Horizen launched its mainnet as an EVM-native Layer 3 (L3) on Base, marking a strategic shift toward privacy-focused, auditable on-chain execution. The deployment follows the migration of the native ZEN token to an ERC-20 on Base on July 23, 2025 and the planned winding down of Horizen’s legacy mainchain and EON sidechain.

L3 architecture, enterprise focus and governance-led migration

Horizen adopted an L3 architecture to combine Ethereum’s security with a specialized privacy layer. A Layer 3 is a protocol built atop a Layer 2 that delivers tailored functionality while inheriting the underlying network’s security guarantees. By situating the new mainnet on Base — itself an Ethereum Layer 2 — Horizen aims to increase throughput and lower transaction costs without rebuilding a foundational layer from scratch, while full EVM compatibility simplifies porting and deploying decentralized applications, expands the addressable developer base and enables ZEN to interact natively with EVM tooling.

The technical rationale emphasizes enterprise usability, with lower fees and higher throughput presented as prerequisites for privacy-preserving workloads where operational efficiency is essential. The migration to ERC-20 standardization was positioned as a liquidity and interoperability move, enabling ZEN to participate in Base-native decentralized finance and to be transferred across EVM-compatible chains.

The project frames the launch as an effort to reconcile individual privacy with auditability for institutional and business use cases. Horizen’s roadmap references confidential compute features as the next substantive development, indicating a push toward private but auditable execution environments suitable for regulated actors and building on more than seven years of zero-knowledge research repurposed into a modular, privacy-oriented stack.

Decision-making for the transition was led by Horizen’s DAO and community governance processes, which guided the token migration and architectural pivot. That governance-led approach is intended to provide legitimacy and continuity as legacy infrastructure is retired.

Implications for market participants are practical rather than speculative. ERC-20 ZEN on Base improves composability with DeFi primitives and opens potential liquidity channels within the Base and broader Ethereum ecosystems, while for developers the move reduces friction to adopt Horizen’s privacy tooling and for businesses it promises auditable privacy that can fit within regulatory constraints.

Horizen’s launch positions the network as a privacy-first L3 operating within the Ethereum ecosystem, balancing confidentiality with interoperability and auditability. The key near-term milestone is the rollout of confidential compute capabilities outlined in the 2025 roadmap, which will determine whether the network can attract enterprise-grade workloads and institutional counterparties.