Today we are excited to announce the launch of ZetaChain, which is the world’s first and only blockchain that connects everything. It facilitates cross-chain and cross-layer value transfer, message delivery, and smart contract calls — thus enabling for the first time omnichain dApps (odApps) which can leverage liquidity on multiple networks and read and update states on all connected networks.
There has been a cambrian explosion in crypto over the past few years. As developers have created thousands of novel DeFi and NFT apps, there has been a surge of users who are experiencing crypto for the first time. However, the experience for both developers and users has become suboptimal and this is especially true when it comes to supporting multiple networks (L1 blockchains like Ethereum and BSC and Layer 2 solutions like Polygon and Optimism) and moving assets across networks.
Developers looking to support multiple networks end up with the complexity of maintaining their dApps on multiple networks, each with their own challenges and limitations. At the same time, users looking to get the best yields and use different dApps end up using different bridges to move assets across networks. Each of these bridges has their own custom wrapped tokens and trust models, which fragments liquidity and creates a confusing and costly user experience for users — multiple interfaces, paying for multiple transactions, and so on. Although many projects are working towards interoperability, the ecosystem has grown more fragmented than ever.
What you can do with ZetaChain?
ZetaChain includes a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain built on Cosmos SDK which is connected to external blockchains (e.g., Ethereum, BSC, Solana, Avalanche, Terra, Bitcoin) and layers (e.g., Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum) in a decentralized (without a single point of failure, trustless, permissionless), transparent, and efficient way.
With ZetaChain, we will enable developers to build odApps with the same ease as developing dApps for a single network like Ethereum or Polygon while being able to leverage composability across networks.
ZetaChain provides two ways for users and developers to utilize its cross-chain capabilities. First, ZetaChain provides EVM compatible smart contracts so developers don’t need to learn another language and can easily customize their existing Ethereum dApps to function across all connected networks. Furthermore, ZetaChain has built-in decentralized bridges to and from all connected chains so that assets and data can enter and exit ZetaChain with ease.
Second, ZetaChain will be a programmable public computer that directly reads and updates states on all the connected networks. The application logic primarily lives on ZetaChain while the states primarily live on external chains.
Possibilities of what can be built with ZetaChain are endless but some applications that developers can build include:
- Cross-chain DEXes in native tokens without wrapping
- Decentralized and fault tolerant bridges
- Omnichain smart contracts that can monitor and perform events on all connected chains
- Cross-chain lending and yield protocols
- Omnichain NFT apps
Try it now
Web3 is rife with confusing user experiences full of jargon that even the most technologically minded users find hard to use. On top of our protocol efforts, we will bring the ease and convenience of using Web2 apps to Web3. To showcase what a seamless Web3 experience could look and feel like, we have developed a cross-chain send odApp that users can use to send our native ZETA tokens across the supported networks.
This ZetaChain app is currently live on testnet with support for Polygon Mumbai, Ethereum Goerli, and BSC Testnet. As we introduce more protocol functionality and network integrations (more roadmap information coming soon), we’ll update this app accordingly to let you all experience the power of ZetaChain.
ZetaChain uses tendermint for consensus and is decentralized architecturally and infrastructurally. ZetaChain utilizes the GG20 leaderless Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) which does the key generation and key signing in a distributed way. No single ZetaChain node or other individual has access to the complete private key at any point in time. When we develop our swap feature, rather than developing vaults which are controlled by ZetaChain, we will be using battle tested liquidity pools of networks like Uniswap and PancakeSwap, so the attack surface is substantially reduced.
All the inbound/outbound transactions and decisions made (through state change) are recorded in the ZetaChain blocks which are available, immutable, verifiable, and completely transparent.
ZetaChain’s Token (ZETA)
ZetaChain’s token ZETA is used to pay the gas fees for ZetaChain smart contact and additionally used to secure the PoS ZetaChain blockchain by bonding/staking/slashing.
ZETA is also at the core of ZetaChain’s cross-chain transfer, swaps, message delivery, and security. ZETA is one of the first multi-chain tokens that is natively issued across multiple chains and layers.
Users can directly move the ZETA token from any chain A to chain B. The mechanism is a one-way peg (i.e. burning X amount on chain A and then minting X amount on chain B).
We use our own token ZETA to represent value cross-chain because:
- Unlike the more common two-way pegging, there is no wrapping and therefore no multiple representation of the same underlying asset.
- The only (native) value that can go cross-chain is via the ZETA token, which reduces attack surface, resulting in an easier to understand audit and therefore higher security. For example, we can check total supply at the contract mint site.
- Users can pay ZETA for the cross-chain service that ZETA provides, and for gas on the destination chain.