Zilliqa is a blockchain network created to address the scalability issues that affect other cryptocurrencies and smart contract platforms. ZIL, its native asset, is used to incentivize users to support the network.
Zilliqa was one of the first projects to explore the potential of sharing, where a network is broken up into smaller pieces to process a greater number of transactions in parallel. Sharing has since been embraced by other blockchain projects, including Ethereum, which has made the technology a central part of its scaling roadmap.
Zilliqa allows for the creation of smart contracts using a ""peer-reviewed and safe-by-design"" programming language called Scilla. The project has also sought to reduce the environmental impact of mining through its consensus mechanism — known as practical Byzantine fault tolerance.
A governance token called gZIL has been established to enable long-term holder participation in the Zilliqa ecosystem. ZIL can also be staked on OKX Earn by searching for the token in the dropdown menu provided.
Scalability has been a recurring issue in the blockchain sector, with concerns that the technology would struggle to process transactions promptly if mass adoption was achieved. In the original Zilliqa white paper, the team stated that many platforms are limited to processing fewer than 10 to 15 transactions per second, but Zilliqa can process more than 2,800.
Those behind Zilliqa highlight that a lack of scalability also directly impacts how affordable a blockchain is to use. The project's documentation states that Zilliqa offers faster confirmation times and lower transaction fees than Bitcoin and Ethereum, meaning that it is well suited to micropayments.
ZIL price and tokenomics
ZIL has a fixed supply of 21 billion tokens. A recent high point for the ZIL price came in May 2021, when a single coin was worth $0.2563. Block rewards distribution has been known to change with the introduction of new Zilliqa Improvement Proposals — known as ZIPs, for short.
A change implemented in November 2020 increased the proportion of block rewards that go to stakers. Additionally, it increased the overall size of the block reward to ensure that miners were not left out of pocket by this change. This means that the circulating supply of ZIL will reach its hard cap of 21 billion earlier than previously thought.
About the founders
Zilliqa was co-founded by Amrit Kumar, Max Kantelia, Prateek Saxena and Jia Yaoqi. Kumar continues to serve as the project's president and chief scientific officer.
The core team has grown into separate divisions. While the ecosystem team is responsible for educating the public about how the Zilliqa blockchain works and for driving adoption, the marketing communications team is tasked with championing the project's story. The platform team builds Zilliqa's main infrastructure, the language team takes care of the Scilla smart contract language, and the usability team focuses on meeting the needs of DApp developers and end-users.
