Hi Zilliqans,
Brace yourselves; this is a 10-15 minute read. To those who are too lazy to DYOR, well, I saved you a ton of time. To those who DYOR, in-depth, I trust this post gives you comfort that you are not alone in your continued excitement for Zilliqa’s growth and adoption in 2021.
A lot has happened in the past couple months for Zilliqa and the crypto market as a whole. I see a lot of new people around this subreddit and also a lot of HODLers not paying close attention or correctly unpacking the project’s growth and current status. Can’t blame the HODLers, a lot keeps happening for Zilliqa, weekly, so hard to keep up! For the newbies, where do you begin? Lots to read to keep up to date. Enjoy the high learning curve!
Below, is an update where I see some key developments, as they currently stand. As an investor, what I list below helps me sleep at night with my investment in Zilliqa. I hope it does for you all too. There’s so much to continue to look forward to for Zilliqa in 2021
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TLDR – Zilliqa is going to blow the crypto world’s mind in 2021. A melodramatic statement from me? Perhaps. Though, not improbable.
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Before you read further, I want to give you all some more high-level perspective. Once you finish reading all of this, let it sit in for a few minutes. Step back and ponder the vision (which is massive). See the forest for the trees. Don’t think about Zilliqa’s current price and volatility, think about where you see a project like this stacking up against all the others as all these developments continue to unfold in 2021. You’ll see why in 2021, and in years to come, this project is creating a deep and wide ecosystem. To say it is undervalued is a euphemism – (is a bit of a joke at this point). That said, the market is currently pricing it as it is, so be it.
Remember the famous quote by John Maynard Keynes, “The markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” Remembering this quote always helps me keep my emotions more in check.
Now, lets jump into this:
1) The Governance Portal launched (as expected) in January.
It went live as expected – since Zilliqa always delivers (FYI for newbies - literally, since Zil's launch in early 2018, it has yet to not deliver on a project goal). Pretty astounding, I know. Okay here’s a little more on this one. gZil is the token that governs the portal and future path of Zilliqa. gZil is only minted for a one year period, October 2020 to October 2021. gZil launched with non-custodial staking back in October 2020. This is a big step forward for Zilliqa in terms of decentralisation of the blockchain. It still brings so much more than that. For example, you can use gZil to support ZilSwap. More on ZilSwap in point two below.
gZil will play an important role with the launch and incorporation of Pillar Protocol. Pillar Protocol will be implemented and used for stable coin issuance and will enable lending/liquidity providing as well. That protocol is planned for release around June 2021 or thereabouts. Lets not get hung up on the month of release as it could end up taking 1-2 more months past that. Who knows, but it will be launched thereabouts. Why does Pillar Protocol matter? It will further launch the Zilliqa blockchain into the stable coin market (beyond the already launched XGSD via Xfers) in a significant way and provide that additional use case for assets to be used as collateral for lending.
2) Launched ZilSwap: Launched end of last year in partnership with Switcheo. ZWAP token now live as of February 2021.
What is Zilswap? A Decentralised Exchange (DEX) powered by Zilliqa. The native ZWAP token launched 3 February 2021, to enable community decentralisation of management of the protocol and DEX. So why does ZilSwap matter for the Zilliqa blockchain? You can use ZilSwap to trade and provide liquidity/lending for assets.
Are you familiar with SushiSwap, Aave, UniSwap?
Think about that but powered by the Zilliqa Blockchain. Your imagination is going now isn’t it? What billionaire do you think is going to invest in Zil?
Jokes aside (cough cough, though is it?), yes, this is a big deal for Zilliqa ecosystem growth and use. At time of writing, there is currently a total value locked (TVL) of $14.7mm on ZilSwap. It is off to a good start, but it’s going to explode once people understand what it actual is and start using it more once the Zilliqa-powered Polynetwork bridge goes live. More on the Polynetwork bridge in point three.
Want to learn more about this? Switcheo wrote a blog on their website called “Introducing ZWAP, ZilSwap’s Governance Token.” It will take you 5-10 minutes to read. Worth it!
Don’t forget about ZilSwap 2.0 either. That is happening in the next few months as well. The timeframe isn’t set in stone, but we know that happens alongside the Polynetwork bridge launch. My prediction, ZilSwap 2.0 is launched around May or June 2021. This is also where all you token holders that never swapped from the old ERC-20 Zilliqa coins get another chance to swap your currently valueless/useless old Ethereum-based Zil tokens for the mainnet Zillqa tokens.
BTW: Can I just say, aren’t you all lucky (regardless of your circumstance for not swapping with a one year notice, lucky is the word). Make no mistake. A lot of other projects have never done something like this after a token swap window for a mainnet launch was completed. Be grateful and patient –and share your gratitude. I certainly would if I were in that position. But alas, a way to swap your tokens is coming. :)
3) Polynetwork Bridge (some refer to it as the ETH bridge) – Where does this stand?
For starters, this bridge being built on the Zilliqa blockchain will benefit much more than just ETH holders/users. It will allow users to “wrap” their ERC-20 coins. Additionally, other projects can benefit beyond Ethereum. For example, Bitcoin. Binance coin (bUSD) will also be brought to the Zilliqa chain circulating as a ZRC -2- BUSD coin (or zBUSD for short). Short answer as to why this is a big deal? Imagine being able to use ERC-20 projects for fraction of the costs of being on the Ethereum chain? Yes, a big benefit and big deal!
