Mind Network

We recently announced the arrival of x402z. This infrastructure resolves the critical conflict between blockchain transparency and the strategic needs of AI Agents.
Now, let’s take a closer look at how it works.
Developed in deep collaboration with our FHE technology partner ZAMA, x402z leverages Fully Homomorphic Encryption and the ERC-7984 standard. It enables AI Agents to execute autonomous payments while strictly protecting their commercial intent.

The Transparency Paradox: Escaping the Digital Panopticon
The "Panopticon" allows a single watchman to observe every inmate unseen. We have inadvertently rebuilt this architecture for the AI economy. We expect AI Agents to act as autonomous strategists. However, we force them to operate on public ledgers. This creates a digital Panopticon where every financial movement remains permanently visible.
This creates a fundamental contradiction. In high-frequency markets, visibility equals vulnerability. If an Agent exposes its cost structure, liquidity sources, and purchasing intent on a public ledger, its competitive advantage evaporates before the transaction confirm.

True autonomy requires privacy. We cannot build a functional machine economy inside a transparent environment.
x402z allows us to solve this problem. We are transforming the exposed nature of public blockchains into a secure terrain where Agents can operate strategically.
A Convergence of Ideologies
Technological breakthroughs often emerge from a shared vision. As our FHE technology partner, ZAMA recognized early on that Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) represents the prerequisite for a free digital society. x402z stands as the realization of that shared foresight.
We integrated the ZAMA technology stack at the primitive level and anchored our architecture on the ERC-7984 Confidential Token Standard. This shifts the paradigm of value itself. Traditional tokens function like exposed currency. They remain visible to any observer. In contrast, x402z assets use encrypted data types. Under this new standard, network validators verify proofs of interaction without ever viewing the raw numbers. The ledger records the truth of the transaction while the value remains a secret shared only between the machine and its owner.
Solving the Payment Deadlock
The necessity of this infrastructure becomes clear in machine-to-machine transactions. Consider an Agent seeking proprietary financial data. In the current architecture, purchasing a specific dataset reveals the trading strategy to the entire market.
With x402z and the x402 protocol, this dynamic changes. The workflow proceeds as follows:
The Agent encounters a 402 Payment Required gateway.It autonomously generates a ZAMA-encrypted payment instruction.Mind Network’s FHE Validation Network executes the calculation in a Zero Trust environment.The payment settles and the data flows.

The market observes that a transaction occurred, but the specific value and intent remain hidden. This mechanism ensures the interaction remains effective and private.
Zero Trust: From "Don't Be Evil" to "Can't Be Evil"
Cryptography depends entirely on the security of its execution environment. Mind Network provides the Zero Trust Layer that operationalizes ZAMA’s encryption standards.
We have moved beyond the old internet maxim of "Don't be evil." In a decentralized autonomous economy, we must rely on systems that "Can't be evil." Our FHE Validation Network ensures that the consensus process itself respects the privacy of the data it secures. Developers can now adopt a trust model based on invisible interaction. You focus on the intelligence of your agents. We handle cryptographic security.
We stand at the threshold of a new epoch where AI Agents will act as the primary economic operators. They deserve an infrastructure that honors their strategic intent. With ZAMA’s foundational support and the architecture of x402z, we do more than simply hide transactions. We secure the underlying logic of the future digital economy.
About Mind Network
Mind Network pioneers quantum-resistant Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) infrastructure, powering a fully encrypted internet through secure data and AI computation. In collaboration with industry leaders, Mind Network is establishing HTTPZ — a Zero Trust Internet Protocol — to set new standards for trusted AI and encrypted on-chain data processing in Web3 and AI ecosystems.
Mind Network is backed by notable investors including Binance Labs, Cogitent, Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Chainlink, and has received two Ethereum Foundation Grants for its FHE research. Partnering with industry leaders like Zama, Mind Network is building a fully encrypted infrastructure, committed to realizing the vision of HTTPZ for the next generation internet.

