2024-06-08
Zilliqa is a blockchain platform that
uses sharding to scale the number of transactions. It is the pioneer in
sharding technology.
Sharding operate like a sub-blockchain, each shard can work as a separate chains and process transactions.
Shard can operate independently while
communicating with each other. Sharding helps a blockchain increase its
scalability.
The Zilliqa 2.0 whitepaper has been
officially released on June 7, 2024, detailing a comprehensive upgrade to the
Zilliqa network.
This upgrade, known as Zilliqa 2.0, is
set to deploy on the mainnet later in 2024.
It represents a significant evolution
of the blockchain protocol, introducing a new sharding architecture called
x-shards, which allows for unprecedented scalability and customization
according to the needs of different applications.
Key features of Zilliqa 2.0 include:
X-Shards: A new sharding
architecture that enhances scalability and allows for extensive customization.
X-shards can be customized to be
suitable to the applications that run on them.
Properties including block size, block
time, gas fees, and privacy settings can be configured for each X-shard on the
Zilliqa mainnet.
X-shards can be set up to use either
Proof-of-Stake (PoS) or Proof-of-Authority (PoA) for their consensus mechanism.
These customizable x-shards are
seamlessly interconnected to the mainnet and one another, and they can also be
set up to use their own native tokens or bridged mainnet tokens, including
stablecoins, in lieu of ZIL for transaction fees and validator rewards.
Proof-of-Stake Consensus: Zilliqa 2.0
changed consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
that enhance energy-efficiency.
Validators and delegators can stake ZIL
tokens to earn staking rewards.
Cross-Chain Communication: Tools for seamless interaction with other blockchain networks.
Smart Accounts: Improving the
ease of use for all users on the blockchain. It enables features such as
multi-factor authentication, shared accounts, or address whitelists to be
deployed as direct extensions of user wallets.
This can deliver significant
improvements to account security and accessibility for users on Zilliqa 2.0.
Other useful features enabled by
account abstraction include transaction authentication using social login
credentials and the subsidisation of gas fees by dApps.
The roadmap for Zilliqa 2.0 has also
been published, outlining the plan for rolling out and testing key features
ahead of the full implementation. The migration to Zilliqa 2.0 aims to
preserve all historical account states and will not disrupt any actively
maintained decentralized applications (dApps) running on the network.
Zilliqa currently has $2.43 million total value locked.
As of June 8, 2024,
Zilliqa, has a market cap of $394
million. This makes Zilliqa the world's 162nd most valuable crypto by
market cap.
