Z Protocol (“Z”), a programmable privacy platform for autonomous applications and anonymous activity, today announced its partnership with Core Foundation, the steward of the Core blockchain and creator of Satoshi Plus consensus. Through this partnership, Z taps into Core’s proven infrastructure and receives support from Core Foundation to accelerate Satoshi Plus expansion.
Z is built at the intersection of two converging trends: the rise of AI-enabled surveillance and the growing role of AI agents in on-chain activity.
As agents act on behalf of users at scale, they generate orders of magnitude more observable activity while AI reduces the cost of analyzing it to near zero, turning routine interactions into a persistent record of the humans behind them. Z is designed for that reality. Powered by Zcash, Z enables autonomous systems to operate anonymously.
In practice, Z integrates three core design pillars at the protocol level:
Privacy: Assets are held in a shielded pool where balances are hidden. Each app interaction routes through a fresh stealth address with no link to the holder’s identity, then assets re-enter the pool. No two interactions share an address, making activity unlinkable to the actor behind it.
Tooling: Z provides standardized interfaces, application-specific integrations, and controlled execution environments, including session-based permissions with constraints such as spending limits, time bounds, and approved contract access, allowing users to define parameters while their autonomous systems execute within them.
Coordination: Designed for seamless activity across applications, the Zcosystem is a vertically integrated application layer spanning private trading (Z Trade), lending (Z Lend), stablecoins (USDZ), staking (stZEC), and more.
Z is secured by a Zcash-based implementation of the Satoshi Plus model, enabling participation from ZEC miners, ZEC holders, and Z token stakers.
Core Initial Contributor Kieran Dennis is transitioning to Z Protocol as Co-Founder, leading its strategy, development and go-to-market motion.
“AI agents are the most exposed actors on-chain and the least equipped for it. They transact at a scale humans never will, and every transaction becomes a permanent record of their principal’s strategy, relationships, and finances,” said Kieran Dennis, Co-Founder of Z and Core Initial Contributor. “If you want privacy for humans, you start by giving their agents private rails. That’s Z.”
This partnership represents a natural expansion of Core’s role as infrastructure supporting revenue-generating systems. As part of the partnership, Z introduces mechanisms aligned with the broader Core ecosystem, including transaction fee-driven buybacks of CORE and preferential access to early airdrops and token distributions for CORE token holders.
“Core’s Revenue Roadmap centers on powering revenue-generating systems,” said Core Initial Contributor Brendon Sedo. “Z fits perfectly into the roadmap by extending Core’s infrastructure to Zcash, enabling more value to flow to CORE token holders.”
Expected to launch in Q2 2026, Z brings latent ZEC capital into active use through a privacy-preserving, vertically integrated, revenue-generating application stack.
About Z Protocol
Z is the privacy platform for AI agents and their humans. Powered by Zcash, Z delivers a vertically integrated stack of autonomous applications for anonymous activity, including private trading (Z Trade), lending and borrowing (Z Lend), a private stablecoin (USDZ), yield-bearing private dollars (yUSDZ), liquid staking (stZEC/stZ), and more. Z is secured by Zcash Satoshi Plus (ZSP) consensus, which unites Zcash miners, ZEC holders, and Z token stakers.
About Core
Core is a blockchain network that serves as a coordination and revenue layer for Bitcoin-focused products and protocols. Since launching in 2023, Core has focused on enabling revenue-generating protocols that drive value to its ecosystem, particularly across Bitcoin-based use cases such as yield generation and collateral utilization. Core has also pioneered self-custodial Bitcoin staking, with over $150 million in BTC staked.
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