Mind Network community,
As we head into 2026, the backdrop is unusually strong for what we are building: cryptography-native infrastructure that makes onchain commerce usable for institutions and safe for autonomous agents.
Why the macro setup looks good
Global capital is still expanding, and allocating into new rails.
Stable coins drive capital into crypto. The total crypto market cap is roughly $3.08T, and stablecoins are about $312B of that, and may approach triple digit growth in 2026.Privacy is no longer optional. It is becoming a budget line. The Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) market is estimated at $4.97B in 2025, forecast to $12.26B by 2030 (about 19.8% CAGR), with regulated sectors leading demand.
This is exactly the environment where “zero trust” primitives win, because they let markets scale without turning transparency into a liability.
Additional macro tailwinds to watch in 2026
ISM surveys are quietly turning constructive.
Recent ISM Manufacturing and Services data show easing contraction and improving new orders expectations, a pattern that historically precedes liquidity expansion and risk asset reflation. When ISM bottoms and reaccelerates, crypto tends to outperform as forward-looking capital prices in growth before it shows up in GDP prints.
US debt maturity is an underappreciated catalyst
A large portion of US Treasury issuance from the Biden administration matures in late 2025 and 2026. As highlighted by Raoul Pal, refinancing this debt at higher rates materially tightens fiscal conditions, increasing pressure for renewed liquidity measures. Historically, periods of refinancing stress and balance sheet expansion have coincided with higher nominal prices for scarce, global assets like crypto.
x402 is real momentum, and it is pointing straight at x402z
Coinbase's x402 is explicitly designed as an open, HTTP-native payment protocol enabling automatic stablecoin payments over HTTP, including for AI agents paying for services programmatically.
That matters because it sets a new default: machine-to-machine commerce as a first-class internet primitive.
But the moment you move from humans to agents, transparency assumptions break. If every agent payment is fully observable, strategy leakage becomes systemic.
That is why we built x402z, the confidential payment layer for agents: verifiable settlement onchain, without exposing the commercial intent, cost structure, or tactics that agents rely on to compete. This is the core thesis we laid out publicly in our x402z manifesto.
What we are confident about in 2026
Agents will pay for data, compute, and APIs like they rent electricity. x402 makes the payment path simple.The next constraint becomes privacy and compliance, not payment rails. PETs growth signals that the market is already budgeting for cryptographically enforced privacy.Mind Network is positioned as the zero-trust layer for this transition, spanning data privacy, transaction privacy, and asset privacy, with infrastructure designed for commercial-grade security.
Our focus for the year
In 2026, we will push x402z from “new product” to “default requirement” for serious agent commerce. That means tighter integrations, clearer developer workflows, and partnerships that put confidential A2A payments into real production paths.
Thank you for building with us, shipping with us, and holding the line on what matters: privacy as a prerequisite for functional markets.
Christian Pusateri @TheTAOofData
CEO, Mind Network

A shared judgment on the future of Web3 is evolving into a technological fusion that defines next-generation infrastructure.
This article will frame the journey of Mind Network and Chainlink for the Mind Network community.
The starting point of this story is a profound insight: If ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proofs) solved the problem of verifiability for Web3, then FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption) will solve the problem of confidential computing.
This journey demonstrates how a shared commitment evolves into a deep engineering implementation based on FHE.
Phase 1: Starting with Strategic Trust and Ecosystem Building (Build)
“If we want a civilization with privacy, we have to make it. We have to be computers, cryptographers, and… build the systems that give us the privacy we want.”—Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
This call to action from Cryptonomicon is the spiritual core of Mind Network. Privacy is not the default; it must be actively built.
When Mind Network announced its first $2.5 million seed round, Chainlink was already listed as a “key strategic partner.” Mind Network shares a common goal with institutions like Binance Labs and Consensys: “to enhance the security and data privacy of the entire Web3 ecosystem.”
This strategic alignment materialized in January 2023: Mind Network officially joined the Chainlink Build program.

Joining Build was a public declaration of commitment. The goal was clear: to accelerate the adoption of the “decentralized privacy-preserving data lake.” Through this program, Mind Network gained expert technical guidance and vast ecosystem resources from the Chainlink Labs team.
To achieve deep ecosystem alignment, Mind Network committed 3% of its total native token supply to Chainlink service providers (including stakers).
This commitment has recently begun to be actualized through Chainlink Rewards Season 1.
In this program, Mind Network’s native token (FHE) will be claimable by eligible LINK token stakers. This not only strengthens the economic security of the Chainlink network but also allows Mind Network’s token to be deeply integrated into Chainlink’s ecosystem.
Learn more here: https://blog.chain.link/chainlink-rewards-season-1
Phase 2: From “HTTP” to “HTTPZ”
“Privacy is not secrecy… Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”Bruce Schneier, renowned cryptographer and security thinker
Bruce Schneier provides the best technical definition of “privacy”: it is about “control.” FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption) is the ultimate technology for achieving this control.
This collaboration quickly pivoted to core technology integration to solve one of the industry’s most difficult challenges: cross-chain security and privacy.
Web2’s HTTPS protocol only encrypts data “in transit.”
Web3 needs a protocol that encrypts data “in transit, at rest, and in use.” This is HTTPZ, a true Zero-Trust Network.
In May 2024, FHE engineering breakthroughs led to the FHE Bridge, an institutional-level product developed by Mind Network using Chainlink CCIP.

