Horizen wallet

What is Horizen (ZEN)?

ZEN is the token of Horizen, a privacy-focused project that started life as its own proof-of-work blockchain with shielded transactions and later moved its whole economy onto Base, the Ethereum Layer 2. Today the ZEN a holder deals with is an ERC-20 token on Base, and Horizen itself runs as an appchain built on top of Base, using its zero-knowledge and confidential-computing tooling to bring privacy features to applications there rather than to a standalone coin.

That history is the main thing to understand before choosing where to keep ZEN. The old Horizen mainchain, with its zn-style transparent addresses and the legacy wallets built for it, is not where the current token lives. Coins from that chain had to be migrated into the Base version, and a balance in an old mainchain wallet is not the same thing as ZEN on Base. If you received ZEN recently from an exchange or a bridge, you almost certainly hold the Base ERC-20 and need a wallet that speaks Base, not one that speaks the retired chain.

What holding ZEN on Base means in practice

• Your ZEN sits at a regular Ethereum-style address on the Base network.
• Transfers are paid in ETH on Base, not in ZEN, so a small ETH balance on the same network is needed before you can move the token.
• The token does not rebase or change balance on its own; what you hold stays as it is until you send it.

Supported networks in Tangem (1): Base. In the app, ZEN appears as its own line under the Base network, with the ETH that pays for its transfers kept right next to it, and every send is confirmed by tapping the card to the phone. For a token that has already lived on two different chains, having the network named on the line you are sending from, and gas sitting beside it, makes it easier to check the network and address on the send screen before the card signs.