Zilliqa ZIL
About
What Is Zilliqa (ZIL)?
Zilliqa is a public, permissionless blockchain that is designed to offer high throughput with the ability to complete thousands of transactions per second. It seeks to solve the issue of blockchain scalability and speed by employing sharding as a second-layer scaling solution. The platform is home to many decentralized applications, and as of October 2020, it also allows for staking and yield farming.
Development work officially started on Zilliqa in June 2017, and its testnet went live in March 2018. A little over a year later, in June 2019, the platform launched its mainnet.
The native utility token of Zilliqa, ZIL, is used to process transactions on the network and execute smart contracts.
Who Are the Founders of Zilliqa?
Zilliqa was first conceived by Prateek Saxena, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore School of Computing. Saxena and several students in the School of Computing published a paper in 2016 that outlined how a sharding-focused blockchain could improve network efficiency and speed.
Around the same time, Saxena co-founded Anquan Capital alongside Max Kantelia, a lifelong finance and tech entrepreneur, and Juzar Motiwalla, former president of the Singapore Computer Society. The company incorporated Zilliqa Research in June 2017 to develop the Zilliqa network, bringing on Dong Xinshu as its CEO, Yaoqi Jia as its chief technology officer and Amrit Kumar as its chief scientific officer. All three previously worked as research fellows at the NUS School of Computing.
What Makes Zilliqa Unique?
Zilliqa claims to be the world's first public blockchain to rely entirely on a sharded network. This allows it to achieve high throughput and a high rate of transactions per second, which it says solves the scalability issue. Because each shard processes transactions individually, as the network grows and the number of shards increases, the number of transactions that can be processed per second also increases. As well, records are immediately added to the Zilliqa blockchain after being processed, meaning that no additional time for confirmation is required.
Zilliqa seeks to become the blockchain of choice for large-scale enterprise use, including among the advertising, gaming, entertainment and financial services and payments industries. In its 2018 position paper, its team states that the platform "aims to rival traditional centralized payment methods such as VISA and MasterCard."
Both Anquan Capital and Zilliqa Research, the company responsible for developing Zilliqa, hold significant reserves of ZIL.
As of 2021, the Zilliqa network is an active network that runs over millions of transactions each month. The blockchain has also been constantly scaling, going from averaging over 900 blocks produced a day when its main net launched to presently producing over 2500 blocks a day.
How Many Zilliqa (ZIL) Coins Are There in Circulation?
Zilliqa has a fixed maximum supply of 21 billion tokens. ZIL was first made available for sale as an ERC-20 token as a part of a token generation event that concluded in January 2018. The tokens were subsequently transferred to the Zilliqa mainnet in a token-swap event that concluded in February 2020.
Before launching, Zilliqa generated 60% of all tokens (12.6 billion ZIL) to be distributed at the token generation event, and the remaining 40% (8.4 billion ZIL) will be created through the mining process. Ten percent of all tokens (2.1 billion ZIL) were reserved for Anquan Capital, 12% (2.52 billion ZIL) for Zilliqa Research, and 5% for contemporary and future Zilliqa team members — all of which were announced to be distributed quarterly over a three-year period.
Zilliqa is designed such that all tokens will be mined within 10 years, with the block mining reward slowly decreasing. According to its whitepaper, the project aims to have 80% of the tokens (16.8 billion ZIL) mined within the first four years and 20% (4.2 billion ZIL) in the remaining six years.
How Is the Zilliqa Network Secured?
The Zilliqa network is secured through a practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance, or pBFT, consensus protocol, meaning that at least two-thirds of all nodes must agree that a record is accurate in order for it to be added to the blockchain. Each Zilliqa blockchain shard relies on a group of nodes to confirm a subsection of all the transactions, and once each shard has reached a consensus, a second group of nodes confirms the shards' collective results and adds a new block to the blockchain.
The network uses elliptic-curve cryptography to secure its consensus protocol and allows for multisignatures. In addition to the pBFT consensus protocol that secures its transaction records, Zilliqa also uses a proof-of-work algorithm to assign node identities and generate shards.
