What Is Horizon Protocol (HZN)?

Horizon Protocol is a DeFi platform assisting the creation and trading of on-chain (transaction executed and verified on the blockchain) synthetic assets representing the real economy. Synthetic assets are assets that derive their value from underlying assets. 

Horizon aims to give a return profile of real-world assets exposure through smart contracts on the blockchain. Smart contracts are regular contracts, but instead of being drafted on paper, these contracts run in the form of protocols on the blockchain. Horizon is the fork of Synthetix and focuses on tackling problems related to scalability and affordability. 

Its users receive rewards for making stablecoins back-synthetic assets and providing liquidity for replicating the underlying asset's price, volatility, valuation, and return. The platform also acts as an asset verification protocol that enables validation and synthetic replication of assets in the real world. Furthermore, the platform uses markets, prices, and economic data to price synthetic assets.  

The platform consists of the Horizon exchange that aims to increase the accessibility to various real-world assets and enable easy trading between the combination of assets. The exchange also develops a suite of trading tools that includes trade histories, limit orders, and charts for technical analysis.

HZN is the native token of the Horizon Protocol that provides economic incentives to the platform participants. HZN can be used as collateral as a part of the analysis of synthetic assets, manage the reward system, and facilitate a DAO which governs the protocol and all future development. HZN token holders stake their tokens into the liquidity pool and receive rewards.

Staking the HZN tokens gives token holders the power to participate in the voting process related to the development and Horizon Improvement Proposals. HZN stakers manage protocol direction and functional improvements exchanges (fee, rewards, and burn). Cryptocurrency burning is when a fraction of tokens are sent to a wallet with no private key. This means the tokens are lost forever. Tokens are usually burnt to reduce availability and increase market value.

Additionally, the stakers manage liquidity pool farms, staking and liquidity pool rewards, and collateralization ratio of zAssets (tradable synthetic assets of the platform). 

History of Horizon Protocol

The total supply of the HZN tokens is one hundred million coins. 

References

1. https://horizonprotocol.com/

2. https://static.horizonprotocol.com/Horizon-Litepaper-v1.7.pdf

3. https://academy.shrimpy.io/post/what-are-crypto-synths-synthetic-assets-explained

4. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chain-transactions-cryptocurrency.asp

5. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-blockchain

6. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-smart-contract

7. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-protocol

8. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-token

9. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/market-updates/around-the-block-issue-21

10. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-staking

11. https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-crypto-wallet

12. https://www.investopedia.com/tech/cryptocurrency-burning-can-it-manage-inflation