This revolutionary solution is the first to simultaneously solve the dual challenges of cross-chain security and computational privacy:
The Quantum-Resistant Encryption Layer (FHE): The FHE algorithms are based on lattice cryptography, making them inherently resistant to quantum computing attacks. It allows computation and validation directly on encrypted data, which is the key to achieving a true “HTTPZ.”The Interoperability Standard (CCIP): As the industry-standard cross-chain solution, Chainlink CCIP provides the FHE Bridge with an unparalleled foundation of security and messaging capabilities.
In simple terms: When a user interacts with the FHE Bridge, MindSAP (FHE stealth address protocol) encrypts the user’s transactional intent and addresses. The FHE validation nodes can then compute the validity of the transaction without ever decrypting this information. Finally, the instructions and assets are securely transmitted to the destination chain via CCIP.
This marks the evolution of the collaboration from “ecosystem building” to “technical building.”
Advancing Together: Empowering Agentic AI and the “Autonomous Intelligent Economy”
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”Alan Kay, computer science pioneer, Turing Award winner

The story of Mind Network and Chainlink is one of commitment and evolution.
Strategic Trust: Chainlink as a key strategic partner.Ecological Commitment: Joining Build and launching Rewards Season 1, deeply participating in Chainlink’s ecosystem.Technological Fusion: Developing the FHE Bridge, merging FHE’s quantum-resistant encrypted computation with CCIP’s secure cross-chain messaging.
This story proves the Mind Network philosophy: True builders find each other.
The FHE Bridge is not just built for token transfers; it is building critical infrastructure for the next wave of Web3.
The essence of AI is processing data, yet the essence of blockchain is public transparency. A fully transparent AI agent cannot protect trade secrets, hold an edge in financial markets, or protect user privacy. The rise of Agentic AI will transform confidential computing from a “nice-to-have” into a “must-have.”
This is where FHE becomes essential. FHE allows an AI agent to perform computation and reasoning on encrypted data, giving it the most critical capability: “The Ability to Think Confidentially.”
But an agent that only “thinks” is not enough; it must “act.” In a multi-chain universe, an agent that cannot move cross-chain is crippled. Chainlink CCIP, as the industry standard interoperability protocol, provides its second critical capability: “The Ability to Act Securely.”
Therefore, the FHE Bridge is the prototype of a complete infrastructure stack:
Mind Network (FHE) provides the “Confidential Brain.”Chainlink (CCIP) provides the “Secure Nervous System.”
Whether it’s the x402 protocol for AI agent micropayments or sensitive transactions involving RWAs (Real-World Assets) by institutions, FHE will play an indispensable role in protecting commercial secrets and transactional privacy.
When AI agents or institutions need to execute complex, cross-chain tasks involving confidential data, they will require a channel that is both secure (powered by CCIP) and private (guaranteed by FHE). This is the future Mind Network and Chainlink are building together.
This journey is just beginning.

Mind Network is deploying its FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption) driven secure intelligent agent ecosystem on BytePlus cloud infrastructure, achieving privacy protection and verifiable cross-platform execution for AI Agents.
Today, AI and agents are becoming the next 'app store', transforming the way we live and work. Tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and their plugins have become a part of our daily lives.
There is no doubt that the era of AI Agents has arrived, and the growth rate is rapid.
However, this rapid expansion also brings three fundamental challenges:

Mind Network is an innovative pioneer in the fields of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Decentralized Confidential Computing (DeCC). It has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BytePlus to jointly promote the construction of secure AI infrastructure and lay the foundation for privacy-protecting intelligent services.
This collaboration combines Mind Network's expertise in encrypted data protection with BytePlus's capabilities in AI model deployment and function computing cloud services. Through technological integration, both parties will accelerate the construction and promotion of a scalable and secure agent ecosystem.