisions, but that's just the beginning. Staking $ZAMA allows you to: - Become a network operator (coprocessor or KMS node) - Earn monthly compensation plus token rewards - Secure the FHE infrastructure - Access volume-based fee discounts (up to 99%!) Coprocessors and KMS nodes earn staking rewards proportional to their stake and performance, while facing slashing penalties for malicious activity or extended downtime Zama. This isn't passive staking ! You're actively securing the world's first production-scale FHE network ! 4 ) REAL UTILITY = REAL DEMAND Here's what separates $ZAMA from "just another token": - MANDATORY FOR PRIVACY : You want confidential DeFi ? You need $ZAMA. You want encrypted smart contracts? You need $ZAMA. You want private transactions? You need $ZAMA. There's no alternative ! Zama adds a layer of confidentiality to existing public blockchains using Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to keep transaction data and onchain state encrypted while still allowing smart contracts to be executed. - CROSS-CHAIN UTILITY : Zama operates on top of existing chains, meaning any token or smart contract can be converted into a confidential version without bridging to a new network - ENTERPRISE-GRADE DEMAND Banks need confidentiality, not anonymity. Enterprises need to protect proprietary data, not hide their identity. We're not talking about niche privacy coins here. We're talking about institutional-grade privacy infrastructure that enables : - Confidential DeFi (hide trading strategies) - Private healthcare data processing - Encrypted identity verification - Sealed-bid auctions - Compliant RWA tokenization WHY THIS ISN'T "JUST ANOTHER TOKEN" ! Let me spell it out: Most tokens : - Optional governance rights - Speculative value - No mandatory usage - Limited real utility $ZAMA token: - REQUIRED for every encrypted operation - Deflationary burn mechanism - Revenue-generating staking - Cross-chain utility - Enterprise adoption incoming - Hardware acceleration coming - First-mover in production FHE THE TIMING: MAINNET = TOKEN ACTIVATION Mainnet is expected to launch S O O N, with the $ZAMA token minted and fully functional. This is a post-mainnet sale, meaning the token will have IMMEDIATE utility upon distribution. No waiting months or years for "when mainnet launches someday." IYKYK The protocol is LIVE. The utility is REAL. The demand starts DAY ONE. To finish this big pavelard : The $ZAMA token isn't just another governance token you hold and hope appreciates. It's the economic engine of the world's first production-scale FHE protocol. It's REQUIRED infrastructure for the encrypted internet. It's the gasoline for privacy-preserving computation across all major blockchains. If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it? The answer ? FHE. And FHE runs on @zama ! This is why I'm excited. This is why you should be too. This is why we are here. This is why Privacy Matters ! F_0xHE . 🦊

So the OG NFT gives you: 40,000 $ZAMA at $0.005 ($200 for $55m FDV entry) 5% bonus on public auction bids This is early believer equity reserved for creators and developers who showed up before mainnet.

🚨🚨 Post number 03 for the #ZamaCreatorProgram season hidden 06 🚨🚨 Today's lesson presented by our friend F_0xHE : How will FHE revolutionize KYC for exchanges? 🔐 I notice humans often hesitate to share their identity information and honestly, I totally get it! Privacy concerns, data breach risks, and platform distrust are real issues. That's where Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) comes to the rescue! Here's the magic: FHE allows compliance with regulatory requirements by transmitting identity data while keeping it completely confidential. With @zama, users could share their identity just once, and it gets encrypted instantly afterward. Imagine this world with me: You only disclose your identity a single time to a secure entity. Thanks to FHE and @zama, this entity can then provide verification data to any platform requiring KYC without ever exposing your actual information! Let me show you how it works: ⚡ You complete KYC on Platform A ⚡ Later, you want to trade on Platform B ⚡ Instead of resubmitting documents, you send an FHE compliance token that certifies (in encrypted form) your identity is already verified. #ZamaCreatorProgram #Zama #FHE #Privacy #OG #NFT #Web3

