The Zilliqa (ZIL) Mainnet is Now Live and Could Soon Implement zkSNARKs 10

The Zilliqa (ZIL) Mainnet is Now Live and Could Soon Implement zkSNARKs

The Zilliqa (ZIL) Mainnet network is now live.  Blockchain enthusiasts and developers can track the operations of the network via Zilliqa Explorer. 

The launch of the network comes after 18 months of rigorous work from the team at ZIL. The project started out by the unique design of the Scilla programming language aimed at solving the smart contract vulnerabilities that had been found on the Ethereum network. The project grew from there to include several partners, advisers and a ZIL community that spans all corners of the globe.

Xinshu Dong, CEO and Co-founder of Zilliqa, explained to Ethereum World News the vision of the revolutionary project.

Today, we are taking a leap towards our vision of enabling innovative blockchain-powered solutions to real-world problems. With this launch, Zilliqa is now the first public blockchain platform to successfully implement sharding, to address one of the biggest challenges to mainstream blockchain adoption – scalability.

Core Features of the Zilliqa Mainnet

The core features of the ZIL mainnet that sets it apart from the rest are as follows:

  • Sharding
  • A PDFT-Style (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) Blockchain
  • Safe smart contracts through the Scilla programming language
  • Low variance in block rewards

What Lies Ahead 

To begin with, the team plans on securing the initial network against potential attacks. They will be launching the network in a bootstrap phase which will end once a set number of blocks are mined. This has been estimated to happen around March this year.

Token Swap Window and Exchanges Supporting the Process

After the conclusion of the bootstrap phase, the team at Zilliqa will work with various exchanges to facilitate the swap of ERC20 tokens to the native ZIL on the Mainnet. The process has been estimated to be completed by June this year. All ERC20 ZIL tokens will be frozen soon after.

The following exchanges and wallets will support the token swap. The list will be updated with time as more exchanges and wallets confirm their participation.

  • Binance
  • Upbit
  • Huobi
  • Korbit
  • Coinone
  • Gate.io
  • Bittrex
  • Gopax
  • Koinex
  • Coinbase and Coinbase Custody
  • Coinhako
  • Moonlet (audit done)
  • Trust Wallet
  • ZHIP
  • Light-wallet
  • Midas Protocol
  • xZil
  • Ledger Companion

Implementation of zkSNARKs Proofs

A possible future feature on the Zilliqa mainnet is the use of zkSNARKs in more ways than just privacy. The team explained how the zero-knowledge technique can be utilized further.

Beyond this privacy use case, zkSNARKs are being actively applied in the area of verifiable computations, where, a client performs a computation-heavy task off-the-chain and produces to the miners a “proof of work” that can be verified very efficiently. This specific usage of zkSNARKs can lead to a trustless and secure off-chain computation layer atop Zilliqa.

Furthermore, zkSNARKs can also be used to design succinct blockchains to reduce the storage requirements for lookup and seed nodes and lower sync-up time for new nodes.

What are your thoughts on the future of the Zilliqa network? Please let us know in the comment section below. 

[Image courtesy of Unsplash.com]

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of Ethereum World News or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.