ZKP2P

ZKP2P is a trust-minimized, peer-to-peer fiat-to-crypto onramp and offramp powered by zero-knowledge cryptography. Founded in November 2023 by Richard Liang and Sachin Kansal (credited as richardzliang and 0xSachinK), the project received early grant funding from the Ethereum Foundation's Privacy and Scaling Explorations group. In early 2026 it rebranded to Peer, operating at peer.xyz, reflecting a strategic shift from technology-led positioning toward a user-first mission: making technology simpler and finance fairer.

The core problem ZKP2P addresses is the trust gap in peer-to-peer crypto trading. When a buyer and seller agree to exchange fiat for crypto, someone has to move first. Traditional P2P exchanges resolve this with custodians, escrow agents, or reputation systems — all of which reintroduce intermediaries and the fees, delays, and counterparty risk they bring. ZKP2P replaces the intermediary with cryptographic proof.

How It Works

The protocol operates through two interlocking layers: an intent-based onchain escrow and an off-chain cryptographic verification system.

When a buyer wants to acquire crypto, they signal an intent onchain. The protocol locks the corresponding seller's liquidity in a smart contract escrow for a defined time window. The buyer then transfers fiat to the seller's account using a supported Web2 payment app — Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Wise, Revolut, or Zelle. Once the transfer is sent, the buyer (or in some configurations, the seller) generates a cryptographic attestation proving the payment occurred. The escrow contract verifies this proof and releases the crypto automatically. No human arbiter, no support ticket, no waiting period beyond the settlement itself.

On a good connection, the entire flow — intent, fiat transfer, proof generation, and crypto delivery — resolves in under 60 seconds.

Cryptographic Verification

ZKP2P V1, launched in 2023, used zkEmail: buyers proved they had received a Venmo payment-confirmation email by generating a zero-knowledge proof over its contents using the 0xParc/PSE zkEmail libraries. The proof revealed only what was strictly necessary — transaction ID, date, currency, amount, and recipient identifier — while keeping the full email contents private. TLSNotary offered a parallel path, generating proofs over raw TLS session data from payment APIs.

V2, released in February 2025, moved to a more flexible and performance-optimized architecture. Payment data is now verified inside AWS Nitro Enclaves — Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) that provide hardware-level attestations. Two verification modes are supported: Buyer TEE Verification, where the buyer's payment data is validated inside the enclave, and Seller Autopilot, where the seller-side payment data is checked instead. The V2 smart contract stack includes EscrowV2 for custody, OrchestratorV2 for the intent lifecycle and fee routing, and UnifiedPaymentVerifierV2 for processing payment attestations and enforcing protocol rules such as snapshot matching, nullifier tracking, and amount caps.

The PeerAuth browser extension handles secure communication between the user's Web2 payment account and the enclave, without exposing session credentials or personal account details to any third party. Proofs are generated locally and discarded after verification.

Payment Rails and Chain Support

ZKP2P supports the payment methods most widely used in its target markets. In the United States, buyers and sellers can transact using Venmo, Cash App, Wise, and Zelle. In Europe, Revolut and Wise are supported. PayPal is available more broadly.

On the crypto side, the protocol can settle to USDC, ETH, cbBTC, and a range of ERC-20 tokens. Supported chains include Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Solana, and Hyperliquid, with the platform citing 20+ chains and 20+ fiat currencies in its current documentation. The order book is managed by a quoter backend that indexes all active liquidity across sellers and provides REST APIs for quote fetching, enabling dynamic matching at market rates.

Fee Model and Privacy

ZKP2P charges no platform service fee. Sellers set their own rates, and exchange rate spreads typically fall between 0.5% and 1%. Users pay only minimal onchain gas costs. This compares favorably to regulated onramp services, which typically charge 3% to 4.5% in fees.

The privacy design is a direct consequence of the protocol's architecture. Because verification is handled cryptographically, ZKP2P does not require users to submit government ID, complete KYC forms, or link bank accounts to the platform. The protocol confirms that a payment occurred and that the payer controls the relevant account — nothing else. No personal data is stored onchain or retained by the protocol.

Ecosystem and Developer Access

ZKP2P is designed to be composable. Developers can embed Peer onramps and offramps into wallets, exchanges, and applications via SDKs and APIs. The project maintains open-source examples and a browser extension template for payment verification, as well as zkp2p-skills — a repository of agent skills following the AgentSkills standard that allows AI agents to interact with the protocol.

The ZKP2P x Hyperliquid integration, announced in mid-2026, positions the protocol as a direct path from bank account to perpetuals trading without touching a centralized exchange, extending the original onramp use case into active trading workflows.

Rebrand to Peer

The transition from ZKP2P to Peer, completed in early 2026, reflects a maturation in both the technology and the project's positioning. Early versions required users to understand zero-knowledge proofs to appreciate why the system was trustworthy. As the cryptographic plumbing became reliable infrastructure, the team shifted focus to user experience: a fast, private, zero-middleman way to move money across the fiat-crypto boundary. The new name emphasizes the human relationship — two counterparties transacting directly — over the mechanism that enables it.

The rebrand did not change the underlying protocol or its properties. ZKP2P's GitHub organization (github.com/zkp2p), original documentation URLs at docs.zkp2p.xyz, and protocol contracts remain associated with the project. The live application is accessible at peer.xyz.