1) i. What is Zenon?
Zenon leverages the advantages of well established ledgers and consensus mechanisms. It is a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) network but innovates a dual ledger architecture. Zenon's dual ledger structure allows it to have the high scalabity and security by combining the advantages of well established networks while introducing its own technology.
ii. Dual Ledger architecture: DAG+Block-lattice
Zenon takes a dual ledger approach,it uses a meta DAG as its consensus layer,and a block lattice data for storing the transaction, making accessing and storing data very cheap and efficient and making transactions efficient. Thus making zenon HIGHLY scalable.
a. Meta DAG-
Meta meaning its own version. DAG meaning Directed Acyclic Graph. A DAG is a data structure that looks like a block graph and a tree, DAG technology is used in IOTA, Avalanche, Hashgraph.
DAG function:
A DAG links transactions with other transactions so you do not have to wait for them to be bundled together in a block. A traditional blockchain structure transactions chronologically.
The benefits of DAG:
For example in IOTA, for the transaction to be confirmed, you will have to confirm two previous transactions. This system is very fast compared to traditional blockchains but the issue comes with security, and designing a solid security system for this is very complex.
b. Block-lattice
The block-lattice technology has been developed by NANO founder Colin LeMahieu in 2014. In this system each and every user has his or her own “dedicated” blockchain, but in this case these individual blockchains are called “account chains”. Every transaction is dealt with individually, blocks only contain data describing the transfer at hand i.e the data of transactions started, or received by the user.
The benefits of Block-lattice:
Transactions in a Block-Lattice system are almost instantaneous.
iii. Security in consensus design
Security:
How well can the network can resist against things like adversaries, byzantine nodes, the ability to defend against sybil attacks, how will it defend itself against denial of service attacks,censorship etc.
Zenon will be using a virtual voting scheme like in Hedera Hashgraph gossip about gossip and then it will be use a hybrid Proof of Stake and Proof of Work.
Gossip:
"... if a node receives information or transaction, to acknowledge the receipt of such transaction,that node will have to do gossip, .. the gossip is that node sends that transaction and also other gossips to another which their own gossips to another node which sends that transaction until it reaches a specific threshold, now everyone knows about what everyone did as well as the time."
Nodes in zenon:
trusting(sentry) nodes:
"they basically store the transactional data or their pruned version ,they have a very simple function of monitoring traffic for specific accounts,they require minimal resources to run."
trustless(sentinel) nodes:
"they involved with proof of work links,they require moderate resources (ZNN and QSR) to run,and they engage in consensus."
consensus(pillar) nodes:
"they engage in consensus,they help in relaying network traffic to other pillar nodes, they requires high resources (ZNN and QSR) to run."
A run down on how a transaction works in Zenon network.
"As a user you have to initiate a transaction and then the sentinel nodes to acknowledge the receipt of the transaction, it will do some computation (proof of work links), attach some data to it and then it will relay that transaction to other sentinel nodes and the process continues until it reaches a specific weight threshold for it to be considered valid after which this result will be sent to a consensus nodes which is chosen at random for final validation and that will put a final stamp of approval and then we can actually say this will serve as a standard,once the pillar nodes put their stamp of approval,it cannot be changed, so we take it as a point of reference."
2) Launch
Zenon was launched in 2019
"Product” maturity at launch
"Most projects start with a whitepaper and some vaporware and often take months or even years before delivering anything (if at all).
Zenon launched with a working blockchain. There was a wallet ready for all the common platforms (Mac, PC, Linux), an explorer, a nice looking website, and everything one needs in order to get started. And the only way to describe the onboarding experience was… SLICK. The website was beautifully designed. The colors of the logo, the explorer, the wallet UI, the BTT article, all perfectly matched. Somebody put a lot of thought into this before it was made public…"
Fund “raising” mechanism — the xStakes
" They came up with an innovative unique mechanism called xStakes. The basic idea is that the participants send their funds to some sort of a smartcontract, and in return get their tokens. The participants are then expected to adhere to some predefined conditions in order to qualify to receive their funds back from the smartcontract over a period of time.
In the case of Zenon, one is required to run a network node (on the temporary Zenon network) where the collateral is ZNN coins that were received as a result of sending the funds. xStakes are paid monthly over a period of 2 years (or until the NoM is ready, whichever comes first). In essence this creates an active community of loyal supporters that have the incentive to run their nodes and be part of the network in its first phase"
Also potential usage of a bitcoin smart contract for the funding unheard of in 2019.
