While the cryptocurrency market has exploded in the recent bull run of 2021, there are still many problems that are rampant with the technology. A lot of new projects are introduced to tackle some of the problems of the market. The top three problems may be lack of privacy, centralization or lack of speed. Horizen is a project that aims to solve all three problems plaguing the market. Let’s delve more into what Horizen is and how it solves the above three problems.
What is Horizen?
Horizen is a hard fork of the privacy coin Zcash. But being a hard fork, it has much more to offer. It was founded by Robert Viglione and Rolf Verslius in 2017 as ZenCash a fork of ZClassic – which is also a hard fork; however, the cryptocurrency was rebranded to Horizen in 2018. The network also utilizes a mix of Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work consensus mechanisms. The mainchain operates with a PoW consensus while the Sidechains utilize PoS. We will get into Sidechains and mainchain later.
For its privacy aspect, the cryptocurrency utilizes zero-knowledge proofs which helps Horizen be untraceable. The development is working arduously on increasing its privacy offerings. The network aims to also offer privacy for smart contracts which would result in completely private publishing, messaging and decentralized app development.
Horizen is an interesting proposition as it sits unrivalled in terms of nodes. While bitcoin is the king of the market, Horizen has more than 40,000 active nodes which surpasses that of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Moreover, the node network is also termed as multi-tiered which means nodes have varying tasks. The kinds of nodes operated are Secure Nodes and Super Nodes. Super nodes are used to host Horizen’s Sidechains which is another of the prized offerings of the network. Sidechains allow users to develop independent dapps that benefits from Horizen’s technology while linked with the network’s mainchain. The Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) enables the transfer of data between the Sidechains and the mainchain.
Does ZEN have potential?
The development team has been highly active with a lot of major partnerships being signed in late 2020. Horizen partnered with Celsius to create a proof-of-reserve system. It has also partenered with Sikoba and LTO network with ambitious plans. Dashpay is one of the recent names in the partners’ list of the network. The network’s Sidechains are not fully active yet as the beta version, Zendoo, was launched last year. It is expected that Zendoo will be launched on the mainnet in 2021. The launch can help reach ZEN to higher highs.
According to the estimates of Wallet Investor, ZEN will be operating at $186 in a year’s time – up by more than 100% from its current price of $81. The five-year projection places the cryptocurrency at $504. Digital Coin Price estimates the price will be touching $300 by 2026.
