Blockchain network Zilliqa has officially released its whitepaper and roadmap for its highly anticipated version 2.0 upgrade, which will be deployed on mainnet in late 2024.
According to the network, the new version promises to improve the platform, making it faster, more efficient, and able to collaborate with other blockchain networks.
What’s new in Zilliqa 2.0
At the core of Zilliqa 2.0 is a sharding architecture called x-shard. This feature allows businesses and developers to create customized blockchain experiences tailored to their needs, while users can build anything they imagine on the Zilliqa platform.
Sharding is a method used in blockchain and database systems to improve the performance and scalability of blockchain networks. This allows you to be more efficient and process more transactions without slowing you down.
In addition to x-shards, the white paper introduces a new proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that replaces the energy-intensive proof-of-work system. These changes make the network more environmentally friendly, enabling ultra-fast finality and increased security.
Block times can also be adjusted as desired. The average block time for the root mainnet shard is just 2 seconds. The network upgrade also includes a cross-chain communication hub, allowing x-shard, Zilliqa mainnet, and other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchains to easily interact.
Zilliqa 2.0 is EVM compatible, allowing it to run smart contracts written in languages like Solidity and work seamlessly with popular wallets like MetaMask.
Related: Zilliqa on-chain transactions plummet due to ‘technical issues’
The network will continue to support Scilla and ensure that the two contract languages can work together seamlessly. It also includes features like EVM-compatible account abstraction to enable smart accounts and easily convert tokens for gas fees.
The network’s token economics have also been updated to support the transition to proof-of-stake. These changes reduce inflation while providing attractive and sustainable rewards to those who stake their tokens.
Zilliqa’s Storm
Zilliga’s whitepaper and roadmap release follows several operational outages affecting block production on the mainnet. However, full network functionality has been restored.
In December 2023, daily Zilliqa blockchain transactions fell by about 50%, from about 61,000 to 30,906 due to a “block production outage.”
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