3) Team
Anonymous:
The team is anonymous and most likely will never change. One is to avoid personal liability. Another is to avoid regulatory issues. No one is legally the face/front for zenon, hence highly decentralised and legal bureaucracy proof.
Testimony:
" Every single Zenon team member I have interacted with (and I had long discussions with many of them, especially during the riddle days) are clearly native English speakers. I would dare to guess North Americans (US/Canada). They are all also very nice and polite. And they are very knowledgeable and apparently tech savvy. Setting up a node is no rocket science, but many crypto folks have no previous experience in creating a VPS, installing software from the cloud on Linux, etc. The team has been very patient and helpful throughout the different phases, and “customer support” so to speak is simply astounding. Did we say corporate America? "
-@Shaimo
4) Partnerships
There is a TON of unannounced industry partners getting on board. Which will be announce one by one after mainnet (alphanet) launch.
Many other projects announce partners right of the bat to build hype on vapourwave.
i. Zenon fabric program
" The Zenon Fabric team has been communicating with leaders in the cryptocurrency space, building bridges, aiming to connect technologies, and merge communities in preparation for the next phase of Zenon and the transition to the Network of Momentum — Alphanet.
For the first part of the Zenon Fabric program, we have reserved 10 vested Pillar slots for key industry players. Being in the testing phase, we will be introducing them one by one, keeping close contact, aiming towards a secure and smooth transition to Alphanet for our network participants. For this first chapter, we decided to start integrating acknowledged Validator teams, having the most experience managing networks of nodes making both the communication and transition easy for both parties."
source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/building-bridges-4ed4eb6988a
From their AMA:
A) Zenon Fabric will provide ZNN for 10 Vested Pillars Slots every 83 days that will be available for key industry players. Each Vesting Event will last 7 days and will coincide with the revoke window for Pillars. Any non-assigned slot will expire, and new ones will be available during the next Vesting Event. The ZNN used for the Vested Pillars is extracted from Zenon Structure. There will not be an increase in the total supply for this process.
source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/zenon-community-generated-ama-edition-2-1ef42e624a90
5) Conspiracy on the founder/founders of zenon.
There has been rumours circulating around that square crypto, paradigm, jack dorsey (founder and CEO of twitter), lightning network devs involved with zenon network.
The Zenon team always responded to the allegations with " Zenon is an independant entity' However, never comfirmed nor denied the rumours.
Read more on the conspiracies here:
https://files.catbox.moe/26kuuh.pdf
6) Current development status of Zenon (as of 30/4/2021)
Public testnet launch:
Phase 1:
Plasma(gas) a mechanic to help mitigate network congestion. Completed.
Phase 2:
Pillars and sentinel nodes launched. Completed
Phase 3:
Native token system (ZTS). Completed
<<We are here>>
Phase 4:
Testnet incentives (rewards). Details on incentives for testnet participants will be announced soon.
I highly recommend joining the telegram to get started on joining the testnet.
Final Stage:
i. Alphanet genesis (mainnet launch).
Syrius wallet(zenon wallet) launched, current ZNN tokens will be swapped for the mainnet ones here. And partnerships will slowly be unveiled.
ii. Bitcoin interoperability and smart contracts
Zenon plans to enable smart contracts on bitcoin.
7) Exchanges to buy ZNN
These tokens have to be manually swapped later on after mainnet launch.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zenon
Bilaxy (KYC)
Mercatox (NO-KYC)
Stex (KYC)
Just pick the one with the lowest price. Beware that bilaxy has a lot of fake volume from wash trading.
other sources used:
https://knowledgeiskey2017.medium.com/lets-explore-zenon-network-cf46d6a8d1ee
https://medium.com/@shaimo/the-zenon-enigma-782f8b293bd6
https://medium.com/@zenon.network
https://medium.com/interdax/avalanches-be695ce9463
https://hedera.com/learning/what-is-gossip-about-gossip
TL,DR:
Zenon is an insanely promising project that is under the radar due to unannounced partnerships and being at the testnet phase. Imagine transaction speeds of nano but with high security. Soon to be interoperated with bitcoin.
Its ridiculous that a project of bluechip calibre is only valued at 120m marketcap. Zenon will be the powerhouse bitcoin interoperability/smart contracts.
The rumours and conspiracies are fun to discover on your own. Many have bought in on the rumours alone. The Zenon community is awesome and helpful with many respectable investors. And the dev team always delivers solid updates when you least expect it.
🚀
