Zilliqa is a smart contract network with a sharded architecture that aims to address the scalability problems faced by other blockchains. Zilliqa's sharded structure was made to make the typical first-generation transaction rate of 5–20 TPS much faster. It does this by letting multiple chains do transactions at the same time, which increases the network's overall performance and capacity.
In addition to scalability, Zilliqa provides a smart contract layer that enables users to develop smart contracts utilizing Scilla, the company's native programming language. In addition, the network employs a hybrid proof of work/BFT mechanism to achieve consensus on contract executions and payments.
Zilliqa is a Singapore-based project that originated as a blockchain thesis at the National University of Singapore. In 2016, Prateek Saxena and Loi Luu wrote a white paper together that explained some things about the idea of blockchain sharding.
After the white paper was released, Saxena started Anquan Capital and Loi Luu started Kyber Network. Soon after, Anquan Capital hired Xinshu Dong as its head of engineering, and the company agreed to begin work on the Zilliqa project.
In June 2017, Zilliqa was released. It was started by Amrit Kumar, the project's chief scientific officer, Jia Yaoqi, the project's CTO, Xinshu Dong, the project's former CEO, and Max Kantelia, an advisor and board member. These individuals hold doctoral degrees in computer science and hold positions as researchers and engineers. That's how Zilliqa started.
The creators of Zilliqa (ZIL) want to aid innovators by resolving some of the most major issues that blockchain users and developers face at the same time. Zilliqa was built mainly to solve scaling problems. The network uses advanced sharding protocols along with a unique consensus mechanism to be capable of processing thousands of transactions per second.
To do this, Zilliqa is designed to split the network into smaller groups, which is also called "sharding." Then, these groups can simultaneously process transactions. The network can run thousands of these smaller groups to approve transactions faster. This way, the platform can grow to match the size of its network.
Another important problem that many blockchains face is energy consumption. PoW blockchains require a substantial amount of computational power. Blockchains, such as Bitcoin, already consume more energy than entire nations. Zilliqa was designed to address these concerns by integrating the PBFT consensus mechanism.
Sharding: Sharding is a structural technique that divides the network into multiple parts, or shards, allowing nodes to process only a portion of the network's transactions.
Each shard acts as its own blockchain, allowing nodes assigned to them to store data, process transactions, and add new blocks, known as micro blocks, to their specific shard chain.
Directory Service Nodes (or DS nodes) then put together the micro blocks into a transaction block that is added to the Zilliqa blockchain.
Notably, the shard nodes store a subset of the Zilliqa blockchain and are not required to store the complete blockchain's history.
Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT): The Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) governance mechanism is at the heart of Zilliqa, keeping the distributed network of computers in sync.
In order for nodes to power the blockchain and vote on changes, they must first stake ZIL, which means that anyone who owns ZIL can contribute to the execution of the network. Using pBFT, all nodes in a certain shard must agree before a micro block is finalized and added to a transaction block.
After that, each node receives a portion of the block reward for validating the transactions.
The Zilliqa coin can be used in the following ways:
Exchange & Trading: The Zilliqa cryptocurrency can be used for trading and exchanging with other cryptocurrencies.
International Transfer: You can quickly send money anywhere in the world without worrying about fees or taxes.
Online payment: The Zilliqa crypto is easy to use for online payments. As many e-commerce websites accept them as payment methods.
DATE | NEWS/EVENTS | IMPACT |
10/03/2023 | The CEO announced more esports ventures and an EMV compatible Money Market protocol | +31% Increase |
07/05/2022 | TerraUSD and LUNA both collapsed, and as a result, a number of crypto platforms folded in the aftermath | -33% Decrease |
23/03/2022 | Metapolis, a metaverse powered by Zilliqa, has announced a strategic brand partnership with the creative global talent award marketplace Agora | +301% Increase |
Zilliqa is proving to be an exciting addition to the cryptocurrency community, as it offers enviable transaction speeds on a scalable and secure platform that promises to be a boon for dApp and smart contract developers. These advantages, coupled with the Zilliqa team's commitment to the continued development of strategic partnerships and network upgrades, give Zilliqa a very promising future. If Zilliqa can demonstrate reliably that its scaling solution is viable, it has the potential to surpass all other cryptocurrencies. The development of this project is definitely worth monitoring.
Zilliqa