Here is everything you need to know: what passed, what the staking program actually is, and what happens from here.

ZenIP 42408 was put to the Horizen DAO, and the community delivered a clear mandate in support of establishing a new ZEN staking program. Notably, the approved proposal includes an initial 50,000 ZEN authorized by the DAO to bootstrap the rewards pool, and a program design that incorporates the ability for projects across the Horizen ecosystem to contribute to the rewards pool with a portion of their protocol economics or project tokens.

This vote authorized:

• A 1-year program authorization including a 50,000 $ZEN allocation from the DAO treasury to the staking rewards pool, and up to 50% of net earnings generated from DAO-managed liquidity provisioning activities.

• A 4-year program vision, renewable annually, totalling a planned 215,000 $ZEN with every year’s authorization subject to renewed DAO approval.

• A foundational framework for direct $ZEN staking on the Horizen chain with optional duration-weighted rewards, and a program design that enables projects across the Horizen ecosystem to contribute to the rewards pool.

The new Horizen staking program aligns token holder belief in the Horizen ecosystem with a model that rewards participation by both holders and builders on the network. The explicit design goal of $ZEN staking is to identify and reward the community members who are genuinely committed to Horizen's long-term vision: the leading private EVM execution layer built on Base, and a home for regulatory-compliant private onchain finance and business applications. Practical privacy that the world actually needs. Staking is how supporters and token holders signal their alignment, and how the ecosystem rewards it.

The Horizen DAO has approved the program and the initial token allocation; the specifics of implementation, including technical details and staking infrastructure, will be handled through an approved vendor requirements process. Regular updates will be shared with the community as program implementation progresses.

$ZEN staking is designed to serve as the primary alignment rail for the most committed builders in the Horizen ecosystem. As protocols and dApps launch on Horizen, including those supported by the Horizen ecosystem fund operated in partnership with Thrive Protocol, staking will become a direct participation mechanism, giving builders a clear path to engage with and reward the community that supports them.

The next evolution of ZEN staking is already on the horizon and aims to foster increased participation in DAO governance and explore more robust staking mechanics. Any structural program modifications will be the subject of a future community proposal, in accordance with the annual DAO renewal framework.

Read the full ZenIP-4207, HERE.