Start Here
Orbinum is a Substrate chain with a shielded pool: balances and transfers inside it are private, verified by zero-knowledge proofs rather than by anyone being able to read them. It is EVM-compatible, so the same account works with MetaMask and with Substrate tooling.
Two properties shape everything else in these docs:
- Nothing on-chain reveals who owns what. A note is a commitment — a hash. Finding your own notes means trial-decrypting memos with your viewing key, which is why discovery has its own design.
- Private transactions carry no signature. The fee lives inside the proof, so someone with no public balance can still spend. That is why validators, not the sender, submit them.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Try it now | Quick Start — get testnet ORB and make a private transfer |
| Understand the idea first | Vision and Use Cases |
| Know how privacy works | Privacy Architecture, then Note Discovery |
| Build on it | SDK, or the EVM precompiles if you work from Solidity |
| Run a node | Running a Node — four roles, pick one |
| Secure the network | Becoming a Validator |
| Understand the token | Network Economy |
Using the shielded pool
The three operations, and what each reveals:
| Operation | Moves | Public |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | public balance → a private note | that you shielded, and how much |
| Private transfer | note → note | nothing but that a transfer happened |
| Unshield | note → public balance | the recipient and the amount |
Shielding and unshielding are the visible edges; what happens between them is not. A transfer publishes a nullifier and new commitments with no link between them — see Private Vault for the walkthrough.
Testnet only
Orbinum is in testnet. Tokens have no economic value, the chain may be reset, and mainnet is not live.
Next Steps
- Quick Start — a private transfer in five steps
- Faucet — 10 ORB every 24 hours
- Vision — the problem this is solving