Transaction confidentiality is a fundamental principle of peer-to-peer payment networks and one of the main differences between cryptocurrency and traditional money. But, at the same time, the Ledger of the first Digital bitcoin coin is absolutely transparent and everyone can track the movement of funds, which puts the anonymity of the owners of the digital asset in great doubt. Second-generation, high-security ecosystems such as Dash have been developed. Monero and zcash for. They guaranteed the confidentiality of payments, but still information leakage could occur during communication between users on open channels, for example, in social networks.
As a result, an anonymous cryptocurrency ZenCash appeared, later renamed Horizon. This is the third generation of blockchain platforms built to ensure customer privacy. In this review, we will tell you what this project is, how to mine and where to buy and store a digital Zen coin, as well as try to figure out whether it is worth investing in it at all.
History of the company
Technically, horizon is a fork of the zclassic cryptocurrency, which, in turn, arose as a result of the division of the Zcash blockchain. The project is founded by the Zen Blockchain Foundation (ZBF), a non-profit organization in Delaware, USA.
The ZenCash platform was launched at the end of may 2017 without an ICO or pre-mining. Part of the miners ' remuneration is used to Finance the project.
Rebranding
In August 2018, the ZenCash administration announced an expansion of the existing brand, in which the project changed its name to Horizon.
The Horizon network is built on a blockchain with the Equihash Proof-of-Work (PoW) Protocol, with an additional deferred penalty algorithm to protect against malicious chain reorganization. The ZEN crypto coin is the internal currency of the system. The privacy feature allows you to control the digital fingerprint using zero-knowledge cryptography.
Team of developers
Project manager:
Rob ViglIone-CEO;
Rolf Versluis-Executive Advisor;
Alberto Garoffolo-head of the development Department.
The Horizon community represents a wide range of stakeholders:
The horizon Community Council (HCC) is a bridge between users, the Foundation, and business corporations.
Developer Environment (HDE) is an open source developer community.
Corporate and academic partners, miners, node operators, and end users.
The Foundation's Academy provides free training on blockchain technology, Internet privacy, and technical aspects of the Horizon project.
Coin mining
ZenCash is the first cryptocurrency with full end-to-end encryption. Along with the zk-SNARKS Protocol, the network architecture uses node-level encryption. Therefore, not only miners, but also owners of protected nodes and super-nodes receive a part of the reward from each block of the horizon cryptocurrency. Zen mining on video cards and cpu is no longer profitable, coin mining is done exclusively by ASIC owners. There are 20 Zen collective mining pools in the network. The lion's share (80%) of hashrate falls on luxor services.tech and f2pool.com. A full list of active pools is available on the website https://miningpoolstats.stream/horizon.
The distribution of awards for the block:
Miners — 60%;
DAO-20%;
Protected node operators — 10%;
Supernodes — 10%.
Horizon creates a decentralized Autonomous organization (DAO) as a voting mechanism for allocating funds for the development of the platform. The main goal of the DAO is to create a decentralized and censorship-resistant mechanism for financing the development and maintenance of Horizon.
Masternodes
The Horizon blockchain ecosystem has a multi-level structure. In addition to full horizon wallet nodes, it includes:
Secure Nodes;
Super Nodes.
Secure nodes are nodes with TLS encryption enabled to protect communication between nodes, which prevents malicious attacks such as "man in the middle". Horizon is the first blockchain ecosystem to implement TLS encryption between nodes. According to the information from the official website of the developers, there are 31414 protected nodes in the network.
To activate Secure Nodes you must:
Install Linux OC on your PC. We recommend using Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit or Debian 9 64-bit or using a hosting provider.
Freeze at least 42 ZEN on the official wallet balance.
To install and configure the Zend Daemon.
Provide 24/7 operation of the protected node and regularly perform software updates.
Activating Super Node requires 500 ZEN on balance and higher hardware power. At the time of the review, 3374 supernodes were registered in the Horizon network. Their main purpose is to place side chains of Horizon, which will enable tracking of protected nodes, support for decentralized applications on blockchains, and Queuing the payment schedule for nodes for miners. Instructions for installing protected nodes and super nodes are available on the company's official website https://horizenofficial.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ZEN/pages/136872139/Installation.
The reward is distributed at the end of each period, which lasts exactly 576 blocks (approximately 1 day). The total reward for a block is 12.5 ZEN. Every 4 years there will be a halving in the system.
The purchase of coins that are available exchange
available exchanges for trading
If you want to invest in horizon, but for one reason or another can not engage in mining or install masternode, buy this cryptocurrency on one of the trading platforms. The full list of exchanges and the current zencash exchange rate is available at https://coinmarketcap.com/ru/currencies/horizen/markets/reported/, or coingecko.com. platforms work With the zen coin:
Binance;
Huobi Global;
Bittrex;
HitBTC;
OKEx.
Main trading pairs:
ZEN/BTC;
ZEN/ETH;
ZEN/USDT;
ZEN/USD.
The Sistemkoin exchange supports the exchange of zencash for the Euro currency and Turkish Lira, but there is no data on trade turnover. Therefore, it is better to use the services of one of the leading crypto exchanges, rather than trust your money to unfamiliar resources. To become a client of the exchange, you need to go through the registration process. To work with Fiat, you must submit documents confirming your identity and address, as well as a Bank statement.
Wallets and available software clients
Developers have released the following versions of zen wallet:
Sphere by horizon is a dectoscope client for Windows, Linux, and Mac OC with support for shielded payments.
Swing wallet is a full node with a graphical shell.
Horizon core — full node for working in the terminal.
Arizen is a lightweight PC wallet that works only with public addresses.
Myzenwallet-online wallet.
Zen wallet is an Android app.
Paper wallet-key generator for ZEN cold storage.
The Shere by horizon wallet works in both Full Mode and Light modes. That is, you can use it as a full node or synchronize it with a remote server without downloading a copy of the blockchain to your hard disk.
Download the app from the official website https://www.horizon.global /wallets/. Install it on your computer and create an account. You need to come up with an original username and password of at least 8 characters. The password must include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. By default, the Light mode is activated. you can switch to Full Mode in the "Settings" section. Full node owners can use the following functions:
Transactions using public (T) and private (Z) addresses
Start the Super and Secure node wizard.
Participation in ZenDAO.
Using the ZenHide tool, which allows you to bypass the cryptocurrency blocking mechanisms.
ZenChat is a very secure, encrypted messaging network.
ZenPub anonymous share files and media on a network that is protected from censorship.
ZenGrid the calculation of rent.
InstaZen deferred payments.
Horizon cryptocurrency is supported by multi-currency services Coinomi, Guarda, DDT wallet, and Ledger hardware safe.
Conclusion
The team is working on upgrading the project. In 2019, Horizon developers implemented the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which allows running an unlimited number of decentralized sidechain ecosystems.
The coin has prospects, but including it in the investment portfolio you need to carefully monitor the implementation of the road map and the course schedule.
