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StealthEX AMA Recap

On June 26th, 2024, Bryan Nowlan, Marketing Project Manager from Horizen Labs, participated in a text AMA with the StealthEX community to discuss all things Horizen Ecosystem, Horizen Labs, zkVerify, and more! 

In case you didn’t get a chance to catch it live, we put together this recap blog of the questions and answers. 

Question: What technical support and resources are available for developers and users of the ZKVProtocol? How does HorizenLabs ensure the long-term sustainability and maintenance of the protocol?

Answer: zkVerify has in-depth technical documentation available for developers and builders that are looking to interact with the project. The documentation can be reached here: https://docs.zkverify.io/. 

Ranging from an overview of zkVerify, to the zkVerify Hub with important links and recommendations, to a tutorials section, users can find all they need to get started with the project. 

Our tech teams are also very responsive on the zkVerify Discord, if any users run into any issues or have any questions, members of the team can jump in there to provide support: discord.gg/zkverify

Horizen Labs is the builder of zkVerify, so we are deeply invested in the long-term sustainability and maintenance of the protocol. We have extensive experience with zero-knowledge technologies and an entire team dedicated to ensuring zkVerify’s success!

Question: How does the ZKVProtocol integrate with other Horizen technologies, such as the Horizen EON blockchain and the Horizen Wallet? What are the benefits of this integration?

Answer: The Horizen Community recently voted to pass ZenIP 42406, the technical proposal for the migration of EON and $ZEN, included in that proposal is an overview of how zkVerify will integrate with other Horizen technologies. 

Horizen 2.0 will be a fully-compatible EVM, which means that existing smart contracts on EON will be transitioned over, including $ZEN in current liquidity pools. Horizen 2.0 will also be built using the Substrate framework (written in Rust), which will allow for a tight integration with the zkVerify protocol (which is also built on Substrate) for fast and cost-effective verification of zk proofs. Specifically, EON 2.0 will be a parachain connected to the zkVerify Relay Chain.

The benefits to this integration allow Horizen to become optimized for ZK-based Apps, the seamless integration with zkVerify ensures the most efficient process for all ZK projects. This sets the groundwork for innovative ZK apps that will make Horizen the home for ZK and also provide more utility for $ZEN.

Question: Given Spencer’s remarks on the necessity of evolving with blockchain technologies in the previous StealthEX AMA, how is the marketing department planning educational initiatives or community outreach programs to address the complexities of ZKVerify?

Answer: Great question, this is something that the Horizen Labs Marketing Team is extensively focused on and planning for. We have established a developer relations team, whose responsibility will be to ensure sufficient educational and community outreach programs will be created for zkVerify, some of which have already kicked off or will be starting soon. 

The zkVerify documentation hub has tutorials already available to developers and builders: https://docs.zkverify.io/tutorials/tutorials/

This includes which wallets to use to get started, how to connect the wallets to zkVerify, how to request test tokens ($ACME), and many guides on how to submit proofs with various verifiers such as Groth16, Fflonk, Risc0, and more! I’d encourage anyone who is interested to explore this to check out our documentation linked above. The team is always available on Discord for any questions or any support needed. 

We will also be launching an educational program with Metaschool soon for zkVerify. This will be an interactive course in which users can learn more about zero knowledge technology, the modular blockchain stack, and how zkVerify fits into all of it. There will be some user actions to take as part of the course, like following some of the tutorials above, additional information to come soon on that! 

The zkVerify Twitter & Youtube is a great source of educational content for users as well, to make sure that zkVerify is as builder friendly as possible. 

zkVerify Twitter: https://x.com/ZKVProtocol

zkVerify Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zkVerify

Question: How does HorizenLabs approach governance and decision-making within the project? Are there any specific mechanisms or processes in place to ensure community involvement and transparency?

Answer: The Horizen Ecosystem follows a DAO structure and is an open-source, public protocol with a broad and diverse ecosystem, including miners, developers, node operators, and $ZEN holders. 

The Horizen DAO, governed by the Horizen Foundation follows various processes regarding community proposals, called ZenIPs (ZEN Improvement Proposals) – starting with a proposal idea and research, idea modification, community feedback, draft creation, voting period, and more. 

