ZIP-0900: Zoo Version History — 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 / 4.0 / DEX Launch Canonical Chronology

Abstract

This ZIP is the canonical chronology of the Zoo platform: the five locked version milestones, their dates, the papers that document them, and the cross-references to the relevant Lux Improvement Proposals (LPs) and to the Liquidity Protocol adoption record. It exists so that any future contributor or partner can answer the question "what was Zoo and what did Zoo ship at version N?" with a single authoritative source.

Specification

Canonical version table

Version	Era	Date	Paper	Key milestone
1.0	BSC era (original)	2021-10-31	`zoo-2021-original-whitepaper`	Original Antje Worring vision; coined the term "NFT Liquidity Protocol"; wildlife conservation NFTs as productive collateral.
2.0	Lux L2 EVM PQ re-launch	2024-10	`zoo-evm-l2-architecture`	Re-launch on the Lux Network as an EVM-compatible Layer 2; 20 native precompiles including NIST PQC standards (ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, ML-KEM); first-pass post-quantum stack.
3.0	Full PQ era	2025-10-31	`zoo-3-0-full-pq`	Complete post-quantum hardening: every signature, every commitment, every proof in PQ-safe schemes (Ringtail Ring-LWE + ML-DSA-65 + BLS12-381 fast path). Triple-cert inheritance from Lux Quasar 3.0 (LP-020). DAO migration, NFT Liquidity Protocol PQ, zLLM commitments PQ, bridge committee re-keying.
4.0	GPU-native sovereign L1	2026-02-14	`zoo-4-0-launch`	Graduation from Lux L2 application to sovereign Lux L1 with its own validator set, Quasar-certified consensus, and independent economic security. 100% GPU-powered consensus, EVM, AMM matching, AI mining, and FHE. Quasar 4.0 inheritance.
Zoo DEX	Native securities + Liquidity Protocol	2026-04-20	`zoo-dex-launch-2026-04-20`	$113T digital-securities market access via tokenised equities, fixed income, RWA, and derivatives. Liquidity Protocol adoption (Liquidity.io launched it 2026-04-01; Lux/Hanzo/Zoo/Pars adopted it 2026-04-20). Robinhood-style retail UX with sub-1.1s T+0 settlement.

Per-version detail

1.0 — BSC era (2021-10-31)

The October 31, 2021 Zoo whitepaper articulated the original vision of Zoo as a wildlife-conservation platform on Binance Smart Chain. The paper introduced the term "NFT Liquidity Protocol" --- a system in which NFTs become productive collateral inside a yield-bearing on-chain market that feeds back into species preservation. Cryptographic posture was inherited from BSC (ECDSA over secp256k1, Ethereum-style Merkle Patricia tries); no post-quantum guarantees.

Paper: ~/work/zoo/papers/zoo-2021-original-whitepaper

The 1.0 era ended when the original BSC implementation suffered a Logan-Paul-related rugpull / scam against the original community. The remediation path was the Genesis Airdrop (ZIP-0002) to original-token victims and the V4 rebuild that began as Zoo 2.0.

2.0 — Lux L2 EVM PQ re-launch (2024-10)

Zoo re-launched on the Lux Network as a Layer 2 EVM. The 2.0 whitepaper documented:

20 native precompiles including NIST PQC standards (ML-DSA-65 per FIPS 204, SLH-DSA, ML-KEM).
Threshold signature precompiles (FROST, CGGMP21).
Privacy primitives: FHE, zero-knowledge proofs, ring signatures.
AI Mining precompile for proof-of-useful-computation consensus.

PQ primitives were available to applications via precompile, but chain consensus, governance, bridge attestations, and the legacy 2021 NFT Liquidity Protocol commitments still ran on classical cryptography for some edges. 2.0 was the first-pass post-quantum era.

Paper: ~/work/zoo/papers/zoo-evm-l2-architecture

3.0 — Full PQ era (2025-10-31)

Zoo 3.0 closed the remaining classical edges. By the end of 2025:

Consensus signatures moved to triple cert ($BLS_{12-381}$ + Ringtail Ring-LWE + ML-DSA-65) inherited from Lux Quasar 3.0 (LP-020).
Governance keys migrated to threshold ML-DSA-65 + Ringtail.
Bridge attestations moved to threshold ML-DSA on M-Chain (LP-016, LP-017).
zLLM commitments for training artefacts, governance votes, and inference receipts adopted PQ-safe Merkle accumulators with ML-DSA-signed roots.
NFT Liquidity Protocol loans are now Ringtail-signed loan agreements with PQ-attested liquidation oracles.
DAO key migration rotated treasury custody, contract-upgrade authority, and proposal-signing keys to threshold PQ.
Wallet keys dual-key (secp256k1 + ML-DSA-65) for backwards compatibility during the sunset window.

By the spec freeze date (2025-10-31, the founder's anniversary), the Zoo stack was end-to-end harvest-now-decrypt-later resistant.

