$ZOLAR

$ZOLAR pays for building Zolar, and that is its whole job. It covers three things: machines that must keep running, an audit somebody must pay for, and panels that still do nothing. It is not part of the engine the rest of this documentation describes.

The line this page exists to hold

Nothing in Zolar requires $ZOLAR. A proof, a shield, a purchase and a restore all work without holding any of it. No figure on this site is measured or priced in it.

Whether it ever takes a role past funding is undecided, and this page will say so in that word rather than hint at one. A token written into the machine before the machine is finished is a decision made by accident.

What it pays for

One of these costs never stops, and it is the one that decides whether this project can stand on its own. The rest are paid once, or paid per card.

What	Shape	Detail
The attester set	recurring	The only component in this system whose cost runs forever. It checks a Layer 1 proof in ~25 ms and signs the result, so a Solana program can read one. Somebody pays for those machines and their gas every day they are up. How many, who they are and who pays are all undecided. That is what makes this a funding question rather than a preference.
An outside audit of the circuit	one-off	Twenty-one tests are not an audit. Reusing Zcash's own gadgets rather than reimplementing them is a real argument and it is not evidence. The Roadmap carries the audit as a line of its own rather than a deferral, and this is what funds it.
The relay	recurring	A browser cannot reach a Zcash node. One binary carries the queries and never the keys, and it runs on a machine with a bill.
The statement server	not deployed	ACTIVITY survives a new device only if its encrypted rows live somewhere other than one browser. That server is written and has never been deployed, and it is the first line here that money actually moves.
The shelf	per card	Eight things you can buy with shielded ZEC, one of them live. Each dark card needs a third party found, tested against the new pool, and floated before it can light up.
The build	ongoing	The Solana program, and the panels waiting on it. The chain hard-forked once already this year, and keeping all of it standing is part of the cost.

What it is not

Five things a token beside a Zcash project is usually assumed to be. None of them is this one, and the reasons are not modesty — each would break something this project has already committed to.

Not this	Why not
Wrapped ZEC	No $ZOLAR is backed by ZEC, redeemable for it, or priced against it. The invariant under this whole project is that no second copy of your ZEC exists anywhere. A token claiming to be one would break that on its first day. Zolar would become the fifth wrapped-ZEC product rather than the alternative to them.
A fee token	The shelf is paid in shielded ZEC, Zcash network fees in ZEC, and Solana fees in SOL. Nothing on this site takes payment in $ZOLAR. Making it do so would put a token between a holder and their own money.
Collateral	Layer 3 puts shielded ZEC up and settles it back into the pool. That is ZEC, deliberately, and this token is no part of it.
Governance	It carries no vote, and holding it decides nothing. Who the attesters are is undecided, and who gets to decide it is undecided with it. Writing a token into that answer before the answer exists would settle the hardest open question in this project by accident.
A claim on the project	Zolar has no revenue. How it pays for itself is one of the two open questions on the FAQ that are not cryptography, and it is open. A token implying a share of an answer nobody has would be selling the answer instead of finding it.

The address

The contract address goes here. This project publishes it on this page the day the token launches, and publishes it nowhere else.

What is undecided

Everything a token page usually opens with. Each one settles before launch, and this page is where the answers land alongside the address.

Question	Where it stands
Supply, and who holds it	This project sets both before launch and publishes them here with the address. Naming a supply before the work it funds is scoped would be picking a number to have one.
When	No date. This project publishes none anywhere — the order the layers ship in is a decision, and the schedule is not. This page announces the launch.
Where it launches	Not chosen yet. This project researched the venues rather than assuming one, and found that fee terms are the wrong thing to pick one on.

What getting this wrong costs

Every other line on this page is a cost with a figure beside it. This one carries a risk instead, and it is the only part of the project that damages the rest of it if it goes badly.

RoadmapWhat all of this pays for, in the order it ships. Everything not built yet carries a tag.The two that are not cryptographyWho reads an attestation first, and how this pays for itself. Both still open.