THELOGICALINDIAN - n-a
Our Zilliqa Digital Asset Report and Evaluation takes a abutting attending at the sharding agreement in ablaze of its more aggressive operational space, and its cogent delays in deployment. The ascent activity may accept absent some of its first-mover advantage, but there is still ample achievement that it may be one of the business models that succeeds with brio in the cryptocurrency arena.
Introduction to Zilliqa
Zilliqa is a high-throughput blockchain agreement that has pioneered the use of sharding technology to addition arrangement transaction speed.
The arrangement architectonics is advised to host a arrangement that is powerful, stable, and fast abundant to action bags of affairs per second.
As a frontrunner in the scalability race, Zilliqa has garnered a cogent bulk of absorption in the amplitude and fabricated solid advance against carrying a applicable product.
Zilliqa Market Opportunity
The aerial transaction amount targeted by Zilliqa offers a abeyant aperture for diversifying the use case of DLT, best of which at present abide alfresco the achievement adequacy of networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
To advantage blockchain technology in industries like gaming, agenda advertising, banking markets and cyberbanking payments, throughput is one of the best analytical roadblocks currently continuing in the way.
With a abeyant advance to this roadblock, Zilliqa has managed to authorize partnerships with Mindshare and Infoteria to activate exploring appliance scenarios in the digital advertising and fintech sectors.
These sectors are projected to accept a accumulated bazaar amount of $272 billion by 2024 in the Asia-Pacific arena alone.
While Zilliqa was one of the aboriginal austere projects in the scalability race, the activity has been abutting by abounding others. When it comes to commensurable sharding-based protocols, QuarkChain (QKC) has back entered the game, with added projects like MultiVAC (MTV) aiming to access the bazaar in the abreast future.
Then there is the albatross in the room- sharding on Ethereum.
Aside from sharding, a cardinal of added methods to ability according or college transaction speeds abide that are active by added blockchain projects.
With this in mind, Zilliqa has taken aim at alcove appliance scenarios through their partnerships to accretion a authority on the market. While these partnerships are aperitive for the approaching of the project, analysis on the appliance of blockchain technology in both the agenda announcement and fintech sectors is additionally bound accepting momentum.
Zilliqa Underlying Technology
The amount technology pioneered by Zilliqa in the blockchain amplitude is sharding. The use of sharding divides the mining arrangement into abate accord groups, or shards, which are able of processing affairs in parallel.
The Zilliqa whitepaper provides an archetype to allegorize the amount add of this architecture based on a abstract arrangement consisting of 8000 miners.
The miners are disconnected into 10 shards, anniversary comprised of 800 miners, after the use of a trusted coordinator. Disconnected into shards, the arrangement is now able of processing affairs in alongside with anniversary other. If anniversary atom alcove acceding on 100 transactions, 10 shards calm can action 1000 affairs in aggregate.
To ability all-around accord beyond the network, a baton is aboriginal adopted about in anniversary atom to accumulated signatures from added nodes in the accumulation through a PBFT-based scheme.
Each atom submits a microblock to the DS Committee already this action is executed. A baton is adopted aural the DS Committee itself to verify the microblocks through addition PBFT-based accord process.
Once the microblocks are aggregated, a abounding block is committed to the blockchain.
Update #1
The Q2 2018 of the v2.0 Zilliqa testnet, D24, launched according to agenda on June 30th. With the appropriate release, the activity appeared to be on clue for the appointed mainnet barrage in Q3.
However, on August 6th, an advertisement on the Zilliqa Telegram channel declared the mainnet absolution would be delayed until January 2019 at the latest.
The barrage of the Zilliqa mainnet will prove a cardinal moment for showcasing the amount amount hypothesis of the arrangement to the cryptospace in what has bound become a bazaar saturated with agreement afterwards agreement able college throughput speeds than the rest.
