ZenIP 42405 DRAFT - Directing the Horizen Foundation to Request a Migration for $ZEN and EON

I published my first draft proposal for the Horizen ecosystem, a request for $ZEN migration. The ZEN IP 42405 draft comes as a follow-up to Rob Viglione's vision for the future of the Horizen ecosystem.

The Horizen co-founder published a blog post outlining that Horizen would become a “home for zero-knowledge,” with a new version of EON (“EON 2.0”) serving as the execution environment for ZK applications.

The Horizen proof verification network is known for the cost-effective settlement for modular blockchain stacks, one that is enabling Layer 2 adoption to grow exponentially. Why is this important? Because 2024 is hyping with ZK Dapp, and the modular blockchains are more important then ever.

ZenIP 42405 DRAFT: Directing the Horizen Foundation to Request a Migration Proposal for $ZEN and EON

Abstract

This ZenIP constitutes a formal action by the Horizen community to direct the Horizen Foundation to request that its current technical service provider, Horizen Labs, develop a technical migration path for the EON blockchain and $ZEN token pursuant to the community discussion on this topic in recent weeks, and that Horizen Labs include an estimated timeline and cost. It is the desire of the Horizen community that this work be undertaken as part of Horizen Lab’s existing services agreement with the Horizen Foundation as a technical provider to the Horizen ecosystem.

Any proposed migration path that Horizen Labs may develop as a result of this proposal would be subject to adoption by the community in a separate ZenIP.

Motivation

In April 2024, Rob Viglione, co-founder of Horizen, published a blog post outlining his vision for the future of the Horizen ecosystem. In this vision, Horizen would become a “home for zero-knowledge,” with a new version of EON (“EON 2.0”) serving as the execution environment for zk applications.

Achieving this vision entails migrating the $ZEN cryptocurrency token and the EON blockchain to a new technology stack, porting over $ZEN to serve as the gas and governance token of EON 2.0, and deprecating the current Horizen mainchain once safe to do so.

Meanwhile, Horizen Labs announced in early May that it will independently undertake the buildout of the upcoming proof verification chain in order to bring it to market more quickly. This makes the need to develop a migration roadmap for $ZEN and EON more urgent.

This ZenIP aims to gather community support to direct the Horizen Foundation to request that Horizen Labs develop a proposed pathway for this migration. This work should be done under Horizen Labs’ existing services agreement with the Horizen Foundation as it pertains to ongoing maintenance and development of the Zen and EON blockchains.

Specification

Should this ZenIP be approved by the community, the appropriate representatives of the Horizen Foundation will be responsible for formally requesting the proposal from Horizen Labs. The proposal should include an estimated timeline and cost for the project.

Should Horizen Labs undertake this work, the result would be a technical migration roadmap. Such a roadmap would be presented to the community and subject to approval in a separate ZenIP.

Rationale

This ZenIP 1) starts the process of determining the technical roadmap for migrating $ZEN and EON migration, while 2) doing so with the consultation of the community. It is important that the Horizen community be involved in this process as it is the most consequential upgrade to Horizen’s technology in years.

Security and Privacy Considerations

Given this ZenIP is to approve a directive to Horizen Labs, there are no major security or privacy considerations. However, it is worth noting that any migration path developed by Horizen must put security at its center, to ensure that the integrity of the blockchain, including token balances, is upheld.

Read, comment and get involved in the Horizen forum! 

The “New Horizen” approach comes as a super efficient proof verification layer and is the natural evolution from Zendoo. New Horizen is the perfect foundation onto which EON can move to become that hub for ZK projects that was always envisioned. I''ve been exploring most Ethereum layer2s and modular chains like Celestia... and EON brings even more benefits and even more opportunities. Why? Because Celestia provides data availability, while Horizen provides proof verification! 

The Horizen chain become EVM-compatible through the EON sidechain, and developers are now able to build fully customizable chains, including consensus, speed, privacy and crypto-economies.  Spooky Swap, LayerZero, PYTH, Metamask, Band, Ankr, Tatum, ThirdWeb and many more top crypto brands are already available on Horizen EON!