What Is Zilliqa (ZIL)? | Binance Academy

TL;DR

Zilliqa was launched in 2017 as a high-throughput public blockchain platform designed to scale thousands of transactions per second. Presently, Zilliqa is pursuing efficiency, trust, and transparency in Web 3.0.

Introduction

Zilliqa is a layer 1 blockchain and the first public blockchain to use sharded architecture. This sharding technique allows transactions to be processed in parallel, resulting in a faster rate of transaction.

Founded in 2017 based on research done at the NUS School of Computing at the National University of Singapore, Zilliqa was inspired by work focused on implementing an architecture that allows for low-cost transactions at high speeds on a grand scale. There are currently over 250 projects built on top of Zilliqa, including gaming, DeFi, and metaverse applications.

How does Zilliqa work?

Securing the network

Similar to Bitcoin, Zilliqa uses a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) to secure its network. PoW involves mining, which is the process of verifying and validating blockchain transactions.

Miners can mine the native token of Zilliqa, ZIL. This allows them to save on energy costs. On Zilliqa, miners can switch from mining other tokens to ZIL and receive high aggregated fees. This is called Dual Mining.

Processing transactions

While the problem of scalability has existed for a long time, many blockchains continue to struggle to scale transactions at speed as their network usage grows. To address this key obstacle of mainstream adoption, Zilliqa uses a sharded architecture to process transactions.

Sharding divides the network into smaller groups of nodes called shards. Each shard can process transactions in parallel, which ensures that the throughput in Zilliqa linearly increases with the size of the network.

Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, once the Zilliqa network processes a transaction, no confirmation is required. This allows the network to function more efficiently, even supporting micro-payments on the blockchain.

A positive side effect of the sharding architecture is lower transaction costs. Fees tend to be high on legacy blockchains due to network congestion, transaction backlogs, and scalability issues. Sharding has helped Zilliqa to keep its fees low, with a standard blockchain transaction fee of 0.1 ZIL. Zilliqa's community decides these costs, considering the transaction volume, user demand, and the current price of ZIL.

Fees strengthen network security. Without them, malicious actors can easily spam a network and slow it down. This is why using ZIL or any decentralized application (dApp) in the ecosystem incurs a small fee. The fees collected are used as mining rewards. This helps to secure Zilliqa’s infrastructure while making the asset deflationary in nature.

Governance

With open governance at its core, all changes to the blockchain are proposed by and voted on by those who hold governance ZIL (gZIL), which is Zilliqa’s governance token. This decentralized system ensures that the future of Zilliqa is in the hands of the community instead of a central authority.

Community members can submit proposals called ZIPs (Zilliqa Improvement Proposal) and then vote on Snapshot, the portal that facilitates decision-making on Zilliqa. ZIPs enable anyone to propose new features and improvements, collect information, and operate as a text file, so the revision history acts as a historical record. Approved ZIPs are essentially design documents that establish the platform’s core protocol standard.

Every gZIL represents one vote, and the more a user holds, the more voting power they have. This encourages long-term token holders to participate in the Zilliqa ecosystem.

Anyone can purchase gZIL on centralized exchanges such as Binance, or DEXes such as ZilSwap or XCAD DEX. Within the ecosystem, protocols like Ignite DAO allow users to stake their gZIL and become a stakeholder in the underlying incentivized economies.

Zilliqa in the DeFi space

ZilSwap is the official Zilliqa decentralized exchange (DEX). Users can stake ZIL on Binance, exchange ZIL and ZRC-2 tokens, join liquidity pools, and use ZilBridge to bridge their ERC-20 tokens from the Ethereum network to Zilliqa. ZRC-2 token prices can be found at ZilStream. ZilBridge is a tool to help users transfer assets between the ZIL and ETH mainnets.

Metaverse

Zilliqa launched the ZRC-6 NFT standard, which provides support for royalty payments, batch minting, and other features to enhance the experience for creators and builders. On Zilliqa-powered marketplaces, users can mint items and turn them into tamper-proof NFTs.

Metapolis and MaaS (Metaverse-as-a-Service)

Anyone seeking metaverse-building solutions can find them on Metalopolis, a metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) platform launched on Zilliqa. Metapolis’ MaaS approach is designed to significantly shorten the journey from idea to implementation as the infrastructure is ready to use and already integrated into the Zilliqa blockchain.

Gaming

Zilliqa has built an SDK that helps speed up game-building significantly. The platform is also capable of powering the latest technology in gaming, along with the graphics and gameplay one can expect from leading platforms.

What makes Zilliqa unique?

Zilliqa has features that make it very developer-friendly. This includes a custom programming language, Scilla, an ecosystem development arm, ZILHive, its SDK that supports P2E gaming, and its sharded architecture – all of which encourage constant innovation and collaboration on the platform.

Scilla

Zilliqa developed a custom programming language called Scilla. Scilla is short for Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language. The language is centered around the security of smart contracts in order to achieve a safer environment for the creation of DeFi services and dApps.

As smart contracts are irreversible agreements that handle and store valuable digital assets, it’s vital to ensure that they are well-designed and safe to use. With Scilla, developers can identify security vulnerabilities more easily, making it simpler for them to write safer smart contracts. Ultimately, the language aims to establish a foundation for greater dApp security across the network.

ZILHive

Zilliqa's ecosystem development arm, ZILHive, was designed to meet the demands of all projects established on the Zilliqa blockchain network.

ZILHive offers a comprehensive channel to enable increased accessibility and acceptance of blockchain technology, from idea incubation through company development. Their worldwide network of partners and investors can help startups by offering a designed accelerator program to match the goals of each project with tools to assist developers along the way.

What is ZIL?

ZIL is the native token of the Zilliqa blockchain and the default way of utilizing and interacting with dApps built on Zilliqa. Transaction fees across the network are settled in ZIL. As Zilliqa uses PoW to secure its network, ZIL can be mined. ZIL can also be used to pay for products and services offered on the blockchain. This includes buying and selling NFTs on Zilliqa-powered marketplaces.

ZIL currently is listed on several large crypto exchanges, including Binance. It can also be found on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), including ZilSwap, which is Zilliqa’s official DEX.

Staking

Token holders are incentivized to stake their ZIL to secure the network. These users, called delegators, stake their tokens with nodes to provide services to the network in exchange for block rewards. The network requires a minimum of 10 ZIL staked and rewards are distributed in ZIL tokens. The percentage return (APR) for staking depends on the total amount of ZIL in circulation at any given time.

How to buy ZIL on Binance?

You can buy ZIL on cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance.

1. Log in to your Binance account and go to [Trade] -> [Spot].

2. Type “ZIL” on the search bar to see the available trading pairs. We will use ZIL/BUSD as an example.

3. Go to the [Spot] box and enter the amount of ZIL you want to buy. In this example, we will use a Market order. Click [Buy ZIL] to confirm your order, and the purchased ZIL will be credited to your Spot Wallet.

Closing thoughts

Zilliqa powers innovation by providing a highly scalable, environmentally sustainable, and developer-friendly blockchain. Thanks to its architecture and community, Zilliqa is a popular protocol for developers to build their own applications.