The model
Why Zolar is an access instrument and not a bridge.
Zcash is where value rests. Solana is where an account is operated. Zolar is the instrument between them, and it is the only one of the three that holds nothing.
That is how a card works. The money is at the bank, the card holds none of it, and a shop that wants paying asks the bank rather than being handed the vault.
One copy
A bridge does the opposite. It locks the original and issues a stand-in, so the value exists in two places, and both of them can be lost.
- A bridge two copies
- Your ZEC crosses. The original sits locked in a contract, a stand-in circulates, and the peg risk, the custody risk and the hacks that follow both come with it.
- Zolar one copy
- A proof crosses. The ZEC stays in the shielded pool and does not move, and what Solana receives is a fact it can check for itself.
Not a bridge, an access instrument. A debit card does not move your bank account. Your ZEC never moves, only proof of it does. One copy of value, always.
The test
Every feature is put to one question before it is built. Does this move value, or does it extend access to value that stays where it is?
Bridge, connector, wrapped, pegged. Each of those words names something that makes a second copy, so none of them is a synonym for this, and borrowing one imports the failure mode with it.
Three layers
One engine with three capabilities. They ship in a fixed order, and the order carries an argument of its own.
- PROVE Layer 1
- State a fact about shielded ZEC that a Solana program can read. Nothing moves and nothing about the note is revealed.
- DISCLOSE Layer 2
- Show a chosen party a chosen slice: payments received inside a date range, or one payment on its own.
- MOVE Layer 3
- Value finally moves, through rails that already exist, landing at an address its owner controls.