February 12, 2024

ZenIP 42400 – Modernizing Horizen Technology via a Modular Proof Verification Layer

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Horizen Labs has submitted a ZenIP Discussion topic on Discourse, ZenIP: 42400 – Modernizing Horizen Technology via a Modular Proof Verification Layer.

Note that ZenIP 42400 focuses on the modular proof verification layer. If this proposal passes, Horizen Labs will roll out subsequent phases to the Horizen community for discussion and debate as the “New Horizen” initiative progresses.

ZenIP 42400 is focused solely on the establishment of a Modular Proof Verification Layer, i.e., a blockchain dedicated to verifying proofs with the ability to support any settlement layer.

Before we dive into what this means for the Horizen Ecosystem, let’s review a few points that have been raised by the Community regarding this proposal:

Name of the Initiative: The term “New Horizen” is currently a placeholder for the system and its individual component blockchains. The designation is being used to conceptually describe the initiative until an official name is determined.
EON Integration: A key aspect of the development strategy is the integration of EON into the new Proof Verification Chain. The Horizen Labs teams are actively involved in exploring viable pathways for this migration, ensuring that EON remains an integral part of the Horizen ecosystem after the implementation of the blockchains that comprise the “New Horizen” initiative.
$ZEN Tokenomics: Currently, there are no plans to modify $ZEN’s tokenomics, and any such change would be subject to community discussion and DAO approval.
Market and User Research: The Horizen Labs team used comprehensive market and user research, aiming to design a user-friendly system capable of widespread adoption.

Why should the community be excited about this “New Horizen” proposal?

The “New Horizen” initiative will modernize the Horizen tech stack to better align with the broader web3 industry while building on the legacy of the Horizen Mainchain and Zendoo. This will “future-proof” the Horizen network and unlock market value to the Horizen ecosystem. New Horizen is based on current web3 market needs and addresses a problem that affects most modular web3 protocols: volatile and expensive proof verification costs for L2s (ZK-Rollups in particular).

Horizen Labs’ proposed “Proof Verification Chain” aims to substantially reduce rising security costs for L2s.

A dedicated Proof Verification Chain would not only make running a ZK-Rollup more economical, but also align with the anticipated shift towards these technologies becoming the dominant scaling solution.

Additionally, collaboration in the Web3 space is becoming increasingly important, New Horizen aims to foster this collaboration across ecosystems and expand the reach of the Horizen ecosystem. The Horizen Labs team is working to ensure that the Proof Verification Chain described above is being designed to accommodate a variety of proof types and settlement layers. By developing a solution that is versatile enough to be compatible with multiple development frameworks, proving systems, and settlement layers, this positions Horizen as a hub of collaborative innovation. Potentially reaching new audiences beyond our current community, embracing and leading the change towards a more interconnected and cooperative blockchain environment.

How Will this Work?

The “New Horizen” initiative is set to deliver multiple components that address the market’s current and future needs across several phases. The Proof Verification Chain (Phase 1) will focus on verifying proofs originating from other blockchains, such as rollups / appchains or applications. Initially, the focus will be on ZK-SNARK proofs, in particular zk-snarks produced by ZK-Rollups, but the plan is to expand its capabilities to accommodate a wide range of proof types in the future.

The proof verification layer aims to improve the existing process of proving state validity for ZK-Rollups and other proof-generating applications, offering a more efficient, scalable solution to handle these operations, which will reduce the costs of blockchain networks.

Next Steps – Where Do We Go From Here?

ZenIP Voting Timeline

ZenIPs are for the community to approve or decline. Horizen has always believed our community comes first, we encourage you to join the discussions on Discord, Discourse, and Twitter around ZenIP 42400 and voice your thoughts. We highly encourage you to read the ZenIP: 42400 – Modernizing Horizen Technology via a Modular Proof Verification Layer post on Discourse to get a complete understanding of what this means.

Voting on ZenIP 42400 started on Thursday, February 15th, 2024 at 12pm EST and ended on Sunday, February 18th, 2024 at 12pm EST. The Horizen DAO voting is done on Horizen EON, using Snapshot and Discourse for governance. At the same time that the voting began, the snapshot was taken. Users can head to Snapshot here to review the result of the vote, which passed with 99.99% of votes “for”: https://snapshot.org/#/horizenfoundationtechnical.eth/proposal/0x3f846aac0e0640d4286f0cc83c26c3710146a47af2ed670e4ef962d82f0d46c0

Who is Eligible to Vote?

Any $ZEN holder can vote on improvement proposals, and those who hold (or who have been delegated) the requisite amount of $ZEN may put forth proposals to the community.

Voting power is determined by the amount of $ZEN you hold on the Horizen mainchain and on the Horizen EON chain. Therefore the more $ZEN you hold, the more voting power you have.

How to Vote – Instructions

Go to the Horizen DAO Governance page on the Horizen EON web app to get started.
Connect your web3 wallet (ex. MetaMask). Please follow this guide if you need help.
Link your Horizen mainchain $ZEN address to Horizen EON. In order to vote with your mainchain $ZEN, you need to have $ZEN on a Sphere mainchain address and link that address to your MetaMask Horizen EON chain address. You only need to link your Sphere wallet once. You can use the same wallet for future voting rounds.
1. Please see this guide for step-by-step instructions on linking Horizen Mainchain and Horizen EON $ZEN Addresses to aggregate your voting power.
Make sure you have sufficient ZEN in your MetaMask address for the gas fee. Follow this tutorial to learn how to transfer ZEN from Horizen mainchain to your Horizen EON address on MetaMask
Once your mainchain ZEN address is connected to Horizen EON, and you have sufficient ZEN in your MetaMask for gas fee, it’s time to vote using Snapshot!
Join the Horizen Foundation space on Snapshot if you haven’t done so, to receive notifications about future ZenIP voting.

We have a helpful video tutorial here with instructions on how to vote for the Horizen DAO.

Helpful Links

If you need assistance, please reach out to us on the Horizen Discord, and be sure to join the Horizen DAO discussion on Discourse!