The Horizen Q2 2022 Review

We’ve wrapped up Q2 2022, and we are excited to continue the growth of the Horizen ecosystem through new product launches, including TokenMint on testnet and our new Cobalt wallet! We have also added five new integration pairs and exchange listings.

Q2 Highlights 

Now is an exciting time for our ecosystem. Since the launch of Zendoo, our team has focused on launching products and adding new capabilities to our platform. This quarter we focused on the launch of our tokenization platform, TokenMint, and EVM compatibility, and our community growth has seen a huge increase because of it!

Products and Engineering Development

TokenMint on Testnet

This quarter, we launched our no-code necessary tokenization platform, TokenMint, to testnet. TokenMint is an easy-to-use platform for anyone to launch a token using custom tokenomics without having to know a single line of code. It streamlines and simplifies the tokenization process which makes creating a fungible token very easy and quick. 

The TokenMint platform lives on TokenMint Chain, which is a sidechain built on Horizen. The testnet launch of the TokenMint platform comprised the launch of:

• TokenMint Chain – an independent blockchain built on the Horizen sidechain platform, Zendoo. 
• Cobalt Wallet – a web browser extension wallet that stores and manages tokens created on TokenMint. 
• Token Generator – a web app that allows a streamlined and easy process for anyone to create and mint a fungible token with custom tokenomics. 
• TokenMint Block explorer – a block explorer that tracks and displays all transactions on the TokenMint Chain. 

Over 550 tokens were created by our community, and the user feedback we received from our community helped us refine TokenMint features for its upcoming mainnet launch this month. 

We also airdropped our own testnet tokens called Test Zenny (TZNY) and testnet CAKE (TCAKE) as a way to reward community participation in testing and other community activities. Over 8000 unique addresses received TZNY as of July 5th. 

Cobalt Wallet

Along with TokenMint, we launched the Cobalt wallet. Cobalt is a web browser extension for Chrome and Brave browsers that mints, stores, and manages all tokens created on TokenMint. 

Cobalt currently only supports TokenMint tokens as well as ZEN transfers between Horizen mainchain and TokenMint Chain. The team aims to extend Cobalt’s capability to support interoperability among different blockchain ecosystems.  

EVM Sidechain Progress

The sidechain engineering team worked on the launch of our EVM sidechain. This upcoming sidechain will enable people to easily create their own Ethereum-based dapps on our ecosystem or bridge to existing dapps on other EVM-compatible platforms. We are excited to launch this sidechain in the near future. 

Community Growth & Updates

The community saw incredible growth this quarter, especially on Discord. We saw a 111.7% increase in total Discord members since Q1. The excitement and feedback received from the community about our latest products were incredible. Our community was also able to get a special new Discord Role (Test Pilots) for helping us test TokenMint and Cobalt. 

As we welcomed a lot of new members to our community, the engagement rate increased tremendously, especially on Discord, with a soaring increase of 2,453% in monthly average new active communicators.  Our other social media community also saw a large increase in engagement with an 86.6% increase on Linkedin, 29.5% increase on Twitter, and 18.6% on Facebook. Our most liked content focused on the release of TokenMint to testnet and the announcement of the activities we planned around the launch! The team will continue to plan additional activities around the mainnet launch of TokenMint, so be sure to look out for these in the coming weeks. 

We also had a bump in activity on HDE tasks, with our most popular tasks being creating content about TokenMint and testing the platform. The number of people signed up to test the TokenMint platform exceeded the task limit within the first few days of the task release!

We also welcomed a couple of new members to the ambassador program. We are excited that our long-time community members, Ghost and DeFi Money Printer, chose to join the program to help our community through social platforms and helpful content creation!

We also saw growth on the web, with a 6.5% increase in overall site traffic, a 5.9% increase in organic keyword rankings, and a 5.8% increase in referring domains. Social referral traffic was up 234% in Q2, with a 170% increase in blog traffic, a 120% increase in HEAP traffic, and a 24% increase in HDE traffic.

Team Growth

We welcomed 22 new team members to join the force of developing the Horizen ecosystem! The new members spanned the following roles in the organization. 

New Partnerships and Integrations

This quarter we forged multiple new partnerships and added new ZEN pairs on various exchanges that will help to expand our reach and grow the community. 

Flyp.me is an exchange that has been around since 2012. With over 30 cryptocurrencies listed, it is one of the most private ways to exchange, requiring no registration, no email, and no account.

We saw ZEN added to various exchanges’ service offerings, including

• KuCoin adding ZEN lending
• Binance adding ZEN to their Flexible Savings account
• Wintermute adding ZEN to their eOTC product, NODE. 

Horizen Node Growth 

Horizen Q2 node network grew 5.79% for secure nodes and dropped 1.35% for super nodes. 

Horizen in the Media

• Rob’s Consensus Presentation: From Cypherpunk to Solving the Blockchain Trilemma Through zkSNARKs
• Cryptopolitan – Reclaiming your privacy through a tamper-proof blockchain ecosystem
• Venturebeat – Blockchain Network Provider Horizen launches no-code tokenization platform
• Nasdaq – How to Mint NFTs While Preserving Privacy
• NowNodes – How to build DApps on Horizen (ZEN)
• NowNodes – Horizen’s Node Network. The Largest Node Network Currently
• SupplyChainBrain – Six Ways Blockchain is Bolstering Supply Chains
• Make Use Of – 7 Cryptocurrencies That Will Actually Protect Your Privacy

Events

Paris Blockchain Week

The Horizen team was at Paris Blockchain Week April 12-14! Our booth was packed during all three days of the event. We discussed our upcoming EVM-compatible sidechain and NFTs, and learned about a lot of exciting new projects in the space. Liat also spoke on several panels about NFTs and blockchain technology. 

Consensus

The Horizen team was in Austin, Texas, for Consensus 2022, where we had a fantastic time! We had a booth set up where we were able to give live demos of TokenMint; many attendees stopped by and created their own tokens in only 5 minutes, learning how the token generator works. 

Horizen Co-Founder and Team Lead Rob Viglione presented “From Cypherpunk to Solving the Blockchain Trilemma Through zkSNARKS” at Consensus to a packed audience while also conducting a fireside chat on “How Zero-Knowledge Proofs Change the Narrative Around Privacy.”

Horizen, along with Horizen Labs, hosted a side event with our partner, Halborn Security at Consensus, where guests enjoyed food, drink, and networking! We saw many longtime community members at the event, and it was a good chance for much of the team to network and catch up with each other during the busy event week. 

NFT NYC

This year, Zain Cheng Horizen’s VP of Engineering, presented on the future of NFTs during this major event in NYC. Zain’s panel discussion was one of our favorite talks during the event and covered his opinions on what the future of NFTs could look like. 

Horizen Labs hosted a Happy Hour event during NFT.NYC and welcomed hundreds of guests and Horizen community members.