# Zcash Names Sets a $10,000 Annual Fee for One-Character Names

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/33003
Published: 2026-10-16T03:57:01.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-16T03:57:01.000Z
Section: Technology

> Reservations cost 0.005 ZEC and place users in the registration queue. Public registration is scheduled for Oct. 30 or later if reserved users have not had a chance to register.

Zcash Names opened Early Access Thursday, Oct. 15, giving reservation holders the first chance to register payment names and setting a $10,000 annual charge for a one-character name.

The service lets users send shielded Zcash (ZEC) payments with readable names instead of long wallet addresses. Shielded transfers can obscure who sent funds, who received them and the amount from public blockchain observers.

The least expensive annual tier is $20 for names of six characters or longer. Permanent registration costs three times the annual rate. A 0.005 ZEC reservation puts a user in the registration queue.

The waitlist had 10,802 names, including 973 paid reservations made since Aug. 18. The service also listed 1,564 names as protected from public registration to limit impersonation and name squatting. Zcash Names counted 14 wallet, explorer and other app integrations during beta releases, including Cake, Edge, Noir and Zingo.

Names, associated addresses and registration histories are public.

Other privacy tools protect different parts of activity. Ekubo’s Starknet shadow accounts can hide the on-chain link to a user’s main wallet, while balances, calls and positions remain visible. The Ethereum Foundation’s zkAPI separates the identity used to pay for an API from the request, but AI providers can still see prompts, and IP addresses or request timing may enable correlation.

Public registration is scheduled for Oct. 30, but may begin later if reserved users have not all had an opportunity to register.