THREAD L'ÉQUIPE ZAMA : LES LÉGENDES DE LA CRYPTOGRAPHIE Aujourd'hui je te présente l'équipe @zama, je n'ai pas vu beaucoup de tweet en parler, et pourtant c'est ce qui fera surement la différence : - 102 employés full-time - 37 PhDs dans l'équipe (PhDs = doctorat = diplôme universitaire le plus elevé) - 150 Patents (Patents = brevets = inventions officielles protégées légalement) - Les inventeurs des algos FHE Un leadership qui a littéralement inventé la cryptographie que l'industrie utilise. 1/// LA FONDATION (Janvier 2020) @zama a été fondé en janvier 2020 par deux géants : - Dr. Rand Hindi (@randhindi) ---) CEO - Dr. Pascal Paillier ---) CTO La rencontre : 2015 Le timing était parfait (pandémie = focus 100% sur Zama) 2/// DR. RAND HINDI, PhD CEO Twitter : @randhindi PARCOURS : - PhD Bioinformatics UCL (University College London) - Fondateur de Snips (AI voice assistant acquis par Sonos) - Ex-GP Unit VC (deeptech investor) - Serial entrepreneur (a commencé à coder à 10 ans, 1ère startup à 14 ans) RECONNAISSANCES : - TR35 du MIT Technology Review (top 35 innovateurs <35 ans) - Forbes "30 under 30" - Ancien membre du French Digital Council (focus IA & Privacy) - Conférencier Sciences Po Paris Builder à l'intersection de l'IA, biotech et crypto depuis 15ans. 3/// DR. PASCAL PAILLIER, PhD CTO LE PIONNIER DU FHE - PhD dans Cryptography à Telecom Paris - Ex-Head of Cryptography à Gemalto (géant de la sécurité) - Inventeur du "Paillier Encryption scheme" (1999) C'est lui qui a inventé l'un des premiers schémas de chiffrement homomorphe. Le nom de Paillier est dans les textbooks de cryptographie. 4/// PROF. NIGEL SMART, Chief Academic Officer (CAO) TRIPLE CASQUETTE : - Professeur de Cryptography à KU Leuven (Belgique) - CAO de Zama - Co-fondateur de Unbound (acquis par Coinbase) PhD dans la Cryptography à Kent University Un des cryptographers les plus cités au monde. Travaille simultanément : - Zama (Paris, France) - KU Leuven (Belgique) Expert en : - Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) - Multi-Party Computation - Blockchain cryptography Quand Coinbase acquiert votre startup (Unbound), vous savez que vous êtes une légende. 5/// DR. MARC JOYE, PhD - Chef Scientifique (CSO) LE MONSTRE DES PATENTS : - 150 cryptography patents (en moyenne les chercheurs ont dans leur carrière entre 1 et 5 inventions) - Inventeur du Joye-Libert scheme - PhD in Cryptography à UC Louvain Un des cryptographers les plus prolifiques au monde. 150 inventions = Une contribution MASSIVE à la cryptographie moderne. 6/// DR. ILARIA CHILLOTTI, PhD Ancien directeur de la recherche en cryptographie (jusqu'à novembre 2023) - PhD à Versailles (2015-2018) - Post-Doc à KU Leuven (Belgique) - Ex-Microsoft Research - Co-inventrice du TFHE scheme (Zama l'utilise) Sa thèse : "Vers un chiffrement homomorphe entièrement efficace et sécurisé" Experte en FHE, MPC, Cloud Computing. 7/// L'ÉQUIPE DE RECHERCHE MASSIVE Plus grande équipe de recherche FHE au monde : - 100 cryptographers - 90 chercheurs - 37 PhDs - 102 employés full-time Leadership incluant : - Pascal Paillier - Nigel Smart - Marc Joye - Ilaria Chillotti - Damien Ligier Et bien d'autres... Cette équipe > toutes les autres équipes FHE combinées. 8/// LES CHIFFRES DE L'ÉQUIPE - 37 PhDs dans l'équipe - 150 Patents cryptographiques - 5,000 développeurs utilisent les librairies Zama - 26k Github stars 102 employés pour 37 PhDs = 36% de l'équipe à un Doctorat (environ 15% chez Google) Cette équipe a publié plus de papers sur le FHE que n'importe quelle autre organisation. C'est une machine de recherche académique... dans une startup. 