Many of the current blockchains are experiencing the problem of scalability. As the network grows older and bigger, more time is needed to reach consensuses and as more data is added to the chain, the heavier it gets. The Zilliqa blockchain is trying to solve these problems through unique solutions like Sharding, and secure their blockchain and smart contracts with Silla programming language. Let's discuss Zilliqa in more detail.
What is Zilliqa?
As told earlier Zilliqa solves the prevailing issue of scalability using its own unique sharding technique, which allows the blockchain to scale linearly as the network grows in size. Its ability to handle a large volume of transactions makes it suitable to meet enterprise needs. Through Sharding the platform will divide the network into different groups with 600 nodes each. Each group will be able to process transactions individually through a hybrid consensus mechanism.
The current network can perform more than 2800 TX/sec. Theoretically, the Zilliqa main net can perform an infinite number of TX per second as the network adds more and more nodes.
Source: zilliqa websiteilliqa.com
What is Sharding?
Sharding is a database architecture pattern related to horizontal partitioning — the practice of separating one table’s rows into multiple different tables, known as partitions. Each partition has the same schema and columns, but also entirely different rows. Likewise, the data held in each is unique and independent of the data held in other partitions. Sharding involves breaking up one’s data into two or more smaller chunks, called logical shards. The logical shards are then distributed across separate database nodes, which can hold multiple logical shards. Despite this, the data held within all the shards collectively represent an entire logical dataset. (digitalocean.com)
Zilliqa divides the data into different for different groups, each group consists of 6 nodes each. The current network has 2,200 nodes which are divided amount 3 different Shards. These shards will produce micro blocks of tx parallel to one another. In the end, these micro blocks will be combined to produce a block. The time to divide data among the shards and produce micro blocks are called DS Epoch in Zilliqa lexicon.
Consensus Mechanism in Zilliqa.
The Zilliqa blockchain has a hybrid consensus mechanism which consists of Proof of work to establish the node identity and make use of practical Byzantine fault Tolerance to meet consensus with other nodes. This hybrid machine is the most economic version of "proof of work" mechanism.
Each shard (nodes) starts to mine a genius block using the Ethash algorithm to establish their identity in the network of DS nodes. The nodes then have to do a different PoW to join the network of shards. The COINBASE transaction will be distributed in 25% 75% basis. Base rewards [25% of total] is allocated for validating distributed for nodes (DS/shard) in the Network. The remaining 75% total will be allocated for nodes which took part the tx epoch through pBFT consensus.
Staking on Zilliqa
As the part of Zilliqa improvement proposal 3.0, Zilliqa has implemented seed node staking on the main net. The staking which went live this June allows to a total of 10 staking nodes. The minimum amount needed to run a node is 10 million Zil tokens and the max amount is 61m tokens. the main aim of the Staking mechanism is to store the processed data on the blockchain and incentivise the node operators. These seed nodes are just for storing data which is processed the shards, thus the Seed nodes will not produce any blocks. The nodes will be run by Exchanges, wallets block explorers or communities. Currently, we could stake Zil through BINANCE or KuCoin, with an expected annual yield any from 6- 10% depending on the total amount staked.
Kucoin supports soft staking with a minimum of 25 zil tokens. KUCOIN is currently staking 122 million zil token which reduces which provides a total of 5% return.
Scilla Programing Language
source: BCNL foundation webminar
Zilliqa has developed a new programing language to provide the functionality to its blockchain. The new smart contract language mainly focuses on security and standardization of Dapps. The language allows static checks and formal verifications and helps developers to check for leakages.
Scilla is a peer-reviewed smart contract language created by academics from the ground up. It has been designed as a principled language with smart contract safety in mind.
Contracts in Scilla are structured as communicating automata, i.e., a state machine that takes input from the external environment, performs some purely mathematical computations, change the state of the system and at the end (if needed) communicate with other contracts.
Smart contracts on Zilliqa.
With the help of the Scilla language developers could build dapps on the blockchain, Standards like ZRC3 (alternative to ERC20 on zil blockchain) will help you to launch token on the Zilliqa blockchain. There are a bunch of Dapps currently on the Zilliqa Blockchain. The top Dapp which you must take a look is the Unstoppable Domains which launged .zil domain to launch websites and accepts payments. There are also a couple of popular game which usses Zilliqa like Ocean Rumble and the Krypton Galaxy.
Community
Zilliqa has an awesome community where everyone discuss about different things happening on the zilliqa network and their partnerships. Join the Zilliqa community to learn more the awesome project @zilliqachat