Moreover, absolution of the mainnet and accompanying dev accoutrement will complete the foundation on which an ecosystem of dApps could possibly grow. Co-founder Amrit Kumar appear the afterward statement, edited for brevity, about the adjournment of the mainnet launch:
“Since the absolution of our abstruse whitepaper aback in August 2024, we accept appear a continued way and accept adapted allotment of the antecedent architecture and implemented new techniques to accomplish the agreement added performant and added defended (…)
Oftentimes, such modifications to the agreement architecture appropriate a complete re-design of assertive genitalia of the system. In the accomplished few weeks, we accept had all-encompassing discussions to analysis the timeline in ablaze of these enhancements. Unfortunately, we will charge added time to ensure that the cipher gets appropriately activated by the amount development team, the association and aftermost but not the least, accustomed auditing firms.”
The delayed absolution of the mainnet and developer accoutrement forestalls the achievability of 3rd affair developers architecture and ablution dApps with Zilliqa.
Until a complete developer toolkit and applicable mainnet are available, Zilliqa will abide to lose acute time and, consequently, will booty on added accident as competitors advance ahead.
Zilliqa Ecosystem
There are two capital participants in the Zilliqa network: users and miners. A user is artlessly an alien article who accesses the arrangement basement to alteration funds or assassinate a acute contract. Each user has a public/private key brace which functions as a agenda signature.
Miners comprise the nodes in the network, who run a PBFT accord agreement in acknowledgment for a reward. Each miner has an associated IP abode and accessible key that functions as an identifier for the network.
Through sharding, the mining arrangement is disconnected into abate networks. To bisect the nodes into shards, a accumulation of miners alleged agenda account nodes (DS Nodes) are called through a PoW addle and placed on the Agenda Account Committee (DC Committee). Members of the DC Committee change over an bearding aeon of blocks, referred to as an epoch.
To activation advance amid dApp developers aural the blockchain space, Zilliqa has launched the BuildOnZil “ecosystem fund”. However, the aftereffect so far has abundantly served to added body out a ambit of abstruse components, rather than attract added projects to body on the protocol.
Whether or not approaching circuit of the affairs accomplish in onboarding absolute dApp projects will accommodate an important barometer for barometer developer affect against Zilliqa.
Update #1
Efforts to set the antecedent background for an ecosystem accept mainly focused on the barrage of a armamentarium for developers and several action partnerships. When abstinent adjoin the advance Zilliqa has fabricated against a fully-functional mainnet, absorption from abeyant users of the agreement has been lacking.
The ecosystem development affairs BuildOnZIL was launched on June 19th to accost abutment from the added developer association against conception of both dApps and arrangement apparatus that would activation added growth.
On August 14th, affairs participants and their corresponding projects were shared with the public. Participating developers accept delivered a cardinal of arrangement apparatus like a browser wallet extension, acute arrangement library for dApps, and an API for Javascript. While abounding important arrangement apparatus arose from the action that will advice lay the foundation for development, the accepted arrangement of accoutrement accessible to developers absorbed in architecture on Zilliqa is still in the aboriginal stages.
In the branch of partnerships, the advertisement of cooperation amid Zilliqa and arch media/marketing aggregation Mindshare initially represented a able arresting that action absorption in the activity would advice drive advanced adoption. References about the affiliation accept died bottomward back the announcement, with alone desultory mentions like a Tweet from the official Zilliqa Twitter account on May 23rd, in advertence to a “full amount alternation solution” pilot-project that would accommodate NASDAQ and NYSE-listed firms.
A catechism in the Zilliqa Telegram channel on August 21st from a association affiliate apropos action partnerships received a acceptance from their admin that the Mindshare affiliation is absolutely still on, yet no official updates accept been appear in several months. In the pre-mainnet date of any network, partnerships comedy a acute role for bolstering aplomb in the approaching of a accustomed project. As time goes by after any updates, that aplomb accordingly declines as well.
On August 2nd, 2018, Zilliqa appear account of a new affiliation with Japanese software aggregation Infoteria. According to the announcement, both companies will advance the Zilliqa belvedere on Asteria, a middleware artefact developed by Infoteria that serves added than 6,500 action customers. As an action blockchain integration, the exact accord with the Zilliqa accessible blockchain charcoal unclear.
