What is Zilliqa -:
Zilliqa was the first public blockchain that effectively implemented sharding. Essentially, sharding is a feature that will allow a blockchain to scale linearly as it grows. There are now a plethora of projects that are trying to use sharding to increase. Transaction throughput and scale their block chains, and this is for a good reason. Blockchain bloat is a problem that is now facing many of the largest blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Moreover, this blockchain bloat slows down the network and hikes the transaction fees. Not the best scenario for mass adoption. However, with Zilliqa's approach, there could theoretically be no limit on the number of transactions processed per second. Pretty mind blowing to be honest. So then, how exactly does it work? Well, let's start with a look at their technology.
Zilliqa Working -:
Now as I mentioned, Central Zilliqa is their sharding based blockchain. With most other blockchains, as more nodes are put onto the network, the harder it is to reach consensus. Hence, as these blockchains grow, processing transactions and propagating blocks takes longer. Zilliqa on the other hand basically rebuilds the blockchain architecture from scratch. The model they're using has a hybrid consensus protocol that will increase throughput with every additional 600 nodes on the network. This works by dividing the work done on the network, with throughput increasing for every 600 new nodes. The result is a network that scales with an increase in its size. The team has actually done some tests on this and with 1800 nodes the network is able to process about 1200 transactions per second. Increase that to 2400 nodes and you can theoretically get over 1700 transactions per second. Now compare that. To Ethereum, for example, which has about 25,000 nodes on its network and can only process about 15 transactions per second. Now, this is all possible because sharding breaks up the number of nodes on the network into these groups of 600, where each individual group is a Shard. These divide the work being done on the network, with each Shard responsible for just a portion of the network transactions.
Zilliqa Consensus Method -:
Moving on though, another important component of the Zilliqa blockchain is their consensus method. Zilliqa uses a hybrid consensus mechanism consisting of proof of work and Byzantine fault tolerance. Proof of work is not used as it is in traditional blockchain mining. Instead, each node begins by completing a proof of work hash, this does not result in any blockchain reward, but instead is used to establish the node identity. By forcing nodes to establish their identity, the Zilliqa network avoids any potential Sybil attack. This is where a bad actor would create multiple identities in an attempt to overwhelm the network. Once the nodes identity is proven through proof of work, the node can be assigned to Shard shards. Find consensus through Byzantine fault tolerance which is a high throughput consensus mechanism with finality. This mechanism is being used by a number of other projects including NEO and Hyperledger etc.
Zilliqa Open Source -:
Now, much like Ethereum, external developers can also code smart contracts on the silica blockchain. The silica team have developed their own language which is used to program these contracts. It's called. Silla it's a functional programming language that allows for static checks and formal verifications. This helps users to verify contract is safe before we're using it. There are a number of pros and cons that this has over Ethereum solidity.
Zilliqa Token ZIL -:
Now let's move on to zilliqa's token, shall we? These are known by the ticker ZIL, and they provide the fuel for the silica ecosystem. Much like other smart contract based platforms, it's used to pay for transaction fees, incentivize miners and for gas to execute contracts. ZIL tokens were initially released as an ERC 20 token. Through an ethereum based ICO that took place back in January of 2018. This was a combination of a private and a crowd sale that saw the project raise over $40 million at the time, so it's quite well funded. Price movement since then have been wild. They recent all time high of over $0.20 in May of 2019. but been sliding ever since then , It's not all that bad though. Prices are still above the IPO price, which is much more than could be said for a number of other projects. In January of 2019, Zelica released their main net, which meant the issuance of their native ZIL tokens. You can exchange your. ERC 20 ZIL tokens for the native variant on any participating exchange.
Zilliqa Team -:
The Zilliqa team is comprised primarily of PhDs in computer science with an academic background. In fact, Zilliqa was born from an R&D project of the National University of Singapore and after more than two years of work, had a functioning blockchain before the silica ICO. There have been a few changes at the team since the ICO, with former CEO and the former chief scientific advisor both stepping down from active roles and becoming advisors to the project. The Zilliqa developers actually been quite busy at work. This is something that you can verify yourself. If you head on over to their GitHub repository, so then how are the markets shaping up for ZIL? Zil's listed on a number of exchanges including Binance, Wobi, Upfit, Kucoin, etc. Volumes appear to be well spread out across the exchanges. Although Binance commands the lion's share of this volume. The order books appear to be quite voluminous and deep. Great signs for the liquidity of the zil token. Finally, in terms of offline storage, this will depend on what token variant you have. If you still have the ERC 20 type, then there are a range of wallets that you can use. If you've already converted your token to the native version, then you have more limited selection the developers recommend moonlet wallet. This is actually a pretty nifty wallet. It will support .zil domain names, something that silica has implemented to provide human readable , Addresses.
Final Take Zilliqa -:
So then, what's the final take on silica? Well, I'm cautiously optimistic about it. There's no doubt that scaling is oppression issue, and there are numerous blockchains that see the need for innovative solutions. Many of these relate to off chain scaling networks, whereas others use unique consensus method. Zilliqa has built their solution from the ground up, and they are the first public blockchain to launch with sharding. The hybrid consensus mechanism that they use is also quite unique and combines innovations that have been used with great effectiveness on other blockchains. Moreover, Zilliqa also functions as a developer blockchain where others can build decentralized applications. A great way to increase adoption of the network, there's a look at team is also quite strong and they've been active in their development. Their road map is exciting and I'm looking forward to the numerous updates that are in the pipeline . Now of course, I'd be naive if I were to say that there are no challenges. Firstly, although Zilliqa has first mover advantage, there are a number of other projects that are building their. Own sharding solutions. Prime among these is ethereum itself, with sharding being one of the most important eips in their road map. I'm also quite disappointed in the price of Zil. Although there was a minor uptick after the main net launch, they have continued a steady downward trend, something that may continue if markets remain in flux. I'll be keeping a close eye on Zilliqa over the coming months, and I'll keep you posted and. That's all folks, but I'm curious though, what do you think of silica? Do you have any questions for me? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments below.
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