The team behind Zapp

About JustZappIt

JustZappIt is the small, independent team behind Zapp: a peer-to-peer messenger with a shielded Zcash wallet built in. The whole thesis fits in one line: encrypt your messages and your money. This page is who we are, what we build on, and the rules we hold ourselves to.

Why we exist

Who you pay and who you talk to says more about you than almost anything else you do. Today that record is collected, scored, and sold by platforms, brokers, and anyone with an API key. We think it belongs to you.

Your messages, photos, and files are encrypted by default. Your money is not. We treat that as a bug, not a fact of life.

JustZappIt exists to make private money and private conversation ordinary. Not a premium tier, not a setting buried three menus deep. The default. Zcash proved that private money is possible. Peer-to-peer networks proved that conversations do not need a server in the middle. Zapp puts both in your pocket and adds the missing piece: a way to actually spend it in the real world.

What we build

Zapp is one app with three jobs:

• A messenger. End-to-end encrypted conversations that travel peer-to-peer over Holepunch. There are no messaging servers, no phone numbers, and no sign-up. Your chat identity is derived from your wallet seed, entirely on your device.
• A wallet. A full shielded Zcash wallet, forked from Zodl. Send ZEC to a contact inside the conversation, or swap between ZEC and USDC through NEAR Intents without an exchange account.
• A way in and a way out. Buy ZEC by paying a matched merchant in your own currency, and spend it back out the same way: scan a shop's payment code, or pay out to your own payment ID, settled by verified peers on the P2P.me protocol with on-chain escrow. Cash out is also live through Peer, where a buyer pays you directly on Revolut, Zelle, Chime or Monzo in dollars, euros or pounds. No KYC on any of it.

Zapp for Android is live on Google Play, no invite needed, and iOS is in development. Install it from Google Play or read more on the app page.

Built on Zodl

Zapp is a direct fork of Zodl, formerly known as Zashi: the flagship open-source Zcash wallet built by the team that created the Zcash protocol. That lineage matters. Wallet security is not a feature you bolt on at the end; it is years of engineering by people who understand the protocol from the inside, hardened in the open.

Forking Zodl means Zapp inherits all of it: the shielded-by-default architecture, the self-custody model, and the upstream security fixes, which we track and port as they ship. On that foundation we add what a wallet alone cannot do: private messaging and a path from ZEC to cash in hand.

The stack

Every layer Zapp stands on is an open protocol or open-source software:

• Zcash

  Private money secured by zero-knowledge proofs. Shielded transactions keep sender, recipient, and amount confidential on the blockchain.

• Zodl

  The wallet foundation. Formerly Zashi, built and maintained by the Zcash protocol's original developers.

• Holepunch

  Serverless peer-to-peer transport for messaging, the same stack that powers Keet. Messages move directly between devices.

• NEAR Intents

  Cross-chain swaps between ZEC and other assets with no centralized exchange and no account.

• P2P.me

  Peer-to-peer fiat settlement in both directions. Verified peers pay out over UPI, PIX, QRIS, Mercado Pago and Pago Móvil, and match you with a merchant when you buy, secured by on-chain escrow and zero-knowledge identity proofs.

• Peer (ZKP2P)

  Cash out to the bank app you already use. You post an order, a buyer pays you on Revolut, Zelle, Chime or Monzo, and the protocol releases your USDC against a zero-knowledge proof of their payment.

Nothing in that chain requires an account with us, because there are no accounts at all.

Our principles

Self-custody

Your keys are generated on your device and stay there. We cannot access, move, or freeze your funds, and nobody can demand from us what we do not hold.

Privacy by default

Shielded transactions are the default, not an option you have to find. The app ships with no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking SDKs. This website keeps no personal data beyond the email you choose to give us for the iOS waitlist.

Consent

You should understand what happens before it happens. Zapp shows rates before you confirm a swap, marks third-party services clearly, and never nudges you into sharing more than you intended. Informed choice is a feature.

Open foundations

Zapp builds on public, auditable code: Zcash, Zodl, Holepunch, NEAR Intents, P2P.me and Peer are all open protocols or open-source software. The privacy guarantees that matter are checkable at the protocol level. They do not depend on taking our word for it.

Neither does Zapp itself. The Android app, the iOS app and the peer-to-peer messaging SDK are all public under AGPL-3.0, a licence that obliges anyone shipping a modified version to publish their changes too. Read them at github.com/JustZappIt: zapp-android, ios-zapp, zappmessaging-sdk.

Contact

Zapp is built by a small independent team. If you found a bug, want to shape what gets built next, or just want to say hello, the inbox is open.