What Is Horizen (ZEN)?

Horizen aims to be the most secure interoperable blockchain ecosystem. According to the website, Horizen facilitates an end-to-end encrypted anonymous money network and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Horizen platform is community-driven and keeps a strong ethos of privacy being a natural right. The platform allows the creation of real-world applications by keeping data private. The Horizen project aims to ensure data integrity and privacy with the use of multi-tiered node infrastructure. A multi-tier node means that all the nodes do not play the same role, thereby distributing workloads across servers, which improves performance and availability. 

Horizen makes use of a protocol that allows it to use a unique sidechain technology named Zendoo. These sidechains run simultaneously with the main Horizen blockchain and focus on scalability and data privacy. The implementation of sidechains has allowed Horizen to have the largest decentralized node infrastructure in the industry. The platform has a network of 47,821 active nodes, outclassing both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

According to the whitepaper, ZEN is the native token of the Horizen platform. ZEN is a fully encrypted, proof-of-work (PoW)-based minable cryptocurrency. Proof of work is a transaction validation mechanism that requires a feasible amount of computing effort to produce new blocks on the Horizen blockchain. The protocol generates new ZEN tokens to reward the validator for creating new blocks, known as mining. To control the digital footprint, ZEN offers two types of addresses. First is a regular address that makes transactions public and works in a transparent way, known as T-address. Alternatively, the second one is an optional feature known as Z-address. Z-address is a shielded address, and transactions between Z-addresses are entirely private and anonymous. The Z-address uses zero-knowledge cryptography, which means the transactions are confirmed and validated without sharing information on the blockchain.

The system’s architecture comprises the main Horizen blockchain (mainchain), a Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), and sidechains. 

• The Mainchain: The mainchain is the center of the project’s architecture. The ,ainchain allows the sidechains to be built and operate on top of it. The Horizen chain works on the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism, making it stable and secure. 

• The Sidechains: The sidechains work independently, thus resulting in the mainchain not having any information from sidechains that induces privacy. The sidechains are not bound to mainchain and can choose their consensus mechanism. That means sidechains can work on proof of stake (PoS) or proof of work (PoW).

• Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol: The in-house-developed CCTP protocol allows sidechains to connect with the mainchain. Furthermore, the CCTP enables the transfer of ZEN tokens back and forth between mainchain and sidechains. CCTP does this by burning the coins in the commencing chain and recreating them in the concluding chain.

History of Horizen (ZEN)

Horizen, formerly known as ZenCash, is a hard fork of Zclassic. A hard fork is a software upgrade in the network. Some miners agree to new rules, but some miners do not, resulting in the split of the network. 

Rob Viglione and Rolf Versluis, the founders of Horizen, were previously working collaboratively on Zclassic. Keeping a different vision for the future of privacy, governance, and economics, they forked the Zclassic blockchain and formed ZenCash on 30 May 2017. They forked from the 110000th block of Zclassic. ZenCash began from the 110001st block height.

In August 2018, ZenCash got rebranded as Horizen, and a proposal paper was released shortly after in October 2018. Subsequently, the whitepaper for Horizen gwasot released in October 2019. 

How Are New Horizen (ZEN) Tokens Created?

The protocol has set the reward of 12.5 ZEN tokens for every new block, and a new block gets added every 2.5 minutes. The Horizen platform combines both the proof-of-work and the proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms.

60% of the newly minted ZEN tokens are mined using Equihash proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. Equihash PoW is an ASIC-resistant algorithm and is purely memory oriented. The more memory a system has, the more mining power it possesses. 10% of the newly created tokens get rewarded to Secure Node operators. Secure Nodes provide security to the blockchain. To become a Secure Node operator, the user has to stake 42 ZEN tokens. Furthermore, another 10% of the new ZEN tokens get rewarded to Super Node operators. Super Nodes are the hosts that allocate resources to the sidechains.To become a Super Node operator, 500 ZEN needs to be staked by the user. Both Super Nodes and Secure Nodes work on the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. The remaining 20% of the newly minted ZEN tokens go to the treasury, which funds the whole ecosystem.

How Many Horizen (ZEN) Tokens Are There?

Horizen has a total supply of 21 million ZEN tokens.

How to Buy Horizen (ZEN) Tokens

When it comes to Horizen, you have a lot of options, including Coinbase.