Zen is an end-to-end encryption system that uses zero-knowledge technology to enable communication, data or value Safe to transfer and store. It is an integration of revolutionary technologies that create systems that enable the following three functions to be combined to accelerate innovation: 1) transactions 2) communications 3) competition management. These functions are traditionally performed separately. The Zen Network is a secure, anonymous model that utilizes a globally distributed blockchain and computing power structure. The system integrates multiple state-of-the-art technologies to provide an open platform for permissionless innovation, enabling them to evolve their platform based on user performance. In August 2018, Zencash changed its name to Horizen.
Horizen is a blockchain platform with leading privacy protection technology for Provides privacy for everyone and gives them complete control over their digital activity records. We have a sustainable financing model and are equipped with protocol layer solutions.
The Horizen platform enables everyday uses beyond cryptocurrencies, including The ability to chat privately with others. Horizen will allow you to post information and browse any website with complete privacy. And, anyone can build privacy-based applications on the Horizen platform and earn money from them. This will allow Horizen to accommodate a multitude of real and useful services, giving people unprecedented freedom and everyday utility.
Project Features:
autonomy
Horizen adopts a decentralized governance model. With no central authority and no single point of failure, Horizen is more unbreakable than traditional organizations. Everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in decision-making, which empowers token holders and makes ZenCash less susceptible to third-party influence.
Sustainable Economic Model:
60% for miner
20% reserve
10% for safe nodes
10% for super nodes
Focus on:
Research on Decentralized Autonomous Organization Reserves
Scalability Study
Network Stack Anonymization
Application scenarios:
Zen brings many different elements together into a whole. Zen needs secure nodes, not regular nodes, to ensure that node standards are higher than basic security standards, keeping the entire system distributed, recoverable, and secure. Zen protects against eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle by enhancing encrypted communication between nodes and between nodes and wallets.
Zen also addresses the metadata shortcomings of other cryptocurrencies. For example, because participants in a bitcoin transaction communicate and transmit bitcoin in a potentially dangerous manner, they are at risk of being identified by other parties involved in the transaction. So ZenCash - will incorporate secure messaging mechanisms in shielded transactions where users can confirm transactions, send, verify receipts. These functional elements will be reflected in the following systems:
ZenChat - a new type of A secure communication network that enables one-to-many communication through the blockchain and permanently stores messages.
ZenPub - An anonymous document publishing platform using GNUnet or IPFS.
ZenHide - Breaks the blockade of encrypted e-commerce with Domain Fronting technology.
DAO: Infrastructure, Projects & Voting
Zen system will have at least one DAO funded by a fixed percentage of mining revenue, this DAO is funded by a voting system All stakeholders can participate in voting. This governance system helps reduce disputes over the implementation of changes, improvements, and integrations in the project to reduce the chance of forks caused by disagreements. We will implement a more comprehensive governance plan that we have learned in solid R&D and testing, the goal of which is to be open to full competition in governance so that everyone can participate. This means that we will see a large number of DAOs that compete with each other, with different teams working to solve different problems. Each DAO will have its own structure, processes and goals to ensure that their respective attributes evolve through competition, and that those organizational decisions that come with the wrong ones in the first place are not permanent.
DAOs will be responsible for building, maintaining, improving and maintaining the infrastructure to guarantee the system to run. It is also responsible for running changes to the Zen software application and is flexible enough to support other community priorities such as community outreach, marketing, training, etc.
As the Zen system spreads, users, miners, secure node operators and Ecosystem partners also need to scale. A structure like a DAO can allocate funds to individual projects and proposals to support their development.
Technology Overview
Privacy:
Zen is a privacy-preserving platform built on zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive knowledge parameters (zk-SNARKs) technology with a decentralized secure node architecture.
safety:
ZenCash is the first digital currency with full end-to-end encryption at the node and relay node layers. In addition to zk-SNARKs, Zen's architecture also includes node-level encryption. The operation of digital currency depends on nodes, and we require security node operators to have the latest information technology and network security, otherwise they will not be able to get paid.
Anti-tracking:
Protected transactions are fully encrypted, but can be verified as true under the consensus of the entire network. The sender, receiver, and transaction amount are hidden on the blockchain, making Zen completely untraceable.
Domain fronting is a versatile censorship circumvention technique that hides the remote endpoints of communications. This technique works at the application layer, using HTTPS to communicate with banned hosts, but appears to be communicating with normal hosts that are allowed by the censor to avoid censorship.
The core idea is to use different domain names at different communication layers. One of the domain names appears "outside" in HTTPS requests - in 9 DNS requests and TLS server name indications; and the other appears "inside" - in the HTTP host header field, encrypted by HTTPS and hidden from censors . The censor cannot distinguish between fronted and non-fronted domain name traffic, and he can either pass censorship-evading traffic or block all domains, which inflicts huge collateral damage.
Domain fronting does not require special cooperation from network intermediaries. We have identified some web services that are difficult to block, such as content delivery networks, which support domain name prefixing, which is helpful for circumventing censorship.
Anti-vandalism:
Zen has an extremely decentralized network of nodes. Learn more about secure nodes!
Secure Node Network
Numerous Zen security nodes build a reliable distributed digital currency network, and the communication between nodes is encrypted. The communication of Zen nodes looks indistinguishable from other encrypted internet traffic, not as prominent as Bitcoin traffic. This feature effectively masks the type of activity that is actually taking place, making it difficult for Zen users and nodes to be shielded.
The basic requirements for building a secure node are as follows:
Each node needs to keep a minimum of 42 ZenCash on a public address. This fully shows that the operator cares enough about ZenCash and prevents malicious users from running secure nodes.
Create and store valid TLS certificates from well-known certificate authorities, which enables encrypted data transfer.
Run the node on a server with sufficient processor resources and memory to solve high computing power tasks. This can effectively defend against DDoS attacks.
Save the full ledger of the Zen blockchain to ensure that UTXOs and eigenvalues are not lost.
Keep the node online and running at least 92% of the time.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Reserves:
The Horizen Reserve Model is an inclusive, proven fair, open and transparent economic mechanism that incentivizes people to participate.
Mineable:
As long as you have a modern graphics card, you can mine ZenCash. ZenCash uses a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism for GPU mining based on the Equihash algorithm.
3. Commentary
Horizen, token referred to as ZEN, Horizen is an anonymous blockchain project with leading privacy protection technology, which can provide privacy and security for everyone and give people complete control over digital activity records. The Horizen platform enables everyday uses beyond cryptocurrencies, including the ability to privately chat with others. The blockchain network built by Horizen will also allow users to post information and browse any website with complete privacy.
