Zone Manager’s will allow users who satisfy their compliance requirements to open a zAccount to non-interactively:

• deposit

• withdraw

• transfer

• trade

with zAssets in Panther Protocol’s Shielded Pool.

TL;DR

• zAssets represent digital assets as UTXOs

• ZK proof of UTXO activity will be written on-chain

• This mechanism enables privacy-enhanced trading

Introduction

zAssets enable 1:1 representations of digital assets deposited by users into Shielded Pools. It is the zAsset that confers much of the Protocol’s privacy-enhancing features.

When users deposit their assets into a Panther Shielded Pool, they will essentially convert their regular tokens or assets into zAssets, to be managed within Panther’s Zero-Knowledge layer.

Deposit

When a user deposits a digital asset into the Panther Vault via their Zone Manager’s access point, a UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) is generated to represent that asset — the zAsset.

The Protocol uses ZK-SNARK (Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) proofs to store UTXO data on-chain. This allows a user’s on-chain state to be stored privately and to ensure private state changes.

Using ZK-SNARKs means that the zAsset data that represents the original digital asset on-chain is both condensed and encrypted. Furthermore, they ensure that asset balances and balance changes are not publicly available should a Panther account address become known to an observer.

Withdraw

Users can withdraw their zAssets back into their original form whenever needed. When they do so, the UTXO that represented the underlying asset is "spent".

Transfer

zAssets are fully collateralized by the underlying tokens that users deposit through UTXO ownership. The ownership of those zAssets can be transferred through in-pool UTXO transactions, which represent the ability to convert zAssets back into native assets on the Pool’s underlying blockchain network.

zAssets enhance privacy

The observable data that results from a transaction is that a UTXO was committed to the smart contract. Only the owner of the UTXO can decrypt the ZK-proof and ascertain the value and token that the UTXO represents.

Which asset classes are supported?

Panther’s Shielded Pools support the following asset classes:

• ERC-20 (including some variants like ERC-404)

• ERC-721

• ERC-1155

DAO-approved assets

The Panther DAO must approve assets for allowlisting; since allowlisting an asset requires manual configuration.

What next?

zAccounts are represented by UTXOs, so it’s worth taking time to understand our unique UTXO model.

TL;DR

• Panther will support privacy-enhanced Over-The-Counter trades

Overview

zTrade will be the world’s first on-chain Over-The-Counter (OTC) marketplace.

Using the Polygon network (at ), zTrade will offer an innovative approach to OTC trading by connecting makers and takers in a fully privacy-enhanced, secure environment. It leverages the attributes of the and to enable OTC trades.

Within zTrade, users can conduct OTC transactions while enjoying unprecedented data privacy. The process begins when a maker deposits digital assets into a Shielded Pool and converts them into zAssets. Once users initiate a trade, they set the conversion rate at which they are willing to sell their assets. Takers, conversely, can browse the available offers and accept the one that suits their needs, confident that their privacy is being fully maintained.

Unlike traditional OTC marketplaces, zTrade will not require any custodian services, thanks to the self-custody and automated nature of on-chain DeFi transactions. Furthermore, zTrade preserves the confidentiality of users’ identities, transaction details, and asset holdings.

Some of the advantages of zTrade over centralized or decentralized swap mechanisms include:

• Low fees

• Instant settlements with data protection

• Possibly, earning rewards

to be determined by the DAO

TL;DR

• The Shielded Pool supports the non-interactive trades of zAssets: shielding external wallet addresses

• Panther’s Shielded Pool may be deployed to different L1 or L2 chains

• Access to a Shielded Pool is granted via a zAccount created via the Zone Manager's entrypoint/dApp within a dedicated Zone

Introduction

Panther Protocol’s Shielded Pool underpins the Protocol’s vision for compliant, privacy-enhanced trading. The Shielded Pool is partitioned into Zones: logical partitions of liquidity with their own entry requirements.

The Shielded Pool supports multiple asset types, i.e., it’s a Multi-Asset Shielded Pool (MASP). The Pool supports the non-interactive transfer of zAssets within Zones. This non-interactive architecture is fundamental to enabling two parties to transact without knowing or revealing each other’s EOA (externally owned account) addresses, i.e., their wallet addresses.

The transactions within these pools are not observable on-chain, and users will have the flexibility to disclose information selectively, thus enabling a pathway to compliance.

Users within Zones will be able to:

• Register and activate Panther zAccounts and Zero-Knowledge compliance checks

• Deposit and withdraw assets

• Transact and send funds to other zAccount holders within the Pool

• Receive rewards and pay fees

• Interact with DeFi dApps and protocols

• Conduct OTC-like atomic swap trades

• Access cross-chain functionalities

Shielded Pool Zones

Panther Zones are dedicated areas within the Shielded Pool that enable users to trade with allowlisted assets and known counterparties. Every Zone will be managed and configured by a licensed entity known as a Zone Manager, and users must undergo verification with a KYC provider.

