This project is not only an upcoming blockchain with its own mainnet planned (2019), but it could also provide solutions for future blockchains that need to ‘scale’. This is because it is tackling this great problem in the space.
Imagine a room (or network) full of people (or nodes), that need to transact and reach consensus quickly. They also need to talk to each other about more complicated things. The larger the quantity of people, the slower and more difficult it becomes to reach agreed, secure consensus, and without bad behavior threatening the whole equilibrium.
This is akin to the big issue of ‘scaling’ in a distributed (blockchain etc.) network. Zilliqa is great because its hybrid protocol allows the network to grow in number of nodes, while also allowing its speed to increase. This is achieved via ‘sharding’ which breaks down the network (and the work) and thus speeds up consensus. The results are hugely positive, but with still room for development.
More complex dApps?
If Zilliqa is to be a more dynamic platform featuring dApps, then it will need to run a Turing-complete language that is secure and allows for more complex dApps. For now, its unique programming language can only process the more simple ones that may require fast transaction rates (where other blockchains simply cannot). However, these functional contracts are actually more secure this way.
Zilliqa has a token for its ecosystem. Just like other dApp platforms like Ethereum or NEO, the ZIL token serves as mining incentive, gas for contract execution, and tender for paying transaction fees.
It’s more interesting to compare Zilliqa and EOS. However, EOS is more centralised in order to allow its dApp programming language to function. Let’s just hope EOS can also keep its network secured in the process, and free from corruption.
It’s worth tracking the development of Scilla, the unique programming language of Zilliqa to see if future development facilitates the running of more complex smart contracts. [Another fast network design project, Hashgraph is also unable to run Turing-complete languages for dApps, at this time.]
Zilliqa remains an important project in the space, and at this time the price is low. You can buy it on Binance, but until the mainnet launch this will actually be an Ethereum-based token for now. This was the same for EOS, until the mainnet went live and most exchanges handled the swap automatically.
Sept 2018.
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