Horizen is a privacy cryptocurrency and blockchain network. Its goal is to solve the scaling and security issues found in networks like Ethereum.

Depending on who you ask, blockchains are either too slow, too public, or too centralized. Horizen is trying to solve all three with a combination of private tools, nodes and sidechains.

Below we will explore what Horizen is, how it works, and why it strives to solve crypto privacy issues.

What is Horizen?

The core feature of Horizen blockchain is privacy. Since launching as ZenCash, the network has used zero-knowledge proofs to make its ZEN coin inaccessible and unobservable. It also believes that any interactions between users should be kept private. Therefore, the company is building security solutions for smart contracts, with the aim of becoming a decentralized platform for the development of private messaging, publishing and decentralized applications ( dapp).

Who invented Horizen?

In May 2017, co-founders Robert Viglione and Rolf Versluis launched ZenCash as a fork of ZClassic- Zclassic is again a fork of Zcash. In August 2018, ZenCash rebranded to Horizen.

What else is special about Horizen?

Being the leader of the crypto world is not easy. Bitcoin has the highest market capitalization. Ethereum leads the way of active developers. Thought this was the fastest development, but Horizen is the king of nodes. Their massive network of over 30,000 active nodes eclipses both Bitcoin and Ethereum, their closest rivals in terms of node count.

The Horizen node network performs many functions, not all nodes play the same role. Usually, these nodes are fully functional like on Etherem or Bitcoin – it has a full copy of the blockchain network data and transactions. Secure Nodes are usually a collection of nodes with special encryption that ensures communication and prevents information leakage between nodes. Finally, there are Super Nodes, strongly secure nodes, it’s called host Horizen sidechains.

What other differences does Horizen have?

Horizen has been a long time being ZenCash. The team is currently focusing on developing sidechain technology, allowing anyone to develop dapps linked to the Horizen mainchain. These sidechains promise to be highly scalable while keeping the Horizen mainchain network of over 30,000 nodes active. Thanks to Cross-Chain Protocol (CCTP) technology, ZEN tokens can be converted back and forth between the Horizen mainchain and individual sidechains quickly and easily.

How are ZEN tokens generated?

The Horizen network combines proof-of-work (POW) with proof-of-stake (POS), so that new tokens are rewarded to both miners as POW and validators as POS. Basically, Horizen mainchain uses POW to maintain evenness as sidechains use POS.

Of the newly created ZEN tokens, 60% will go to miners, while Secure Node and Super Node operators get only 10% each. The last 20% of the ZEN tokens belong to the Treasury of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), and become a source of funds for the development of the ecosystem of the organization.

Like Bitcoin, Horizen has a total supply of 21 million ZEN and it will also be halving periodically.

How to hold ZEN tokens?

You can buy ZEN tokens on exchanges like Binance and Huobi. You can also start mining and join a mining pool to collect ZEN tokens.

What can you do with ZEN?

The main crypto asset of the Horizen blockchain is ZEN with all its privacy-focused features. There are two types of ZEN Addresses: T-Addresses and Z-Addresses. T-Addresses are similar to Bitcoin, where anyone can see all of an account’s transaction history, while Z-Addresses are where zero-knowledge proofs are received. If two Z-Addresses transact with each other, the transactions remain private, anonymous, and completely concealed.

Horizen in the future

Recently, Horizen created a Side Chains Alpha system and the next big plan is to launch a sidechain of their own. After the successful launch of sidechain technology, Horizen plans to add another promising scaling technology to the ecosystem, it is called Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). With the addition of sidechains and DAG technology, will Horizen become the next leader in scalability?

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