Zaal Panthaki - electrical engineer turned open-source builder. He led a $1.5M robotics project, then pointed that systems instinct at creator infrastructure: founding The ZAO, co-founding WaveWarZ, and shipping 80+ projects in public. Here's the whole arc.
Every venture points the same way: give creators the ownership, upside, and infrastructure that extractive platforms take - and build it all in public.
Zaal trained as an electrical engineer at RIT and spent his early career in automation, leading a $1.5M robotics project before moving to building automation at The Jackson Laboratory in Maine. That systems discipline is the foundation: real, running systems, not slideware. In 2023 he founded The ZAO to flip the math for independent artists - and it grew into governance, on-chain markets, metaverse concerts, festivals, and an open-source fleet.
The arc, dated, from the public record.
National Ski Patroller since 2014 - the service-and-systems thread starts early.
Graduates from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Leads a $1.5M robotics project (structured-light scanning); roughly 7x throughput.
First attempt to support independent artists - the seed that becomes The ZAO.
Pivots ZTalent into a decentralized creator ecosystem on Farcaster + Base.
Flagship live events at NFT NYC and Art Basel Miami. Begins building automation at The Jackson Laboratory.
First wave of public GitHub repos - the open-source fleet starts shipping fast.
The metaverse concert series launches. Seven shows produced through 2026.
Live-traded music prediction markets on Solana, with automated artist payouts.
The ecosystem token, wrapped as an Empire with leaderboards and boosters.
A builder tournament and workshop program across artist, builder, and creator tracks.
80+ open-source repos. Open-source consulting with live Maine clients.
A flagship festival in Ellsworth, Maine - bridging rural Maine to web3. Upcoming.
All connected, all in the open. Full catalog at /projects.
The hub. Decentralized creator network with weekly Fractal governance.
On-chain music prediction markets with automated artist payouts.
A recurring metaverse concert series - seven shows and counting.
Ecosystem token plus a builder tournament. Back the work, not the coin.
80+ public repos - AI agents, Farcaster clients, creator tools.
Open-source consulting - build in the open, and it funds The ZAO.
BetterCallZaal is Zaal Panthaki, an electrical engineer and open-source builder based in Maine. He is the founder of The ZAO, a decentralized creator ecosystem, and the co-founder of WaveWarZ - building AI-agent infrastructure and creator tools in public across 80+ repositories.
The ZAO is a decentralized impact community for independent music artists, founded by Zaal Panthaki. It returns profit margin, data, and IP ownership to creators, running on Farcaster and Base with weekly peer-validated Fractal governance.
Creator infrastructure in the open: WaveWarZ (on-chain music markets on Solana), COC Concertz (metaverse concerts), ZABAL (ecosystem token and builder program), Sparkz, zaalcaster, and BCZ Strategies, an open-source consulting practice.
Zaal is an electrical engineer (B.S., RIT, 2022). He led a $1.5M robotics project at PCC Structurals and works in building automation at The Jackson Laboratory in Maine - the systems discipline behind everything he ships.
Got a problem worth solving in the open? That's the whole idea.