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ZenCash
Horizen (ZEN) - formerly Zencash - is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency with a blockchain platform that provides privacy and anonymity for its users. It was created to provide a peer-to-peer economic system for money, media, and messaging.[1]
With the goal of ensuring full privacy, anonymity, and safety of its users, Horizen uses the following protocols: zk-SNARKS, TLS integration, domain fronting, distributed publishing, client-to-node encryption, and end-to-end encryption. These technologies allow users to select the desired level of transparency for their digital assets, communications, and publications.[2][3]
Contents
Horizen (ZEN) Review
Horizen was forked from ZClassic (ZCL), which was derived from ZCash (ZEC), which was originally a clone of Bitcoin (BTC). Horizen was created specifically to provide security and privacy. The founders are Rob Viglione and Rolf Versluis. Horizen has had no premining and no ICO. It has a fixed lifetime amount of 21 million coins. Horizen is currently listed on Binance, Bittrex, OKEx, and Cryptopia exchanges among others.[4]
Mining
To raise funds for current development and security improvements, Horizen has changed the algorithm for the distribution of mining rewards, which now exists in ZClassic:
- 88% of the reward (which will be 12.5 ZEN per block), will remain miners.
- 5% is provided for financing of one or more DAO.
- 3.5% of the reward for the block will be received by the operators of protected nodes (Secure Node). 3.5% will go to the funding of the Horizen Core team.
Recall that Classic was developed precisely because 20% of the reward for mining Horizen was provided to Finance future development and support of ZCash software. The Classic team considered it unfair, that's why this fork Z Cash was created. The mining algorithm is the same as for ZEC, there should be no problems.
Horizen Price
Horizen (ZEN) is not only a secure cryptocurrency, but also an opportunity to communicate privately during transactions, publish documents in the Horizen blockchain through the use of Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS).
Wallet
There is a number of official wallets for the Horizen Storage. There are versions for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS. Users are able to use Coinomi, Ledger Wallet and Xeeda. The full list of wallets is available on: https://zencash.com/wallets/.
Roadmap
What I like in the Horizen project is that the focus on privacy doesn’t equates with opacity. On the opposite, the candid openness of the project is emblematically illustrated in the open Development Roadmap available on Trello. As its name says, the focus here is on development, not on marketing or promotion activities, albeit a similar approach could be taken to advertise these as well.
Looking at the 2018 development roadmap, we can see that very ambitious goals were set. For those who might not know Trello, the site allows to assign various tags to each task or activity, and the level of detail is quite good. For example, see here for the voting and submission proposal to get an idea.
There will be several areas to be worked on, and in my opinion the most important items here will be around core blockchain code / functionalities, privacy features, research and user experience.
IOHK Partnership
In an effort to rapidly address scalability, performance, and security challenges, Horizen partnered with IOHK, a technology company known for creating innovative peer-to-peer solutions for financial transactions. Leading the IOHK partnership is Professor Roman Oliynykov, a Ukrainian cryptographer, IT researcher, and IOHK Research Fellow.[5]
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Treasury
Horizen is governed by the Zen Blockchain Foundation. Significant treasury funds (8.5%) are automatically set aside for development, support, and marketing..
Milestones
- May 2017 - Zen blockchain is launched with ZenCash as the first product
- December 2017 - Horizen launched the world’s first end-to-end encrypted cryptocurrency network
- January 2018 - Horizen partners with IOHK to fast track Research & Development for financial solutionse generation process of zk-SNARK five times faster. The software update must be released in 2018.
Horizen hack by 51% attack
Horizen (ZEN) has become a new victim of “51% attack”. According to the official statement of the developers, on June 2, hackers carried out at least 3 repeated spending in the cryptocurrency network.
To carry out a” 51% attack " hackers need to take over most of the network hashrate, which will give them the opportunity to reorganize the blockchain, forcing the network to accept false blocks. Usually the attacker monetize “51 attack” via double-spending. This can be done by placing coins on the crypto exchange, making a transaction with the same amount of coins on the wallet under their control. As soon as the exchange shall transfer their funds, they translate them into bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, and then out through the other purse.
After the withdrawal of funds, hackers reorganize the official blockchain, forcing it to take a longer fork. Funds disappear from the wallet of the exchange, appearing on the wallet of the hacker. In this particular case, the hacker made 3 double expenses, including one that reorganized the blockchain into as many as 38 blocks. In total, the hackers brought more than 23,152 ZEN worth about $700,000 at the time of the attack. In recent weeks, Bitcoin Gold, Monacoin and Verge (twice) have been affected by the “51% attack”. The cost of carrying out an attack against many altcoins is low, especially given that the hashrate can be rented to the so-called “cloud services”.
External links
Horizen website
Horizen Reddit
BitcoinTalk
GitHub
Facebook
Twitter
See also
References
- ↑ Future of Crypto is Selective Transparency: Rob Viglione of ZenCash on Privacy Protocols
- ↑ ZenCash Launches 24-Hour Help Desk and Ticketing Service
- ↑ ZENCASH IN 2018: A DEEPER LOOK AT THE PRIVACY-CENTRIC PLATFORM’S ROADMAP
- ↑ Horizen Partners With World-Leading Exchange OKEx/
- ↑ ZenCash and IOHK Partnership Advances Private, Borderless Transactions