Paper: ~/work/zoo/papers/zoo-3-0-full-pq

4.0 — GPU-native sovereign L1 (2026-02-14)

Zoo 4.0 graduated Zoo from a Lux L2 application to a sovereign Lux L1 with its own validator set, Quasar-certified consensus, and independent economic security. Activation alongside Lux Quasar 4.0 on 2026-02-14.

The 4.0 contract: every primitive whose latency matters at validator scale runs on the GPU device for the duration of a block.

Triple-consensus signature verification ($BLS_{12-381}$ aggregate + Ringtail threshold + ML-DSA-65 identity) as fused GPU kernels per the QuasarGPU adapter (LP-132).
EVM bytecode interpreter as a fiber VM with 256-bit U256 arithmetic implemented as device-resident SIMD (LP-009).
AMM matching (V2 constant product, V3 concentrated liquidity) on the GPU.
AI mining attestations binding compute to receipts via TEE-attested H100 / SEV-SNP / TDX containers, with A-Chain anchoring per LP-134.
GPU-Residency Invariant (LP-137): no host bounce on the hot path.

Zoo 4.0 inherited the full PQ stack from 3.0 unchanged; the 4.0 work was graduating execution to GPU-native, not re-doing PQ.

Paper: ~/work/zoo/papers/zoo-4-0-launch

Zoo DEX — Native securities + Liquidity Protocol (2026-04-20)

The Zoo DEX launches 2026-04-20 with native trading of equities, fixed income, real-world assets, and tokenised derivatives. The DEX is a milestone within the 4.x line, not a separate version number; it is a new-paper-generating event because of the scope of the launch.

Headline properties:

Native securities. Tokenised equities (fractional shares), corporate bonds, treasuries, REITs, commodities, private equity, perpetual futures, dated futures, European options. All settle on Zoo D-Chain (a white-label resell of the Lux D-Chain template per LP-134) with sub-1.1s Quasar 4.0 finality.
Liquidity Protocol integration. Liquidity.io launched the formal Liquidity Protocol on 2026-04-01 with a soundness proof alongside; Lux, Hanzo, Zoo, and Pars adopted it on 2026-04-20. Zoo's adoption document is at ~/work/zoo/proofs/zoo-adopts-liquidity-protocol.tex. Compliance-by-construction is enforced via a chain precompile.
Robinhood-style retail UX. Zero commission, fractional shares, 24/7 markets, instant T+0 settlement.
Quantum-secure trading. Every trade settles under triple-cert finality.
Privacy. Optional FHE-encrypted orderflow via F-Chain (LP-013); ZK selective disclosure via Z-Chain (LP-063).
Top-2 NFT migration. The DEX is the migration destination for the top NFT collections in conservation, AI/agent, and metaverse categories. It is the realisation of the original 2021 "NFT Liquidity Protocol" coinage.
Operator economics. Zoo D-Chain validators stake $ZOO; rewards in trading-fee share + $AI from Hanzo AI Chain compute proofs; $10%$ of taker fees flow to the conservation allocation per Zoo Labs Foundation 501(c)(3) mission.

Paper: ~/work/zoo/papers/zoo-dex-launch-2026-04-20

Cross-references

Related Lux Improvement Proposals (LPs)

LP-009 --- GPU-Native EVM (Zoo 4.0 substrate).
LP-013 --- F-Chain FHE-Protected Inference and Confidential Compute.
LP-016 --- B-Chain Bridge VM (Zoo Bridge PQ rekeying in 3.0).
LP-017 --- Threshold Bridge Committee Key Schedule.
LP-020 --- Quasar Consensus 3.0 (triple cert: BLS + Ringtail + ML-DSA).
LP-063 --- Z-Chain Zero-Knowledge Rollup and ZKP Registry.
LP-070 --- ML-DSA-65 Identity Proof Lane.
LP-073 --- Ringtail Ring-LWE Threshold Signature.
LP-075 --- BLS12-381 Aggregate Signature Lane.
LP-105 --- Quasar Consensus Family Specification (Photon, Wave, Focus, Nova, Nebula).
LP-132 --- QuasarGPU Execution Adapter.
LP-133 --- Quasar-Native App Stack for Sovereign Appchains.
LP-134 --- Lux Chain Topology and White-Label D-Chain Template (P/C/X/Q/Z/A/B/M/F/D-Chains).
LP-137 --- GPU-Residency Invariant.

Liquidity Protocol adoption chronology

The Liquidity Protocol adoption chronology referenced by the Zoo DEX paper:

Date	Actor	Action
2026-04-01	Liquidity.io	Formal launch of the Liquidity Protocol with soundness proof.
2026-04-20	Lux	Adopts the Liquidity Protocol on Lux C-Chain and Lux D-Chain.
2026-04-20	Hanzo	Adopts the Liquidity Protocol on Hanzo AI Chain marketplace flow.
2026-04-20	Zoo	Adopts the Liquidity Protocol on Zoo D-Chain via the Liquidity precompile.
2026-04-20	Pars	Adopts the Liquidity Protocol on Pars's regulated markets.