Zilliqa developed a new language, Scilla, for its smart contracts. Short for Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language, Scilla is a safety-focused language intended to automatically identify and eliminate security vulnerabilities at the language-level and make it easier to formally verify the safety of smart contracts through mathematical proofs.
Where Can You Buy Zilliqa (ZIL)?
Zilliqa's native token, ZIL, is listed on several major cryptocurrency exchanges — including Binance, Huobi, Bitfinex and Bithumb — where it is available to be traded against fiat currencies, stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies.
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AI Analysis
What is the Zilliqa (ZIL) cryptocurrency good for? What are its main use cases?
Zilliqa (ZIL) is a blockchain platform designed to address scalability and security challenges in decentralized applications (dApps). Its main use cases and strengths include:
1. High Throughput & Scalability
- Sharding Technology: Zilliqa uses sharding to split the network into smaller groups (shards) that process transactions in parallel, enabling high throughput (up to 2,828 transactions per second (TPS)).
- Efficient Consensus: It employs a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism, making it faster and more energy-efficient than Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin.
2. Smart Contracts & dApp Development
- Scilla Programming Language: Zilliqa uses Scilla, a secure smart contract language designed to prevent vulnerabilities like reentrancy attacks.
- DeFi & NFTs: Developers can build decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, NFT marketplaces, and gaming dApps on Zilliqa.
3. Low Transaction Fees
- Due to its high scalability, Zilliqa offers low-cost transactions, making it suitable for microtransactions and high-frequency trading.
4. Enterprise & Institutional Adoption
- Zilliqa is used by businesses for supply chain tracking, identity verification, and secure data management.
- Partnerships with companies like Microsoft Azure and Hyundai highlight its enterprise potential.
5. Gaming & Metaverse Applications
- The Zilliqa ecosystem supports play-to-earn (P2E) games and metaverse projects, leveraging its fast and cheap transactions.
6. Staking & Governance
- Users can stake ZIL to earn rewards and participate in network governance.
Conclusion
Zilliqa is best suited for scalable dApps, DeFi, gaming, and enterprise solutions where high speed and low costs are crucial. Its sharding technology and secure smart contracts make it a strong competitor in the blockchain space.
Would you like details on specific projects built on Zilliqa?
What blockchain does Zilliqa use? Is it its own blockchain or built on top of another?
Zilliqa operates on its own blockchain, which is not built on top of another existing blockchain like Ethereum or Bitcoin. It is an independent, high-performance blockchain platform designed to address scalability issues in blockchain technology.
Key Features of Zilliqa's Blockchain:
- Sharding Technology – Zilliqa uses a unique sharding mechanism to improve scalability. By dividing the network into smaller groups (shards) that process transactions in parallel, it can achieve high throughput.
- Consensus Mechanism – It employs a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithm called pbFT (practical BFT) for its shards, ensuring security and efficiency.
- Smart Contracts – Zilliqa supports Scilla, a secure smart contract language designed to prevent vulnerabilities like reentrancy attacks.
- Native Token (ZIL) – The blockchain uses ZIL as its native cryptocurrency for transactions, fees, and staking.
Comparison to Other Blockchains:
- Unlike Ethereum (which is a general-purpose blockchain) or Solana (which uses a different consensus model), Zilliqa is specifically optimized for high throughput and low latency through sharding.
- It is not a Layer 2 solution (like Lightning Network for Bitcoin) but rather a Layer 1 blockchain with its own architecture.
Conclusion:
Zilliqa is not built on top of another blockchain—it is a standalone, independent blockchain with its own consensus, smart contract capabilities, and scalability solutions.
Is Zilliqa programmable? Does it support smart contracts or decentralized applications?
Yes, Zilliqa (ZIL) is a programmable blockchain that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Here’s a breakdown of its capabilities:
1. Smart Contracts
- Zilliqa uses Scilla (Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language), a formally verified, functional programming language designed for security and scalability.
- Scilla is inspired by OCaml and focuses on preventing common vulnerabilities (e.g., reentrancy attacks).
- Unlike Ethereum’s Solidity, Scilla emphasizes safety and predictability in contract execution.
2. Decentralized Applications (dApps)
- Zilliqa supports a growing ecosystem of dApps, including DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and enterprise solutions.
