Hi there! We are pleased to inform you that Horizen made great progress. First, Horizen realised ZEN 2.0.18 and it is now available for download. This is a mandatory update for all exchanges, mining pools, node operators, and full node wallet users. Of course, you need to know that the main point of this version is the RPC method ‘getblockfinalityindex’ update. Furthermore, this update informs the user after how many blocks a transaction can be considered safe without the possibility of being reverted. Second, the Horizen team hold the live stream covering such topics as Community Activity, Development, Business and Team Updates on June. Also, they provided us through regional updates that we find great favour with, because there are not so many companies that do it as well as Horizen do. As a side note, there is an interview with Rowan Stone, Business Development Director. During the interview, Rowan said that they were creating an open and inclusive ecosystem, where anybody could come in and create something on top of the solid infrastructure that they had in place, and capitalize on the technology which Horizen had brought to market. On the financial side, you have probably heard there are a lot of wallets which can be used in terms of $ZEN. So, the Horizen team has published a list including all of them on their website. It is plain to see it is a good decision aimed to help users to choose a trusty wallet, not scam projects. Moreover, it seems that Magnum Wallet has started to keep it available to use $ZEN. Let’s wait and see how Horizen will grow and evolute. The Horizen team, you are doing excellent work now, we hope you won’t backslide.
Intro
Horizen is a blockchain platform with a leading-edge privacy technology that provides everyone with privacy and complete control of their digital footprint. It has a sustainable funding model with protocol-level solutions. The Horizen platform enables real-life uses beyond the currency including the ability to privately chat with other people. Soon, Horizen will enable you to publish information and go anywhere on the web, all with complete privacy.
The foundation is working toward the day when anyone will be able to build privacy-based applications on the Horizen platform and generate income from them. This will allow Horizen to bring thousands of real-life services to people. Services that provide them with freedom and everyday utility unlike anything ever available to them before.
Horizen includes:
- ZENNODES — Resilience — The largest node network
- ZEN — Cryptocurrency — Allows regular and private transactions
- ZENDAO — Fairness & Sustainability — Decentralized Autonomous Organization
- ZENHIDE — Censorship Resistance — Go anywhere you want on the web
- ZENCHAT — Messenger — The most secure messaging app
- ZENPUB — Media Freedom — Anonymously publish data, documents & media
Development
Github metrics:
Developer activity (from Coinlib.io):
In the previous post about Horizen, we wrote about coming update. So ZEN 2.0.18 is now available for download. This is a mandatory update for all exchanges, mining pools, node operators, and full node wallet users. The focus of this version is the RPC method ‘getblockfinalityindex’ update. This update informs the user after how many blocks a transaction can be considered safe without the possibility of being reverted. In addition, the update adds a check block at height safety control for orphaned blocks, preventing mistakes in raw transaction creation.
Social encounters
Horizen Live Stream 3 July 2019 — Community Activity and Team Updates
At Horizen, we believe in transparency and value community involvement. Horizen broadcasts a monthly live stream on Youtube to keep the community update to date on project progression. As part of the live stream, the team also holds a short live Q&A session.
- JUNE HIGHLIGHTS
The Horizen teams were all hands on deck this month. The Horizen community has grown over the last month, and we are thrilled to see new faces and old alike joining the conversation about our project and privacy, and our team and community members have really stepped up to ensure they feel welcome.
- BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:
- ZEN available on Magnum Wallets
- ZEN listed on SimpleSwap
- CORE DEVELOPMENT:
- Sidechain Alpha release targeted for Q3 ’19
- Further defined Sidechain test framework for the Horizen Sidechain SDK
- Worked on the upcoming release of ZEN 2.0.18. Deprecation targeted for July 28th
- 3,800 new Secure Nodes were added in June alone.
- Secure node updates released. The update includes: Enhanced connection testing, Cert exception threshold and more.
- MARKETING:
- Website updates and improvements: Fresh design for the Wallets, What is Horizen, and ZEN pages
- Horizen branded CoolWallet S available in the Horizen Store soon!
- Q2 review blog released, detailing all of our accomplishments for the quarter
- REGIONAL UPDATES:
Latin America
- Country Manager, Angie Villarreal, and the LatAm team created the new Spanish Horizen Academy!
- Angie had an AMA on Binance LatAm. She has received over 3k+ views!
Central Europe
- ZEN listed at a kart racing shop and a go-kart racing track in Southern France. Look out for the team racing around at our meetup on August 3rd!
- Italian team participated in several major blockchain events including two Blockchain Observatory forums, Zcon1, and Blockchain Workshop for ABB
Eastern Europe
- Country Lead, Vano Narimanidze, held a Horizen meetup and attended some well-known events including Dell Technologies Forum and Digital Hot Tbilisi Conference. The team was also interviewed for Usbek & Rica, a French magazine
Interview with ROWAN STONE, Business Development Director.
“We’re creating an open and inclusive ecosystem, where anybody can come in and create something on top of the solid infrastructure that we have in place, and capitalize on the technology #Horizen has brought to market” — Rowan Stone
Finance
- From now on, you can manage your $ZEN coins in the Magnum Wallet
Roadmap
Q2 2017 — Horizen launch (as ZenCash)
- Listed on Bittrex exchange
- Full client wallet
Q3 2017 -Expanded privacy features
- ZenChat Messenger
- TLS/SSL Certificate
- Tor nodes
- Wallets: mobile, web, paper, third-party
Q4 2017 — Secure Nodes Live
- First secure & private node system
- Block rewards for node operators
- Arizen lite wallet release
- Interim proposal & voting system
Q1 2018 — IOHK R&D partnership
- Team expansion
- New website launched + soft rebrand
- 20+ partnerships & integrations along the way!
Q2 2018 — Transition from currency to platform
Q3 2018 — Super Nodes and Brand Expansion
- Expanded our brand to Horizen
- Prevention of 51% attack research and development
- Innovation: Enhanced the Nakamoto Consensus
- Blockchain improvements
- DAG scaling prototype
- Design sidechain model
- 30+ partnerships & integration
Q4 2018 — Super Nodes Live
- Release flagship app (Radical Usability)
- Begin SDK design for sidechains
- Begin Sidechains prototype
- Public Accounting System (Radical Transparency)
Q1 2019 — Blockchain Improvements (zk-SNARKS circuit)
- ZEN 2.0.16 — zk-SNARKS improvements
- Node tracker improvements
- Full client wallets compatibility
- Sphere by Horizen improvements
- Zen Academy
Q2 2019 — Blockchain Improvements (Sapling & Sidechain SDK)
- ZEN 2.1.0 — Sapling
- Sidechain SDK Alpha
- Reference sidechain testnet
- Sphere by Horizen improvements
Q3 2019 — Platform (Publish Reference Blockchain)
- ZEN 3.X.X
- Reference sidechain beta
- Sphere by Horizen improvements
- Blockchain improvements
- Mobile (iOS & Android)
- Distributed VPN service
- Sidechain SDK Beta
Q4 2019 — Scaling & Performance (BlockDAG)
- ZEN 3.X.X
- Reference sidechain
- Treasury sidechain
- Begin on-chain payment dev (stretch)
- Begin DAG design (stretch)
- Sidechain SDK
Social media metrics
Social media activity:
Social media dynamics:
The charts above illustrate an incredibly increase in the number of Telegram and Discord followers. Furthermore, we can see the rapidly growing social activity of Horizen community.
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Horizen Reddit subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