The Horizen DAO Discourse is the community hub, this is where many of the ZenIPs are discussed among the community members, as the proposals go from the idea phase to the draft phase and on to the formal voting phase. Community members are encouraged to express their thoughts and provide feedback on each proposal or discussion topic that comes in. 

Voting on these ZenIP proposals is done via Snapshot, the Horizen Foundation Snapshot is a great way to check out previous community votes, what the participation levels were like, what was being voted on, and what was the community sentiment for each of the votes: https://snapshot.org/#/horizenfoundation.eth

I’ll add a few resources that might be of value to learn more about this: 

Question: As horizenglobal expands its network of partners and collaborations, how do you plan to maintain a cohesive and unified ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders, and what challenges do you foresee in managing such a diverse portfolio of projects?

Answer: Horizen Labs prides itself on being one of the major collaborators in the crypto space. This means that our Business Development, Marketing, and Tech teams have extensive experience working with many different partners on many different initiatives, ensuring that the ecosystem is functioning efficiently. 

One of the primary ways that we ensure alignment across many different partners within the ecosystem is through our communication. When it comes time for a network upgrade, update, new integration, new tool available, etc, we are always sure to communicate that both our community, as well as all of our ecosystem partners. This helps to ensure that all of our partners are aligned. 

At Horizen Labs we have worked with the teams at Offchain Labs, Yuga Labs, Animoca Brands, Darewise, ApeCoin DAO, and more on various projects and initiatives. 

Also, with the Horizen ecosystem running as a DAO structure, there is extensive community involvement in all that goes on within the ecosystem. From Discourse, to Discord, to Twitter and Telegram, the Horizen community is constantly in discussion and this is where we share updates, to ensure that everyone is aligned!

Question: How does HorizenLabs leverage its expertise in zero-knowledge cryptography and modular blockchain to address the scalability and efficiency challenges faced by the Web3 ecosystem?

Answer: Horizen Labs has built zkVerify, the Modular Blockchain for ZK Proof Verification. zkVerify is dedicated to verifying ZK proofs across diverse blockchains efficiently, reducing proof verification costs by 90%+, which would have saved ZK Rollups $42.8 Million in 2023 alone. 

By drastically reducing cost, zkVerify is empowering organizations and dApps to achieve economies of scale, bringing in the next generation of use cases that achieve blockchain’s ultimate potential.

zkVerify Enhances network performance by decoupling the computationally heavy proof verification process, allowing for faster and more precise operations free from the constraints of multi-purpose chains and seamlessly integrates with existing blockchain ecosystems and multiple zero-knowledge proving schemes, minimizing technical overhead with a developer-friendly environment.

I’d encourage anyone who is looking to learn more about zkVerify to check out their website: https://zkverify.io/

Question: How could the successful implementation of ZenIP 42406 impact the value and adoption of the ZEN token? What are the potential economic benefits for ZEN holders and the broader Horizen ecosystem as a result of the migration and the new EON 2.0 parachain?

Answer: I won’t go into details on any price predictions with this answer, but I will say that there is a lot to unpack with the passing of ZenIP 42406. 

At a high level, Horizen ($ZEN) and EON are currently built on older technology stacks. The Horizen Mainchain is a fork of the Bitcoin C++ codebase with a block time of 2.5 minutes, while EON is written in Scala based on the Scorex SDK with an 18-second block time. To address the limitations of these legacy systems and align with the vision of Horizen as a home for ZK and an enduring utility for $ZEN, Horizen Labs proposed to migrate to Horizen EON 2.0 with ZenIP 42406. 

Essentially Horizen/EON 2.0 will have a new target block time of ~6 seconds, be built on the Substrate framework written in rust, ZK-Optimized, and have backward compatibility. 

On ZK-Optimization: 

  • Leverage fast, native zk proof verification from zkVerify Protocol
  • Modular and upgradable architecture for future zk advancements, such as new proving systems. 