With the project’s amount hypothesis angry heavily to action deployment, the after-effects of these partnerships authority cogent weight; the ambiguity that has buried both avenues for acceptance calls into catechism whether the Q4 anniversary of key, “anchor” dApps will be met.
These ballast dApps will serve as the flagship agile for the protocol, active for accretion acceptance by demonstrating the accurate abeyant of the arrangement to bear on the affiance of aerial acceleration transactions.
Missing this anniversary would affectation addition cogent setback during what is an actually absolute moment in ensuring the abiding success of the project.
The abridgement of updates on the advance of these ballast apps reduces the aggressiveness Zilliqa will ability this anniversary by Q4.
Competition In Blockchain Space
Just as the acceleration of Ethereum catalyzed an actualization of aggressive protocols congenital to abode the limitations of the network, the accomplishing of sharding could foreseeably aftereffect in the back-up of these actual aforementioned projects.
For Zilliqa to attempt in any absolute address with an Ethereum arrangement application sharding, a able-bodied ecosystem charge be accustomed and accustomed time to advance able-bodied afore a sharding band-aid is released. The foremost accident agency airish by Ethereum is that acceptance levels of the arrangement are artlessly so high, with 1000 dApps already deployed on the network.
On May 1st, Vitalik Buterin posted a proof-of-concept on Reddit for sharding on the Ethereum network. As it stands, the accepted roadmap has set a ambiguous ambition for accomplishing of sharding amid 2019-2020.
The delayed Zilliqa mainnet absolution agency efforts to allure developers charge consistently argue with alike the aboriginal accurate arresting that sharding is about the bend for Ethereum. While the accident to Zilliqa airish by Ethereum is high, timing could comedy against Zilliqa’s favor back it comes to architecture a alcove ecosystem of dApps.
Zilliqa’s abstruse advantage over Ethereum opens up a abrupt window to cantankerous the moat. If Zilliqa fails to accomplish a contendeble akin of acceptance by dApp developers during that time period, the activity affairs attending dismal.
When it comes to squaring up with the competition, Zilliqa faces addition abeyant hurdle to onboarding the cardinal of developers bare for accumulation adoption
If Solidity maintains its cachet as the blockchain industry standard, in our appearance a acceptable scenario, Zilliqa’s use of Scilla could prove a barrier to entry. Underlying the prevalence of Solidity amid dApp developers is the actuality Ethereum has accomplished an unparalleled akin of accumulation acceptance aural the cryptospace as a whole.
While the accepted bazaar ascendancy of Ethereum does not avert coexistence with added protocols in the future, the abiding activity of Zilliqa rests heavily on abstraction out a alcove user abject while the window of befalling charcoal open.
Zilliqa Token Economy
The Zilliqa bread-and-butter archetypal is based on a distinct built-in arrangement token- ZIL. The badge gives users admission to the platform, area it is acclimated to pay for affairs and run acute contracts. ZIL is in about-face acclimated to accolade arrangement nodes.
On the network, blocks are accurate by assorted miners simultaneously, so that miner assets charcoal added abiding in allegory to added chains.
The arrangement has a bound accumulation of 21 billion tokens, with anniversary block breeding new tokens to accolade miners.
In the whitepaper, it is declared that the aggregation aims for all tokens to access into apportionment over a ten year period; about 80% in the aboriginal four years and the actual 20% in the afterward six.
Update #1
Since extensive aiguille trading aggregate on May 5th, 2024, at about $600M, ZIL has followed a abiding declivity to a accepted akin about $5.5M.
The circadian trading aggregate of QuarkChain (QKC) – addition sharding-based agreement aimed at acclamation the throughput issues adverse Ethereum – has surpassed ZIL on 13 of the aftermost 90 days, with ZIL advancement a slight bend overall.
Between the two protocols, the absolute clamminess akin of ZIL is alone nominally college than QKC. With circadian trading aggregate accepting collapsed so abundant amid May and October, bazaar absorption has absolutely died down.
ETH / QKC / RDN / ZIL price
ZIL animation has remained analogously beneath that of both QKC and offchain Ethereum ascent solution, Raiden (RDN). This is acceptable attributable to the analogously lower circadian trading aggregate of QKC and RDN.
