ZeroFee
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Reference

Glossary

The words of ZeroFee, its apps and its four privacy protocols, in plain language. Look one up whenever a term stops you.

Amount-and-timing correlation
Matching a deposit to a payout because the amounts and the times line up, even though a privacy step hides the direct link. Round, common amounts and a little patience beat it; see using privacy well.
ATA / token account
On Solana, each token balance lives in its own token account owned by your wallet. The associated token account (ATA) is the standard one for a wallet and token. Sending a token to a wallet that has none means creating one, which costs rent.
Bonding curve
A formula a launchpad uses to price a new token as people buy and sell it, before it has a normal trading pool. The price climbs as more is bought, so large or late buys move it a lot.
Bridge
A service that moves value from one blockchain to another, usually by taking your funds on one chain and paying out on the other. Bridges hold funds briefly and are a common source of loss in crypto.
Confidential crossing
The first of the four privacy protocols: a swap that crosses chains in NEAR Intents’ confidential mode, so your deposit and your payout aren’t publicly linked. It happens automatically when both coins are on NEAR Intents and NEAR allows it for the pair, with nothing to switch on. See Privacy protocols.
Crowd (pool size)
The group of transactions an observer can’t tell apart from yours. In the Solana ZK pool, it is everyone using the pool around the same time. The bigger and busier the crowd, the better your payment blends in.
Deposit address
A one-time address made for one swap, usually by the protocol that carries it. You send the stated coin, on the stated chain, in the stated amount, from any wallet or exchange. Sending the wrong coin, chain or amount, or sending late, can lose or strand funds.
Deposit swap
How every swap on ZeroFee starts: you give a receiving address and a refund address, get a one-time deposit address, and send to it from any wallet or exchange. There is no wallet to connect. See Deposit swaps.
Exact output
A swap that fixes what arrives instead of what is sent: “deliver exactly 25 USDC” rather than “sell 0.01 ETH”. The price then says how much the payer must send (a NEAR Intents price adds a small margin that is refunded if unused; a Relay payment is exact, or refunded). Pay links use it; in the API it is amountOut. See payments.
Gas
The fee a blockchain charges to process a transaction, paid in that chain’s own coin. A transaction that fails can still use up its gas.
Honeypot
A token that lets you buy but blocks or cripples selling, so you can’t get out. Often disguised as a normal launch.
Intent
A request that states the outcome you want, such as “this much of coin A for at least that much of coin B”, and leaves competing solvers to work out how to deliver it. NEAR Intents is built on this idea.
Launchpad
A platform where anyone can create a token and trade it at once, usually along a bonding curve. pump.fun and bonk.fun are examples. Launchpad coins are high risk, and the swap page lists one only once a protocol has been checked to carry it.
MCP server
A server that gives AI agents tools they can call. ZeroFee’s MCP server has 9 tools: swaps and pay links, plus x402 funding for one wallet. No key needed. See MCP server.
Memo (tag)
An extra field some chains and exchanges require, such as a destination tag or memo, so the receiver credits the right account. Leaving it out can send funds to an address you can’t claim from.
Minimum received
The least you will accept for a swap, worked out from your slippage. If the price would leave you with less, the swap is refunded rather than paying out less.
Monero (XMR)
A privacy-focused cryptocurrency whose ledger hides senders, receivers and amounts by design, with ring signatures and stealth addresses built into the chain. The Monero step uses it as the stepping stone between your deposit and your payout. See Privacy protocols.
Monero step
A privacy step: Monero hides the sender, the receiver and the amount (ring signatures and stealth addresses). About 15 minutes, minimum about 50 USD. Your coins are held for a few minutes on the way. See Privacy protocols.
NEAR Intents
A cross-chain swap network where solvers compete to fill intents. It carries most ZeroFee swaps, and crosses chains in its confidential mode where it allows it.
Non-custodial
You hold the keys, and the service can’t move your funds. ZeroFee’s servers never hold your money or your keys; temporary wallets for privacy steps are made in your browser. While a swap moves, the protocol carrying it holds the funds briefly: the protocol’s solvers, Privacy Cash’s pool, or the Monero step for a few minutes.
One-time deposit address
The deposit address made for your swap or payment alone. Each swap and each payment gets its own; see Deposit address.
Outer layer
What ZeroFee is: one layer over the protocols that already move money between chains. It finds a protocol that can carry your swap or payment, shows the full cost before you start and follows it to the end. No liquidity of its own, no custody, and 0% from ZeroFee. See How it works.
Price impact
How far your own trade moves the price because of how much liquidity there is. A large trade in a thin market has a high price impact. It is different from slippage, which is movement between the price you saw and the price you get.