The proof artifact for Zoo's specific adoption is at ~/work/zoo/proofs/zoo-adopts-liquidity-protocol.tex. The Liquidity.io formal proof of the protocol itself is at ~/work/liquidity/proofs/.

Related ZIPs

ZIP-0002 --- Genesis Airdrop to Original Zoo Token Victims (1.0 → 2.0 transition).
ZIP-0005 --- Post-Quantum Security for DeFi/NFTs (2.0 → 3.0 frame).
ZIP-0015 --- Zoo L2 Chain Architecture (2.0 era).
ZIP-0017 --- DAO Governance Framework (3.0 PQ migration).
ZIP-0042 --- Cross-Ecosystem Interoperability Standard.
ZIP-0700 --- ZRC-20 Fungible Token Standard.
ZIP-0701 --- ZRC-721 NFT Standard.
ZIP-0703 --- Token-Bound Accounts for Wildlife.
ZIP-0800 --- Zoo↔Lux Bridge Protocol.
ZIP-0801 --- Zoo↔Hanzo Settlement Integration.
ZIP-0804 --- Zoo L1 Graduation (4.0 era).
ZIP-0805 --- Zoo DEX (4.0 → 4/20 DEX launch frame).

Versioning policy

Zoo version numbers track the substrate change, not the product release cadence:

A new major version (1.0 → 2.0 → 3.0 → 4.0) signals a substrate change: chain location, cryptographic posture, or execution substrate.
A new minor version (4.0 → 4.1 → 4.2) signals a feature increment on the existing substrate.
The Zoo DEX is a 4.x feature within the 4.0 substrate; its launch is a milestone, not a version bump.

This policy is itself a Final ZIP commitment as of 2026-04-20.

Backwards compatibility

This ZIP supersedes any earlier informal chronology. Where a previous document or wiki page disagrees with this table, this ZIP is authoritative.

Security considerations

This ZIP is informational; it does not change any chain behaviour and has no direct security implications. Indirectly, it serves the security goal of providing a single authoritative source for the Zoo version history that audit teams, security researchers, and incident responders can reference.

Zoo Chain Set (4.0)

Zoo 4.0 is a sovereign L1 with a chain set strictly broader than the financial-rail core. It inherits most of Lux's primary chains (P, C, X, Q, F per LP-134), runs a white-labeled D-Chain DEX, and adds Zoo-specific chains (per-LLM chains, conservation chains, experience-ledger DSO chain). Zoo L1 also natively hosts L2/L3/L4 tenants (per ZIP-0804). Zoo is not a triumvirate-only network; the triumvirate framing is reserved for Hanzo 4.0, where DEX+EVM+FHE is the entire chain set.

Zoo's financial-rail core (the same DEX+EVM+FHE subset Hanzo carries as its triumvirate):

DEX --- Zoo DEX V2 (constant product) and V3 (concentrated liquidity) with V4 as a precompile interface to the Lux DEX (lx/dex). April 20, 2026 native securities launch with Liquidity Protocol integration. Reference: ZIP-0805 Zoo DEX, paper zoo-dex-launch-2026-04-20.
EVM --- GPU-native EVM (LP-009) with Zoo-specific precompiles for confidential ERC-20 (LP-067), NFT-fractional vault aggregator, and DAO holographic-consensus weight evaluation. Reference: paper zoo-4-0-launch section "GPU-native execution".
FHE --- F-Chain (LP-013) reached natively. Confidential NFT bids, private DAO voting on conservation grants, confidential ERC-20 transfers. Reference: paper zoo-4-0-launch section 8 (Privacy).

Zoo-specific chains (beyond the financial-rail core):

Per-LLM chains --- one chain per frontier model; weights are commitments, inference is block production. Reference: paper zoo-per-llm-chains.
Conservation chains --- domain-specific subchains for wildlife NFTs, carbon credits, and impact bonds, with the 1--3% sustainability tax routed to the Foundation Treasury per ZIP-0017 / ZIP-0034.
Experience-Ledger DSO chain --- the curated experience library backing training-free model adaptation.

Zoo L1 does NOT run M-Chain (MPC), B-Chain (Bridge), A-Chain (Attestation/AI), or Z-Chain (ZK rollups); those remain Lux-primary infrastructure that Zoo accesses natively via the Lux primary network — same Quasar cert lanes, same subject-binding, same finality, no wrapped assets, no cross-chain hop tax. The boundary between Zoo's chain set and Lux primary is cert-lane subject-binding, not a bridge.

Cross-reference: LP-900 (Lux chronology), HIP-900 (Hanzo chronology), PIP-900 (Pars chronology). All four networks co-activated their 4.0 (Pars 2.0) major version on 2026-02-14.

Zoo Version History — 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 / 4.0 / DEX Launch Canonical Chronology