When are we expecting this to go live? A couple months back the Zilliqa team thought it was possible by end of Q1, but it is looking more like a testnet version will be available as early as April/May and more likely the mainnet version available late Q2. So, 2-3 months behind initial thoughts, but not concerning in the least. I’d be very happy to see this launch by June 2021. For those new to Zilliqa, don’t let this delay concern you. If we can even call it a delay. Zilliqa is one of the few projects that deliver on deadlines (which is a sad statement to even write). The team has been keeping this community up-to-date all along the way and was initially targeting an end of Q1 completion. Pretty much on track if they are currently saying they can launch a testnet version by April. Needing a couple extra months to mainnet launch this smoothly is the most important goal.
4) Black Swan Events? Lets have some fun here.
When we traditionally think of a Black Swan event, it implies a negative, unexpected market force that is beyond the realm of normal expectations. Emphasis on the “negative” part. Lets flip this on its head. Lets think of it like we can the word “volatility.” When most people think of volatility, in investing terms, they think negative downside price movement. However, volatility goes both ways, down and up.
So, where am I going with this? I’ll list a few potential, positive, Black Swan events that can catapult the price of Zilliqa this year. If any one or combination of these were to happen, I’ll feel bad for all the day traders trying to time market dips. FOMO and price movement will be so hard that anyone on the sidelines before an announcement like one of these happens will be left sitting in the dust.
So what are potential positive Black Swan events for Zilliqa in 2021?
-Any announcement of a large US exchange listing. Think Coinbase, Kraken, or Gemini. This makes it easier for US-based investors to buy/sell Zilliqa. There are some ways around this as a US investor to buy Zilliqa, currently, but they take effort and don’t provide tons more easy liquidity and interest in Zilliqa. Getting a simple on-ramp/off-ramp for US investors is very important for more user adoption and ecosystem growth. We know that the Zilliqa team has completed their Rosetta integration protocol and posted that on GitHub to enable Coinbase listing integration. At this point, it is up to Coinbase if/when they list Zilliqa. I believe that will happen in 2021. No clue as to timing, and none of us will know until it gets announced anyways.
-Xcademy is an interesting one to keep an eye out for. Talk about likely revolutionizing the way YouTubers and subscribers/fans interact and transact with YouTube. This project being powered by Zilliqa has HUGE potential in 2021 and beyond and I’ll be watching how this unfolds very closely. Any success with this will propel Zilliqa much higher. Imagine a scenario where a couple YouTube influencers start talking about their use and interaction with Xcademy? Again, imagine…. If you don’t know anything about this, Zilliqa recently tweeted a short video put together by Xcademy. Watch it. It is only a couple minutes of your time and worth it to understand it at a high-level.
-HG Exchange gaining more notoriety via an announcement of listing additional tokenised assets or large private/start-up companies throughout 2021. We know more will be announced later this year tied to HG Exchange. They already announced the tokenisation of rare single malt Scotch whiskies in January. More is expected to be announced throughout the year so we’ll see what happens there. Tokenising real-world assets is a big deal. I don’t get the sense that people understand how big of a deal it is that HG Exchange successfully launched one tokenisation so far.
-Zilliqa Capital announcing major investment/partnership with key investors and/or companies. Frankly, I expect something more to come of this throughout the year. It is a key pillar of Zilliqa’s ecosystem and user adoption roadmap, so I’ll be disappointed if the Zilliqa Capital team doesn’t secure some great announcements throughout 2021. Just sit back and be patient.
-Chamath Palihapitiya (a billionaire Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist) has been pitched a hedge fund DAO by the Zilliqa team. I know, this sounds crazy, but is not impossible. Those paying attention to Zilliqa the past month or so would recall that back on 30 January 2021, Zilliqa responded to a tweet from Chamath. The Zilliqa team suggested they could help power a hedge fund DAO. Chamath replied to that tweet saying he is interested and for the team to direct message him. Since then, the team sent across a proposal (Amrit publicly confirmed this). Who knows what happens from here. Imagine some sort of news like a partnership breaking in the coming months? Powerful for Zilliqa’s name and ecosystem, to say the least.
Okay, so we had some fun with these, the last one in particular. The first few are likely possible and the Xcademy, HG exchange and Zilliqa Capital ones will produce something this year. My key takeaway from the possibility with Chamath is that it shows me more and more people are paying attention to Zilliqa and will come to better understand its value and begin using Zilliqa to build and transact more.
There are a lot more developments and growth happening around areas like dApps powered by Zilliqa (such as Zeeves, Social Pay, ZilChess, RedChillies, Unstoppable Web, Package Portal, etc.), NFTs, and much more. However, I want to limit the post here, otherwise, this would be way too long.
I hope all of you reading this are as excited as I am for what Zilliqa will accomplish in 2021. I won’t go out and talk about price predictions here, but I’ll keep it simple. If you think Zilliqa being worth approximately $0.14 (at time of writing) is going to stick around as the next few months progress, you are mistaken.
If we even set aside price for a moment and think about what the Zilliqa blockchain will bring to the world, and in particular DeFi, it is exciting. Hats off to what this team and wider community has produced so far and what will happen this year and in the years to come!
I'm certainly long zilliqa. Lets all do our part to spread the word - AND TOGETHER BUILD ZILLIQA'S ECOSYSTEM.
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