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Mazacoin, MZC and MAZA: what to check in an older wallet

Published 2026-11-10 UTC

Mazacoin became MAZA. Check official ticker-renaming and wallet notes, distinguish the 2016 migration steps from the 2022 client, and avoid lookalike tokens.

AltQuick lists Mazacoin as MAZA against Bitcoin. Official project sources treat Mazacoin, the older MZC ticker, and MAZA as the same native coin — now called MAZA — not a newly issued replacement token. If you have an older wallet, a data folder, or a balance labeled Mazacoin or MZC, this is a source-and-identity guide for coins you already control.

It is not a recovery service, and it is not a promise that a forgotten wallet can always be opened, or that an older official wallet file will work in a later official client.

What the project has said about its origins

The official project site, mazacoin.org, dates the project's start to 2013 and names Payu Harris as founder. It says Maza Coin began with a focus on providing the Oglala Sioux a more independent economy, and that it now wants to help Native American and other sovereign community economies. That is the site's own description of its aim. It is not, by itself, evidence of current official tribal adoption or of wide use in those communities today.

Some early 2014 coverage described Mazacoin as the official currency of the Oglala Sioux or the Lakota Nation. Contemporary reporting from Native Sun News, published on Indianz, quoted then–Tribal President Bryan Brewer saying the tribal council had not approved a new currency, and that a letter of support from the economic development office to continue research was not official adoption. This article does not treat MAZA as tribal legal tender.

An April 27, 2022, MIT Technology Review profile placed the public launch in 2014 and described Harris's original aim as still alive but unfinished, including efforts at that time to win buy-in from tribe members. That is 2022 reporting, not a 2026 status update and not a finding that the coin has been adopted as an official tribal currency.

The name changed. The coin did not.

In the official MAZA v0.10.2 release notes (published October 11, 2016), the project documented a change of "Mazacoin & MZC to MAZA" and a change of the default data directory name from mazacoin to maza.

AltQuick's asset and market pages use Mazacoin and the ticker MAZA. When you generate a deposit address on AltQuick, it should be a MAZA address for this listed asset.

Other tokens can reuse similar ticker letters on other chains. Official MAZA is a native coin with its own network, not a stand-in for a similarly named token. Do not send a token from another chain to a MAZA deposit address, and do not send MAZA to an address created for a different asset.

If you still have an older official wallet

The same official v0.10.2 notes tell people updating from older official clients to back up wallet.dat to a safe place first.

Later official clients use a maza data directory. In the official v0.16.3 Core source, the default locations are ~/.maza on Linux, ~/Library/Application Support/Maza on macOS, and %APPDATA%\Maza on Windows. If you still have an older mazacoin directory from a pre-rename official client, the 2016 v0.10.2 notes describe moving the directory (or wallet.dat) into the new maza location, renaming mazacoin.conf to maza.conf, and removing peers.dat.

Those steps were written for the 2016 v0.10.2 client, not for the 2022 v0.16.3 client, and this article did not test them with either. Do not treat the 2016 notes as a current procedure for v0.16.3, and do not assume an older official wallet.dat will open in the later client. For example, when v0.16.3 creates a new data directory it also creates a wallets subfolder and then looks for wallets there, so a wallet.dat copied into the top level of maza afterwards may not be the wallet it loads.

Work on copies only. Keep an untouched backup of the original wallet.dat and folder. Read the official release notes before you move anything. Do not treat third-party "wallet recovery" pages or search ads as a substitute.

These rename steps apply to existing official-client wallet data. They do not restore missing private keys, repair every damaged wallet, or remove wallet encryption. Renaming a data folder is not a substitute for the wallet backup and password you need. Do not send wallet.dat, a seed phrase, a password, or a private key to support, to a chat contact, or to anyone who offers to recover coins for you.

Official wallet sources

The official site says it is best to keep MAZA in a wallet you control, and that the official desktop wallet can be downloaded from GitHub for Windows, Linux, and Mac. As of this check, the latest tagged official Core release is MAZA v0.16.3, published January 13, 2022. Get it only from that official GitHub release, not from a random download site. The official 0.16.3 macOS and Windows installer filenames are marked unsigned, and the release page lists no SHA256SUMS or signature files. This article did not install or test the binaries. The official site still also links some v0.10.2 packages; if you are installing official Core today, use the latest official release on that GitHub releases page unless you have a specific reason to use an older client.

The official site also recommends Komodo Wallet (desktop for Windows, Mac, and Linux; mobile for iOS and Android, with iOS described as beta) and links Komodo Platform's downloads page. That official URL currently redirects to Gleec downloads at gleec.com. Confirm that MAZA appears in the wallet's own asset list before sending coins. This article did not test Komodo or Gleec software, does not promise that either will open or spend an older official Core wallet, and does not recommend installing an iOS beta build.

Official mainnet source code sets the pubkey address version to 50 — addresses of that type start with M — and defines a bech32 human-readable part maza. Use only the deposit address AltQuick shows for MAZA. Do not assume every address format the software can create is accepted as a deposit.

If you want to sell MAZA on AltQuick

The official project site lists AltQuick's MAZA/BTC market and Swap among ways to buy or sell MAZA. A listing is not a promise that a buyer is waiting for your full balance at the price you want, and a sell is not a guaranteed fill.

Before you transact, check system status for the services you will actually use. MAZA deposit availability matters if you are depositing coins rather than selling a balance already credited on AltQuick. MAZA/BTC trading must be enabled to sell. If you want to take Bitcoin proceeds off the site, Bitcoin withdrawals must be available. Check the FAQ and the information shown for your transaction for requirements and costs. This post does not state a fee amount or a confirmation count. If those pages disagree, ask support to confirm the figures before you send coins.

On the MAZA/BTC book, a marketable limit order may fill immediately at your limit price or better; any unmatched remainder may rest on the book. Limits can be canceled; market orders cannot. Neither is a guarantee that your full size will fill.

If you deposit, paste only the MAZA deposit address generated for this asset. After you send, you can look up the transaction on a project-linked explorer such as mazacha.in. If a successful MAZA deposit does not appear as expected, contact support without sharing a seed, wallet file, password, or private key.

FAQ

Are Mazacoin, MZC, and MAZA the same coin? Yes, according to official project sources. The official v0.10.2 notes document the change from Mazacoin and MZC to MAZA. That is a rename of the same native coin, not a newly issued replacement token. Lookalike tokens on other chains are not official MAZA.

Do the 2016 wallet-migration notes apply to the 2022 client? No. Those steps were written for official v0.10.2, not for v0.16.3, and this article did not test them with either client. Do not treat the 2016 notes as a current procedure for the later client, and do not assume an older official wallet.dat will open in v0.16.3. Work only on copies and keep an untouched backup.

Can I rely on the official 0.16.3 binaries, or will another wallet open an older official wallet? The official 0.16.3 macOS and Windows installer filenames are marked unsigned, and that release lists no SHA256SUMS or signature files. This article did not install or test the binaries, and it does not promise that official v0.16.3, Komodo, or Gleec will open or spend an older official Core wallet.

If I sell MAZA on AltQuick, is a fill guaranteed? No. A market listing is not a promise that a buyer is waiting for your full balance at the price you want. A marketable limit may fill immediately at your limit price or better; any unmatched remainder may rest on the book. Before you transact, check system status for the services you will use: MAZA deposits if you are depositing, MAZA/BTC trading to sell, and Bitcoin withdrawals if you want to take BTC proceeds off the site.

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