Zilliqa is a cryptocurrency built on Scilla smart contract programming language. On their website, they state Zilliqa is the first public blockchain to successfully use sharding as a scaling solution. Zilliqa uses eco-friendly duel mining system where you can mine Zilliqa 1 minute per 2-3 hours. This gives the miner time to also mine other cryptocurrencies on the same machine.
Zilliqa is designed to handle thousands of transactions a second. Zilliqa started as a development project in 2017. It went live on testnet in 2018 and on mainnet in 2019.
The birth of Zilliqa
Zilliqa was created by Prateek Saxena, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore School of Computing. Together with several of his students, they published a paper in 2016 outlining how a sharding-focused blockchain improves the efficiency of the network. Prateek Saxena co-founded Anquan Capital together with Max Kantelia and Juzar Motiwalla. Anquan Capital developed the Zilliqa network.
You can learn more about Zilliqa’s beginning and it’s tokenomiks on CoinMarketCap’s website here.
Zilliqa’s Ecosystem.
Zilliqa is a programmable cryptocurrency and you can make wallets, dApps, toolkits, smart contracts, and explorers using their framework. My personal favourite is Unstoppable domains. Zilliqa’s partnership with Unstoppable domains makes it possible to own domain with .zil and you can build a decentralized website. You can also resell your domain. Selling of Zil domains means you are selling the Zil address on the blockchain that holds the Zil domain.
Decentralized Internet
I love the idea of a decentralized internet. Instead of ‘renting’ a domain from a hosting provider, you own the domain in your wallet forever or until you decide to sell it. You can purchase your own domain here.
On this site you can also buy domains on the Etherium blockchain.
Owning a domain is owning virtual real-estate and at the moment, owning virtual real-estate on the decentralized web is hot stuff.
Zilliqa research and development roadmap states they are creating toolkits to make it easier for users to develop on the blockchain. This makes me very optimistic about owning Zil domains. You can learn more about their roadmap here.
Zilliqa and Collaborations
Zilliqa collaborates with other blockchains to become a leading platform on the decentralized web. Their partnership with Unstoppable domains is a fantastic example of this, but they also collaborate with Krypton. Krypton is the creator of superplayer. Their partnership gave birth to Zilliqa planet, a video game where you can earn Zil and sell/trade NFTs. This game has inbuilt ZIL staking. You can learn more here.
Get a full list of Zilliqa collaborations here.
What is NFT (non-fungible token)?
Fungible means it can be exchanged or replaced by another item that it is mutably interchangeable with. An example is trading in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are tradable with Fiat money and other cryptocurrencies as long as they hold the same value. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) means an asset that can’t be substituted with another asset in an interchangeable way. One example is a unique piece of artwork. It is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. A unique piece of art can’t be replicated. Intellectual property is another example. It is unique and the price depends on what it is worth to the buyer.
The item can be tokenized on the blockchain and thus held in a crypto-wallet. A Zil domain is a great example of an NFT. You can sell the Zil domain and the tokenized domain will be sent from your wallet to the buyer’s wallet.
To sum it up: NFT is a tokenized item secured and authenticated on the blockchain in someone’s wallet. NFT is a digital certificate on the blockchain. Examples of game tokens are virtual land, gaming accessories, and collectables, but NFTs can also be artwork and domains.
You can browse NFTs on OpenSea and Mintable.
Zilliqa, Scilla, and NFTs
Zilliqa is the cryptocurrency that pays the way for Scilla the programming language. Scilla as a programming language opens up the opportunity for developers to create NFTs. On mintable, you can trade your Zil domains and your digital assets created using Scilla.
The Zilliqa community is also working to make Scilla programming language user friendly. Ivan on Tech has wonderful Scilla training videos on Youtube. You can also learn Scilla on learnscilla.com. It is free and it is fun. 🙂
Zilliqa and Staking
Yes, as soon as you own Zilliqa you can stake them on Zilliqa nodes and earn rewards each protocol cycle. Staking Zil helps Zilliqa’s decentralisation and utility for the Zil cryptocurrency. While staking Zil, you can also earn governance Zil (gZil) which enables long term token holders to participate in voting on the future of Zilliqa.
Zilliqa is available on many exchanges and you can hold Zilliqa on a range of wallets that also have staking integrated.
Zilliqa staking rewards
