On September 12, Binance revealed its 39th project on the HODLer Aidrops portal, created to reward users retroactively, based on historical snapshots of their BNB holdings.
The latest project on the portal is Boundless (ZKC) - a universal protocol that promises to make blockchains Internet-scale.
What is Boundless (ZKC)?
Boundless is a decentralized market, aggregation, and smart contract settlement protocol that was created to scale ZK-powered verifiable compute for all blockchains, according to the official whitepaper of the project.
Boundless enables independent prover nodes to generate ZK proofs on behalf on:
- L1s
- Apps
- Rollups
- Infrastructure across all chains
The project provides a consistent scalability and interoperability layer:
- By offloading computation to the Boundless network and verifying proofs onchain
- Without requiring changes to existing networks
Official notes of the project reveal that the capacity scales horizontally and adding nodes directly increases throughput - all this makes Boundless the foundational layer for ZK proving throughout the blockchain ecosystem.
What is ZK Coin or ZKC?
ZKC is the native token of the Boundless protocol used to secure each proof. The project claims that ZKC works as the "backbone for all ZK Proving":
- Provers must stake ZKC as collateral before a cycle is computed.
- As more protocols use Boundless, more ZKC will be locked behind their proofs.
Builders will pay for proofs using their own protocol's native token, such as ETH on Ethereum or USDC/SOL on Solana - Boundless is created to become the native ZK infrastructure for every ecosystem.
The PoVW Mechanism
PoVW is a new invention of the Boundless project, and it's defined as a permissionless incentive mechanism that enables provers to mine ZKC for their proving work.
Provers who generate unique ZK proofs are rewarded in ZKC. Provers can become eligible for such rewards by staking an amount of ZKC that scales with the size of their aggregate proving work for a given time (or epoch).
Provers can stake ZKC and claim the PoVW incentives from any market/network, which extends the ZKC use beyond the Boundless market.
The difference between the traditional PoW system and the POVW is that while the hashes produced by miners are discarded and not useful for applications, in PoVW, useful computation that powers protocols in all ecosystems is rewarded. This way, proofs power real-world applications.
ZKC Use Cases
The ZKC powers the Boundless protocol in multiple ways, including the following:
- Proving collateral - Provers must stake ZKC as collateral before accepting a proof request.
- Protocol staking - Staking ZKC is required to participate in the Boundless ecosystem, and via staking, participants can earn POVW rewards and take part in protocol governance.
- Mining rewards - Prover nodes earn 75% of each epoch's emission via POVW.
- Powering governance - ZKC holders can participate in protocol governance by staking ZKC.
Token Allocation
The initial ZKC token allocation is as follows:
- 49% goes for ecosystem growth - including funding for verifiable apps. protocol integration, developer tooling, protocol maintenance, infrastructure development, strategic growth fund
- 23.5% goes to the core team and early contributors - the tokens go to supporters who took Boundless from concept to the mainnet, to RISC Zero (Boundless' incubator), future hires, research, and more
- Approximately 6% goes to the community token sale and airdrop - the tokens go to early contributors, including provers and kaito yappers
- 21.5% goes to investors - strategic partners who provided capital, feedback, tech support, and industry reach during the first stages of the project
Inflation Rate
ZKC inflation rate is set to drop from 7% to 3% in 20 years.
ZKC must be staked as collateral for every proof request, and the effective circulating supply tightens as demand for proofs grows. This, combined with the burn mechanics from slashed collateral, links ZKC distribution to network usage, as revealed in the official project notes.
Fueling the Economy of the Future
The project has been designed to "fuel the economy of the future", according to the team behind it.
The ZKC airdrop portal went live on September 8, 2025, and it targets everyone who brought Boundless to life:
- Builders
- Contributors
- Believers
The project's importance is recognized by Binance, the biggest crypto exchange in the world, which announced Boundless as the latest project on HODLer Airdrops ahead of its listing on the main exchange.
Binance's Boundless (ZKC) Listing Details
Binance will list ZKC on September 15, at 14:00 (UTC), with the Seed Tag applied, and it will open trading for the following pairs:
- ZKC/USDC
- ZKC/USDT
- ZKC/FDUSD
- ZKC/TRY
- ZKC/BNB
Binance Alpha will be the first platform to list ZKC.
Users can start depositing ZKC today, September 12, at 12:00 (UTC).