- Some notable projects built on Zilliqa:
- ZilSwap (DEX)
- ZilPay (Wallet)
- ZilStream (NFT Marketplace)
- ZilBridge (Cross-chain bridge)
3. Scalability & Performance
- Zilliqa uses sharding to achieve high throughput (up to 2,828 TPS in tests).
- Transactions are fast and low-cost, making it suitable for dApps requiring efficiency.
4. Developer Tools & Ecosystem
- Zilliqa SDKs (JavaScript, Python, Go) for easy integration.
- ZilPay Wallet for secure transactions.
- ZilBridge for cross-chain interoperability.
- Zilliqa Testnet for developers to test smart contracts.
Conclusion
Zilliqa is programmable, supports smart contracts, and has a growing dApp ecosystem. Its focus on scalability, security, and low fees makes it a strong alternative to Ethereum for certain use cases.
Would you like details on how to deploy a smart contract on Zilliqa?
How fast are Zilliqa transactions? What is the typical confirmation time and throughput (transactions per second)?
Zilliqa is a high-throughput blockchain platform designed for scalability and efficiency. Here are the key metrics regarding its transaction speed and performance:
1. Transaction Speed (Confirmation Time)
- Typical Confirmation Time: ~5–10 seconds (varies based on network conditions).
- Zilliqa uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism (since its 2.0 upgrade), which is faster than traditional proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
2. Throughput (Transactions Per Second - TPS)
- Theoretical Maximum TPS: ~2,828 TPS (as claimed by Zilliqa).
- Real-World Performance: ~1,000–2,000 TPS (depending on network load and sharding efficiency).
- Zilliqa achieves this high throughput by using sharding, where the network is divided into smaller groups (shards) that process transactions in parallel.
3. Comparison with Other Blockchains
| Blockchain | Avg. TPS (Theoretical) | Avg. Confirmation Time |
|---|---|---|
| Zilliqa | ~2,828 TPS | ~5–10 sec |
| Ethereum (PoS) | ~100–150 TPS | ~12 sec (finality) |
| Solana | ~2,000–65,000 TPS | ~400–800 ms |
| Bitcoin | ~7 TPS | ~10 min (finality) |
4. Factors Affecting Performance
- Network Congestion: Higher demand may slightly increase confirmation times.
- Shard Efficiency: Zilliqa’s sharding mechanism ensures scalability, but real-world performance may vary.
- Gas Fees: Typically low compared to Ethereum, but can fluctuate.
Conclusion
Zilliqa is one of the fastest blockchains in terms of transactions per second (TPS) and offers fast confirmations (~5–10 sec). Its sharding technology allows it to scale efficiently, making it suitable for high-throughput applications like DeFi, gaming, and enterprise solutions.
Would you like details on specific use cases or comparisons with other blockchains?
How much data can I store on the Zilliqa blockchain? Does it support on-chain data storage?
The Zilliqa blockchain is primarily designed for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), but it does not natively support large-scale on-chain data storage like some other blockchains (e.g., Ethereum with IPFS or Filecoin integrations).
Key Points on Zilliqa’s Data Storage Capabilities:
Smart Contract Storage (On-Chain)
- Zilliqa allows storing small amounts of data directly on-chain via smart contracts (written in Scilla).
- The storage is persistent but limited in size (typically a few KB per contract).
- Example use cases: Storing contract state, small metadata, or transaction logs.
No Native Large-Scale Storage
- Unlike Ethereum (with IPFS) or Filecoin, Zilliqa does not have built-in decentralized storage solutions.
- If you need to store large files (e.g., images, documents), you should use off-chain storage (e.g., AWS S3, IPFS, or Arweave) and store only hashes or references on-chain.
Alternative Solutions
- Zilliqa + IPFS/Arweave: Store large files off-chain and keep a reference (CID or hash) on Zilliqa.
- Zilliqa’s Scilla Smart Contracts: Can store small structured data (e.g., JSON-like objects) but not large files.
Conclusion:
- For small data (KB range): Use Scilla smart contracts for on-chain storage.
- For large data (MB/GB range): Use off-chain storage (IPFS, Arweave, etc.) and store only references on Zilliqa.
Would you like guidance on implementing a specific storage solution with Zilliqa?
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