On Backward Compatibility: 

  • Preserve max $ZEN supply
  • Full Solidity and EVM support
  • $ZEN, EON snapshots
  • Prolonged Claim Window
  • Enable Incentives for Ecosystem Partners

In Addition: 

-Enhanced Performance: Incorporating the latest advancements in zero-knowledge proof systems, improving transaction speeds, and increasing security

-Expanded Ecosystem with Full EVM Compatibility: Enhances interoperability with other blockchains, opening up a world of possibilities for cross-chain collaborations and integrations. This means more opportunities and partnerships for the Horizen community

-Community Growth: With these improvements, we are fostering a better environment for developers and web3 users to join our network, making Horizen stronger and more vibrant than ever before!

I’d encourage those who are interested to learn more about ZenIP 42406 and everything it means for the Horizen Ecosystem to check out our high-level blog post which provides an overview to the proposal: https://blog.horizen.io/zenip-42406-eon-and-zen-migration-high-level-overview/

Question: How do @HorizenLabs and @ZKVProtocol plan to stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape?

Answer: Horizen Labs has an incredible research and product marketing team that works extensively to stay up to date with the latest and greatest in the industry. Many of our Cryptographers and Engineers actively contribute to various research projects and initiatives, both within and outside of Horizen Labs. 

We also leverage our vast network of connections and industry partners for this, which helps us to stay ahead of the curve and to learn of the latest developments as they are emerging in the space. Our Business Development team is constantly out in the field discussing with prospective partners and projects to see what their needs are, and how we can help to address them, providing a valuable feedback loop for our team.

Question: In what ways can developers take advantage of Horizen’s fully EVM-compatible blockchain to seamlessly migrate or build their Ethereum-based dApps, and what tools and resources are available to support this process?

Answer: The Horizen Ecosystem is quite vibrant, I’d encourage everyone to go check out the full list of our Ecosystem: https://eon.horizen.io/

There are many developer tools available on Horizen EON currently, such as Thirdweb, Remix, Truffle, and Hardhat. The Ecosystem includes infrastructure, bridges, an NFT Marketplace, many different Wallet Integrations, Oracles, DeFi integrations such as SpookySwap, Interport, Yuzu, and more!

In addition, there is extensive documentation available for Horizen EON that explains how to get and connect a wallet, receive test tokens, conduct a forward or backward transfer and learn more about how to set up forger nodes. Be sure to check out our documentation hub: https://docs.horizen.io/

To answer your specific question, we have a tutorial available that explains how to deploy a dApp using the Remix IDE here as well: https://docs.horizen.io/horizen_eon/tutorials/todolist

Question: A strong community not only brings interesting ideas to the project but also attracts larger partners. So how is its initiative  planning to build its community? And is there a plan to recruit people with Blockchain experience to the initiative team??

Answer: I figured this would be a great way to end this text AMA, and I wanted to provide as many relevant links as possible for this community to learn more about Horizen, zkVerify, and Horizen Labs, and to join our communities. 

Horizen: 

Horizen Labs: 

zkVerify: 

On both the Horizen and zkVerify Discord servers there are many different channels tailored to various languages and communities around the globe, such as French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, and more! 

The Horizen Community has many dedicated and passionate Ambassadors who help to moderate the Discord Server and other community channels, provide community support, answer questions, and are amazing resources for our community. The Horizen Labs team is constantly working to build vibrant communities across the Horizen ecosystem, the zkVerify ecosystem, and more! Our teams are always available to provide community support, answer questions, and provide guidance.

Question: How can we use your platform? Do you have any guide for beginners?

Answer: Great Question! 

Breaking it down for both zkVerify and Horizen. 

For zkVerify, I’d encourage anyone interested to learn more about the platform and to start testing to check out our documentation hub: https://docs.zkverify.io/

We have lots of good tutorials and documentation there for users to get started. The tutorials are all step by step to ensure seamless onbaording!

For Horizen, I’d also encourage users to check out our Get Started page, we have useful links there for users to get started with Horizen EON!

https://eon.horizen.io/app/start-here

Question: Where can I get the latest updates or more information about the project?

Answer: This is a great way to wrap up this text AMA! 

Twitter (or X as its called now) is the best resource for information about both zkVerify, Horizen, and Horizen Labs. 

I would encourage this community to follow our accounts, to be sure to stay up to date on the latest and greatest!

Horizen: https://x.com/horizenglobal

Horizen Labs: https://x.com/HorizenLabs

zkVerify: https://x.com/ZKVProtocol

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