A Beginner’s Guide to Zilliqa

By Prashant Jha

Blockchain technology is slowly finding its foot in mainstream society. There have been significant developments and changes from the time of its inception. Cryptocurrency is the main side product of the technology, which is also responsible for the increase in its popularity and acceptance level.

Cryptocurrencies, in general, are being propagated as the hassle-free form of barter, where there are no physical limitations to it. However, the technology is new, and there are certain limitations to it.  One of the major roadblocks to the current crypto world is scalability. Major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum are looking for different kinds of solutions to resolve the issue and make it more mainstream.

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Zilliqa, one of the new entrants to the crypto world is being touted as “next-gen high throughput blockchain platform.” The new blockchain based tech uses sharding, i.e., dividing the size of the block into smaller units to cope up with the scalability problem.

Ziliqa blockchain is being promoted as a platform capable of handling thousands of transactions per second. The issue of scalability arises due to the increase in the size of the blocks over a specified period. The scalability issue is the reason behind established players in the industry such as BTC; ETH is finding it difficult to provide the function of faster transactions, which was being lauded as the mainstream feature for cryptocurrencies.

How Ziliqa Aims to Eliminate Scalability Problems?

Ziliqa is going to make use of sharding, i.e., dividing the main blockchain into smaller fragments which would be able to process parallel transactions on the network. Ziliqa has also made sure that its system flourishes with the addition of miners. If everything goes as planned, Ziliqa aims to overtake VISA, the most significant transaction processor in the world.

The platform will also host tons of useful features such as smart contracts and Dapps, which in turn would make it one of the most sought-after blockchain. It would allow its user base to make use of these facilities and create decentralized exchanges, financial algorithm and much more.

Ziliqa Combines PoW & BFT

The blockchain network uses a hybrid combination of Proof of Work (PoW) protocol and Byzantine Fault Tolerant (pBFT) protocol. The PoW protocol is used to establish the mining identity on the network, to perform sharding on the network and also protect the users against the Sybil attacks.

During a Sybil attack, malicious nodes create multiple identities and try to influence the decision-making process.

The current transaction king VISA can process 8,000 transactions per second, Ziliqa, on the other hand, is currently at 2,000 transactions on its trial run in May 2018

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The ZIL Token

Like any other blockchain network, Ziliqa uses ZIL tokens to take care of mining rewards, transaction fee and execution of smart contracts. There are a total of 21 Billion ZIL tokens, out of which 6.3 Billion were put on sale to the general public in January 2018, another 6.3 Billion were given to the research team, investors and shareholders. The rest 8.4 Billion has been kept as the mining rewards over time.

The Team Behind the Network

The Ziliqa team is headed by CEO Xinshu Dong, who holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. The majority of members on board are academician and Ph.D. holders in computer science.

The list of advisors includes Kyber Network co-founder Loi Luu, founding partner of FBG Capital Vincent Zhou, and Nicolai Oster, a partner at Bitcoin Suisse AG.

The Wallets Compatible on Ziliqa network

Most of the trading is done on the exchanges. However, it is not the safest place to keep your cryptocurrency, as it is prone to hacker attacks and thefts. Most people use network compatible private wallets to safeguard their cryptocurrencies against any such threats.

Currently, the ZIL token is in its ERC 20 form so you can make use of any Ethereum compatible wallet to store the tokens. The ERC 20 is compatible with MyEtherWallet and Ledger Nano S.

What is the Future of Ziliqa

The newly formed blockchain network is not yet live and will be officially launched in the first quarter of 2019. The ZIL holders would be anticipating the event with high hopes. The launch would also remove the air over the presumptions made on its transaction speed whether the network would support the fastest transaction or would it take some time to establish itself.

Final Thoughts

Ziliqa Blockchain network seems to have got their way around the issues of scalability faced by the current generation of cryptocurrencies. The minds and idea behind the project look promising. However, the reality will be the same or altered will only be decided once it launches in the first quarter of 2019.

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Prashant Jha

As a content writer Prashant believes in presenting complex topics in simple laymen terms. He is a tech enthusiast and an avid reader.

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