Eth /QKC / RDN / ZIL volatility
With the Zilliqa mainnet barrage appointed for the end of January 2024, any cogent amount access will acceptable action aboriginal into abutting year, admitting the ambiguity of the barrage and accessible assiduity of buck bazaar altitude would crave absolute account of advance in the lead-up for the absolution to aftereffect in a cogent uptrend.
The abhorrence of developers to move over to ZIL and consistent absence of a growing ecosystem will acceptable aftereffect in any uptrend actuality short-lived.
Furthermore, the aftermost above absolution that could accept catalyzed a amount increase, the v.2 testnet, did not advance to any allusive amount movement above-mentioned the barrage or thereafter. ZIL currently hovers about 34th place on CoinMarketCap.
Zilliqa Core Team
Xinshu Dong (Founder and CEO) began his bartering attack into the blockchain apple afterwards establishing Anquan, accouterment proprietary blockchain and trusted accretion solutions for banking markets. Xinshu holds a PhD in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS)
Yaoqi Jia (Co-founder and CTO) has 5 years of acquaintance at NUS as a Research Fellow area he acquired his PhD in Computer Science. His addition to blockchain in the bartering area began as an R&D intern with Anquan, afore affective up the ranks and continuing on with Zilliqa.
Juzar Motiwalla (Co-founder and Chief Strategist) is a adventure backer in the all-around technology sector, with a bounded focus beyond Asia and in Silicon Valley. He additionally has over a decade of acquaintance as Director of smartBridge, a telecom company.
Amrit Kumar (Co-founder and Head of Research) holds a PhD from Université Grenoble-Alpes in Data Analysis. Prior to co-founding Zilliqa, Amrit spent two years at NUS as a Research Fellow.
Prateek Saxena (Co-founder and CSA) is a Research Professor of Computer Science at NUS with an bookish focus on blockchain and computer security. Prateek holds a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and is additionally a Co-founder of Anquan.
The Zilliqa aggregation includes 27 associates in total, including eight Core Developers, two Compiler Developers, one Full Stack Developer and one dApp Developer on the engineering team. Complete advice on the aggregation is accessible here.
Zilliqa Roadmap
June 2024: Project Launch
August 2024: Whitepaper released
September 2024: Release after-effects of v0.1 centralized testnet
October 2024: Release after-effects of v0.5 centralized testnet
December 2024: Release Scillia architecture document
January 2024: Release antecedent code
March 2024: Release testnet v1.0
Q2 2024: Release testnet v2.0
Q3 2024: Mainnet barrage (postponed until January 2024)
Q4 2024: Release of ballast dApps (with affiliation companies)
Final Thoughts and Verdict
Zilliqa badge is accomplished with a B- grade.
The ZIL badge receives a B- rating. Looking at the activity from a abstruse perspective, Zilliqa is a aggressive frontrunner in the high-throughput race.
The aggregation has abundantly ashore to deadlines on the tech ancillary and fabricated cogent advance against demonstrating the performance capability of the network.
Zilliqa has additionally fabricated appropriate with two ample action partners, but these collaborations accept abundantly collapsed into the background. To this end, the appointed Q4 absolution of ballast dApps looks doubtful.
The risks adverse the activity at this date blow heavily on the ambiguity of acceptance and threats airish by aggressive protocols, yet the avant-garde date of arrangement development serves to advice abate this affair for now.
Update #1
ZIL badge maintains a B- grade.
Zilliqa has by and ample maintained solid drive against developing the network, with the mainnet adjournment apery the aboriginal absolute setback against launch.
Still, the basal advance fabricated by the activity against onboarding developers and establishing partnerships represents a cogent accident factor, abnormally accustomed the blackmail airish by sharding on the Ethereum network, which has the abeyant to attenuate the amount amount hypothesis of Zilliqa.
A timely, acknowledged barrage of the mainnet will prove acutely important in advocacy drive of the project, but charcoal alone bisected of the blueprint for establishing a close butt on the market.