Privacy Cash
The privacy pool on Solana behind the Solana ZK pool step. Its fee is 0.35% plus a small fixed amount.
Privacy step
One of the privacy protocols you add as a switch in the Privacy box, on a swap or a payment: the Solana ZK pool, Zcash or Monero. Each hides something different between your deposit and your payout, and you can stack them in the order you choose. Confidential crossing on NEAR Intents is the fourth, and needs no switch. See Privacy protocols.
Receiving address
The address on the destination chain where your swap is delivered. Check it twice: cross-chain transfers can’t be reversed.
Refund address
Where your coins go back automatically if a swap can’t complete: an address you control on the chain you pay from. With privacy steps it must not be the receiving address. Use your own address, not an exchange’s deposit address, which may not credit a refund to your account.
Relay
A cross-chain protocol that issues deposit addresses on many EVM chains. It carries coins NEAR Intents doesn’t list, and its fee and the destination gas it pays for you are inside the price.
Rent
On Solana, an account has to hold a minimum balance of SOL to exist. Creating a standard token account locks up about 0.002 SOL.
Ring signatures and stealth addresses
How Monero hides who sent and who received: a ring signature mixes your payment in with others so the real sender can’t be picked out, and a stealth address gives every payment a fresh one-time address so the receiver can’t be seen on the chain.
Roadmap
The line of checkpoints on each swap’s own page that shows every step your money takes, from your deposit to the receiver. The active step pulses, finished steps fill green, and the whole track goes green when the swap lands.
Routing protocol
A protocol that issues a deposit address and carries a swap: NEAR Intents for most swaps, and Relay for coins NEAR Intents doesn’t list. ZeroFee connects you straight to them, asks them for a price and follows the order; the protocol, not ZeroFee, holds the funds while the swap fills.
Rug pull
When a token’s creators or insiders drain its liquidity or dump their holdings, leaving everyone else with a token that is worth little or nothing.
Shield / Unshield
Moving coins into a privacy pool (shield) and back out (unshield). ZeroFee Wallet, coming soon, puts both a tap away. See ZeroFee Wallet.
Slippage
The gap between the price you saw and the price you actually get, because markets move. Your slippage (0.5% by default) caps how much of that gap you accept.
Solana ZK pool
A privacy step: your money becomes SOL, goes into Privacy Cash’s pool on Solana and comes out to a fresh wallet. A zero-knowledge proof hides which deposit paid which withdrawal. About 3–5 minutes, 0.35% + about $0.63. See Privacy protocols.
Solver
A market participant, usually a bot, that competes to fill swap requests, paying out from its own funds on the destination chain and being paid back later. A solver holds your funds briefly while it does so.
Tax token
A token that takes a percentage of every transfer or trade, sometimes a very large one. The price shown may not reflect what you actually receive.
Temporary wallet
A wallet the swap page makes in your browser to carry your money between privacy steps. Its key stays in your browser and never reaches ZeroFee’s servers. It sends on everything it holds, so it is designed to end empty; the swap’s page shows each one under “Where your money is”.
Unified address (u1…)
A Zcash address that can carry a shielded receiver. You can receive ZEC at your own unified address. Deposits into NEAR Intents for ZEC are transparent, and a refund may come back to a transparent address.
x402
A way for a website or API to ask for a crypto payment with an HTTP 402 response. Through ZeroFee’s API and MCP server, an agent can fund one wallet with the exact amount a 402 asks for, paying its own way.
Zcash shielded pool
The private part of Zcash, where the sender, the receiver and the amount are hidden by zero-knowledge proofs. The Zcash privacy step passes your coin through it in a wallet made in your browser. See Privacy protocols.
Zero Fee Initiative
DihFih Labs’ initiative behind ZeroFee. Crypto took the middleman out of the ledger, then apps put it back; the initiative cuts it again and connects you straight to the protocols, with 0% from ZeroFee. Read the Zero Fee Initiative.
Zero-knowledge proof
A way to prove something is true without showing why. In the Solana ZK pool, it proves a withdrawal is allowed without revealing which deposit it came from.
ZeroFee
A family of privacy apps on open protocols, with 0% from ZeroFee: ZeroFee Swap, ZeroFee Pay and ZeroFee Wallet (coming soon), plus a REST API and an MCP server for developers and AI agents.
ZeroFee fee
What ZeroFee itself adds to a swap or payment: 0%. The swap and pay pages show it beside the full cost, which is the protocols’ and networks’ own fees.
ZeroFee Pay
ZeroFee’s pay links: ask for an exact amount of one coin on one chain, and the payer pays with a coin they hold on 70+ chains. See Pay links & payments.
ZeroFee Swap
ZeroFee’s cross-chain swaps across 70+ chains, straight on the protocols, from a one-time deposit address. See your first swap.
ZeroFee Wallet
Coming soon: your keys on your device, Shield and Unshield in a tap, and the ZeroFee Swap engine built in. See ZeroFee Wallet.
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