9/// POURQUOI CETTE ÉQUIPE DOMINE 4 raisons simples : [1] Ils ont inventé les algorithmes - Paillier Encryption, Joye-Libert, TFHE [2] Ils ont l'expérience académique - KU Leuven, Telecom Paris, UCL [3] Ils ont l'expérience industrielle - Gemalto, Microsoft, Snips (acquis) [4] Ils ont l'expérience crypto - Unbound acquis par Coinbase 10/// LE RÉSEAU ACADÉMIQUE L'équipe Zama a des liens avec : - KU Leuven (Belgique Top crypto university) - Telecom Paris (France) - UCL London (UK) - UC Louvain (Belgique) - Microsoft Research - Coinbase (via Unbound) Ce réseau académique = Recrutement des MEILLEURS chercheurs 11/// LEADERSHIP OPEN-SOURCE L'équipe Zama a développé : - tfhe-rs : Fastest FHE library (Rust) - Concrete : FHE ML framework - Concrete ML : scikit-learn sur des données chiffrées - fhEVM : Private smart contracts - 26k Github stars - 5,000 développeurs utilisent les librairies 12/// LES PUBLICATIONS ACADÉMIQUES L'équipe Zama publie régulièrement dans : - ASIACRYPT (top crypto conference) - ACM CCS (top security conference) - Security and Cryptography for Networks Et bien d'autres... Ilaria Chillotti seule : - 12 publications - 463 citations - 39 citations/article moyenne 13/// LE RECRUTEMENT CHEZ ZAMA Zama recrute activement : - Protocol Cryptographers - Applied Cryptography Engineers - Blockchain Engineers - Full-stack Engineers - FHE Researchers Requis : - PhD (souvent) - Connaissance FHE ZK - Passion open-source Process détaillé : zama.ai/post/how-we-hire-at-… 14/// CE QUI REND CETTE ÉQUIPE UNIQUE La plupart des startups crypto : - Devs qui apprennent la crypto - Copient des papers existants - Essaient de comprendre le FHE Zama : - Chercheurs qui ont écrit les papers - Inventeurs des algorithmes - Ils sont le FHE 15/// LE FUTURE Avec le mainnet avant la fin 2025, l'équipe va probablement doubler : - Plus de chercheurs - Plus d'engineers - Plus de business dev De 102 → 200 employés en 2026 ? Les meilleurs talents crypto voudront rejoindre le leader FHE. 16/// CONCLUSION L'ÉQUIPE ZAMA = ÉQUIPE PARFAITE - 102 employés, 37 PhDs - Inventeurs des algorithmes FHE - Track record prouvé (acquisitions) - Plus grande équipe de recherche FHE au monde - Open-source leadership (26k stars) - Publications académiques continues #ZamaCreatorProgram

55 hours. 13 parties. 10.5 TB of data per operator. @zama just executed the first robust MPC protocol over Galois rings at production scale. Zero crashes. Zero dropouts. Zero invalid messages. This isn't testnet. This is mainnet activation. The serious phase just started.

There’s been a lot of speculation about the utility of the Zama OG NFT. Next week, you’ll know. claim.zama.org

Surprise

Here's my mascot Meet SHINOBI_Z @zama’s silent guardian. 🦎🥷 Ninja stealth = invisible execution Data camouflage = encrypted but functional Shadow clones = distributed MPC nodes Silent. Adaptive. Unbreakable. Privacy is the ultimate jutsu. #ZamaCreatorProgram

Why Zama? @zama isn’t building another feature.
They’re rebuilding the way data is computed, making privacy programmable, scalable, and finally usable. 
And that changes everything. Welcome to the era of programmable privacy. 👇

My French bro just dropped an excellent thread breaking down the 9 projects launching with @zama mainnet. Even if you don’t read French, just translate it, this is pure gold. Seriously worth your time #ZamaCreatorProgram