Each Zone in the Shielded Pool will support compliance in a fully agnostic manner, i.e. compliance is defined by the VASP-licensed Zone Manager.

The following diagram highlights how the Shielded Pool will allow an end user, the zAccount holder of Zone A in this instance, to transact in this privacy-enhanced Protocol.

Notice that the Shielded Pool will be able to support multiple Zones, here as Zone A and Zone B. This allows Zones A and Zone B to have different:

• Entry requirements

such as different supported geographical regions for end user residence.

• Transaction limits

Such as daily limits, maximum deposit amounts, and withdrawal amounts)

• KYT/transactional requirements

• Theoretically, even different supported assets

Not for mainnet beta release

Zone Managers will also be able to configure which Zones the user may trade with. For example, Zone A may allow its users to trade with Zone B and vice versa, but Zone B may not allow its users to trade with Zone C.

Furthermore, while the Compliance provider submitting the attestation that the EOA, e.g. MetaMask wallet, is associated with an individual that has successfully complied with the Zone Manager’s ruleset is the same for Zones A and B in this simplified representation, in fact, Zone Managers may undertake their own KYC or select alternative third-party KYC providers. The Protocol is designed to require the attestation from a provider that’s registered in the Protocol; it doesn’t require insight into which provider is making that KYC attestation.

Multi-chain Shielded Pools

While the mainnet beta release of Panther Protocol will be deployed to Polygon, the Protocol itself supports a multi-chain strategy.

Shielded Pools on multiple blockchains will further strengthen the ecosystem and diversify access to DeFi. This vision, which puts users in control of who views their data while retaining compliance, constitutes a first-of-its-kind approach that leverages existing liquidity, and increases connectivity.

Shielded Pools across multiple chains will share the same anonymity set, irrespective of the chain that trades occur on. An external observer can’t pinpoint which chain a zAsset was created on. This shared anonymity is unique to Panther’s proposed Protocol.

Shielded Pool architecture

A Shielded Pool is a set of smart contracts where users will be able to deposit various tokens, safeguarded by cutting-edge cryptographic techniques such as SNARKs and Zero-Knowledge proofs (ZKPs).

On-chain state changes are achieved when Panther’s Shielded Pools update a collection of append-only Merkle trees, where each leaf is a commitment to a UTXO representing zAssets — essentially an IOU for the corresponding collateral deposited by a user and locked in the Panther Vault, or zAccounts.

What next?

• Learn more about non-interactive asset transfer

• Find out more about which asset classes are supported

• Follow external links from the glossary to learn more

TL;DR

• zAccounts function as private ledgers for users

• zAccounts belong to a managed by a Zone Manager

• zAccounts don't hold PII (Personally Identifiable Information) such as name, dob, etc.

Introduction

The zAccount is the end user's entrypoint to a Zone, and, thereby, to a . A zAccount associates a user’s EOA (Externally Owned Account, i.e. a wallet) with their KYC attestation, as required by the .

The core functionality of the zAccount will be to delink the user’s transactions from their publicly-observable EOA. Additionally, it will let users prove their trades and balance in a privacy-enabled manner, and withdraw their assets back to a publicly owned wallet.

zAccounts and privacy

When a user successfully passes KYC and activates their zAccount, the account Id will be made available from a public lookup table maintained by the Panther Smart Contract. This table will allow anyone to access the zAccount Id to find its two root public keys. These keys are required to spend and access . The critical outcome of the Protocol’s design is that EOAs/wallet address won’t be linked to trades within, or outwith the Protocol when using a .

zAccounts and compliance

The Protocol is designed to allow the Zone Manager to define compliance, which is enforced as a compliance attestation required to validate a zAccount. This will enable Zone Managers to support decentralized identities and assign third-party KYC providers. Users can establish a Zero-Knowledge or zAccount following .

The Protocol can verify the completion and nature of the user’s verification without processing any personal data — while empowering the end user with tailored information sharing. It will employ advanced Zero-Knowledge methods to ensure the confidentiality and control of users’ transactional data on the blockchain.

To simplify compliance, each end user’s activities will be consolidated under a singular ledger, or zAccount.

zAccount architecture

However, rather than using a single fully-public spending key for each recipient, known to the whole world, a new spending keypair is derived. This pair is guaranteed to be unique for each UTXO — strengthening the system’s privacy while offering greater flexibility to disclosure schemes.

What next?