The Zilliqa (ZIL) team is the first to propose a sharding solution that has actual production-grade features. The team is led by some of the most accomplished minds in blockchain technology and includes researchers and engineers from MIT, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Tsinghua University, and other premier global universities.
Zilliqa's innovative architecture allows for linear scaling as the platform grows in size with no irreparable harm done to its throughput. The team has stated that their number one priority is security. To that end, Zilliqa has stated publicly that they wish to see the Zilliqa platform become a more secure, decentralized smart contract solution than Ethereum.
Zilliqa is not just another Ethereum clone; it is a new blockchain platform that looks to solve the issues plaguing modern blockchains. It's a next-generation high-throughput blockchain platform designed to scale in an open, permission-less distributed network securely. Sharding is the technology that helps it attain this.
Sharding, a concept first proposed by computer science researcher Dr. Elizabeth A. Teo, involves breaking up the entire network into smaller components called shards. Each shard processes its own micro block in parallel to every other shard and then merges the results into one large final block.
This enables Zilliqa to achieve linear scaling as the network expands — allowing for a higher number of transactions per second as compared to the current generation of blockchain platforms. For instance, Ethereum processes 15 transactions per second while Zilliqa has near-infinite scalability because it is dependent on the number of nodes in the network rather than the number of transactions processed on it.
This is an incredible solution for blockchain technology that has the potential to take it and its users to the next level. The idea of sharding is not new, and it is yet to be proven if it will actually work in a practical manner, but as a concept, it holds incredible promise.
The Zilliqa team believes that this innovation will help solve the scalability problem and push forward blockchain adoption for cases involving high-volume transactions. For instance, cross-border payments or micro-payments have been long touted as use cases suited for blockchain technology's influence. The only limitation that has so far impeded them on a public ledger has been scalability in terms of TPS (Transactions per second).
Zilliqa is a startup that, in spite of its young age, has already garnered an impressive list of backers including the likes of the Hashed Accelerator, Zappos, and Bluzelle. To date, it raised $25 million to develop the blockchain.
That said, Zilliqa is not to be confused with another Ethereum clone called EOS that raised over $4 billion in a record-breaking ICO that concluded last month. Both projects are trying to solve a very similar problem — scalability — but they have different solutions and aims. In many ways, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their solutions and approaches to matters relating to scalability and adoption.
At the core of Zilliqa's technology is the concept of sharding.
The Problem With Current Blockchains
Blockchain technology has made ripples across many industries and sectors, from accounting to the financial sector, to the gaming industry, governments, and healthcare. In each industry in which it has been implemented, it has benefited its users with improved efficiency and quality. It is not just an idea or a concept anymore — real businesses are leveraging blockchain technology to improve their services or products; however, there are problems that need to be solved before this can happen.
Of all these issues plaguing blockchains today, scalability tops the list because it poses a very real problem in achieving mainstream adoption of blockchain solutions.
Scalability needs to be addressed as blockchain technology continues to grow and evolve. The protocols currently on the market are not having the desired effect because they can't foster enough adoption and growth in a way that would allow them to reach their true potential. There is this notion that bigger is better, but it's not necessarily the case — scalability is what matters at this point because it has a direct bearing on the number of transactions that can take place per second. This directly impacts scalability — and it makes sense that the solution would be to scale in a way that increases throughput.
It's quite simple really. For blockchain technology to achieve widespread use, it has to be capable of handling a large number of transactions per second.
The hurdles we are facing in this regard are two-fold:
Decentralization — How can centralized systems be decentralized?
Scalability — How can massive transactional volumes be handled by a mainstream blockchain?
The Solution: Sharding & DAG — A Discussion With Zilliqa's Amrit Kumar (Lead Architect) & Xinshu Dong (CEO)
Sharding, as noted earlier, is the technology that will help Zilliqa accomplish its goal of creating an ultra-secure and scalable blockchain solution. The team behind the platform is working hard to fully implement the technology as soon as possible.
What is Sharding?
Sharding is the process of subdividing large networks of computers, known as nodes, into smaller networks known as shards. These shards then work in parallel to process transactions and eventually merge them into a single block. In other words: sharding solves the scalability problem by dividing and processing groups of transactions concurrently on multiple processing units whose work is subsequently checked by other network participants rather than by one central party (i.e., miners in the case of Bitcoin).
In this way, Zilliqa could become a “more secure” Ethereum — but how fast can it be? Well...
Zilliqa's Research Team Was First To Discover The Problem Of Scaling: Sharding Is A Potential Solution
The Zilliqa team identified the problem of scaling earlier than most other blockchain platforms. In fact, they were first to come across the concept of sharding technology that solves the problem by dividing large networks into smaller ones. Though a few others like Ethereum or EOS had also come up with a similar idea, Zilliqa is the only one that has actually put it into practice. In fact, they have even developed a proof-of-concept (POC) in which they were able to see very promising results — and this is still very much an ongoing process.
The Proof Of Concept And The Present Product
Though Zilliqa is still under development, their initial PoC was completed in December 2018. After this, the main focus for the team shifted to developing a product that could address the scalability issues of mainstream blockchains. This is how they came up with their MainNet product, which was announced and went live in January 2019.
While it is true that MainNet isn't yet fully functioning, what it has managed to demonstrate is that they are on track with regards to moving forward into the future — by incorporating sharding technology into their platform, they are confident that they can bring about an improved functionality within a few years time.
The Team
Behind Zilliqa is a team of computer science and finance professionals who believe that blockchain technology has the potential to truly transform the world — and that is why they chose to focus on it. The team is led by their CEO, Xinshu Dong, who has played an instrumental role in establishing the company's presence in Singapore.
Zilliqa’s CTO, Prateek Saxena, a Turing Award winner — the Nobel Prize of Computer Science — is one of the foremost experts on blockchain technology within this industry. He has been a professor at several top colleges including at the National University of Singapore before he joined Zilliqa.
The rest of the team includes members who have a background in computer science and finance. In addition, the Zilliqa team is supported by an Advisory Board composed of some of the most influential people in this industry.
Zilliqa is a public blockchain network that uses sharding to scale, thereby solving the scalability issue that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are facing. The sharding solution is supported by a security layer that is designed to prevent any form of manipulation on the network. However, since security cannot be guaranteed, the Zilliqa team has decided not to do away with nodes on the network, which results in increased transaction rates and cost savings for users.
So is Zilliqa worth your hard-earned money? In my opinion... Yes!
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended as investment advice nor financial advice. All thoughts above are collections of opinion from a writer's perspective. It proves no influence on any individual, company nor party involved in the said project or topic above.
