The first Bitcointalk Announcement Post of Zenon.Network was nothing short of an enigmatic encounter.
In the beginning, only a few brave souls who had fought their way through the blood-soaked trenches of the 2018 bear market found their way to this BTT post, published by the pseudonym “Professor Z” on the 25th of May 2018.
There, they were met with a brief pitch that would outline an unparalleled DLT architecture that can redefine our understanding of Distributed Ledgers.
There was not much information about the project. An anonymous team had released a fully functioning wallet running on a placeholder PIVX fork, and a slick website that invited early contributors to participate in the inception of the Zenon network. All they had to do is send BTC to an address in exchange for ZNN — and expect it to be returned within 2 years. That was 3 years ago.
Those that did would soon realize they had entered a rabbit hole deeper than they could have ever imagined…
Ever since its inception, a plethora of information about Zenon has been produced by the team and a colorful early community of trading veterans, whale-status shitcoiners, big-brain computer scientists, degen schizos, and mathematicians — gem hunters with diamond hands (or a gambling problem), if you will.
However, a lot of information (whether official or unofficial) is scattered across different platforms and chats, making it tedious for newcomers to efficiently conduct proper due diligence about zenon.network. This paper guides you through some of the key project information of Zenon.Network.
Be ready to get your mind blown by the sheer brilliance, unwavering dedication, and unparalleled game-theoretical understanding of the anon Bitcoin OGs behind Zenon.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- LATEST UPDATES
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- PROTOCOL YIELD FARMING
- BUY/TRADE ZNN
- FAIR LAUNCH
- NETWORK OF MOMENTUM
- BITCOIN INTEROPERABILITY
- STRATEGIC PARTNERS
- TEAM
- FUNDING
1. LATEST UPDATES (per 04.04.2022)
CORE UPDATES
- 7'608'777 ZNN circulating, $45m market cap at around $6/ZNN
- Zenon Network of Momentum (NoM) Alphanet successfully launched on November 19th
- SYRIUS wallet supports the BSC wZNN — ZNN 2-way bridge, an embedded full node, and, as of April 8th, smart contract to facilitate voting and funds distribution for Accelerator Z (see below).
- 700k ZNN and 7m QSR Zenon Fabric Fund unlock for builders, marketers, and strategic partners with Accelerator Z (launch: April 8th) and the subsequent vested Pillar program.
- 140k ZNN and 500k QSR Hyperspace Fund (start: April 8th) hackathon for Web3 cross-chain compatible infrastructure solutions like protocol-level liquidity provisioning, cross-chain bridges, feeless asset transfers, merge mining, and more. Note that this fund is growing every day since it’s part of the Zenon Orbital protocol-level liquidity program
- 1.8m QSR reward pool for wZNN/wBNB liquidity providers to the BSC smart contract as part of the Orbital protocol level liquidity mining program
- Upcoming Taproot leveraged Bitcoin interoperability solutions, a new NFT standard, zApps platform for DeFi, GameFi…
COMMUNITY UPDATES
- Zenon.tools now tracks APYs of Pillars, Sentinels, Delegators, Stakers, and LPs
- A new version of zenon.wiki being built with GitBook
- A new testnet environment znnplayground.com
- Constant improvement of the community-built explorer zenonscraper.com
- The launch of the first e-commerce shop exclusively accepting ZNN for payments zenon.ink
- Preparations for the long-awaited launch of the Hale DAO
and many, many more community initiatives such as a discourse forum, a pillar tracker bot, community discord, matrix servers, SDKs, art initiatives, zApp projects…
GET READY TO APPLY FOR ACCELERATOR Z!
Become one of the first builders, marketers, and business developers to tap into a 700k ZNN and 7m QSR protocol fund to finance and launch your own project on Zenon’s ever-expanding ecosystem!
LASTLY, MIND THE SWAP DECAY!
If you have not yet swapped your legacy ZNN to Zenon Alphanet, make sure you are aware of the swap decay. At the time of this writing, the 2nd swap decay cycle has begun and 10% of all ZNN (ca. 1% of the total supply) will already be burned.
Swap instructions:
Additional info on swap cycles:
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
“Today we are at the dawn of the new, open and decentralized Internet.
A sentiment of massive distrust in centralized services is starting to take shape and the world needs new and powerful solutions to overcome existing limitations that are inherent with centralized systems.Nowadays, current decentralized solutions are constrained by blockchain’s fundamental limitations: scalability and active participation.
Independent and passion-driven, Zenon’s purpose is to redefine the status quo of dApps platforms by letting it thrive to an ecosystem of itself, built by a passionate community of developers, and establishing the Network of Momentum as the ground level of a new decentralized Internet.”— Zenon’s first Medium Article
TOP 6 REASONS WHY ZENON IS UNIQUE
- Zenon was 100% fairly launched. There was no presale, special conditions for VCs, insider, or premine allocation. It started with a level playing field — just like Bitcoin did. Zenon’s significant funding source remains a mystery even 3 years after the project’s inception.
- Zenon was designed and built from the ground up to solve the trilemma between security, scalability, and decentralization. The network economics are extremely well balanced and sophisticated, creating tradeoffs for each network participant and preventing centralization of power.
- Zenon successfully introduces the feeless paradigm with Plasma while eliminating network spam to which other first-gen DAGs like nano succumbed. The same anti-spam mechanism based on Plasma that grants Network of Momentum’s feeless property also makes it less susceptible to front-running. By enhancing the privacy and confidentiality of transactions, the network will truly become front-running resistant.
- Zenon was designed to be interoperable with and enhance other networks, especially Bitcoin. Indicative statements by the core team point to Zenon potentially solving Bitcoin’s scaling problem and enabling “DeFi on Bitcoin” by applying Hash Time Locked Contracts, Atomic Swaps, Merge Mining, and Schnorr Signatures, and other advancements which were enabled thanks to the recent Taproot Bitcoin network upgrade. Not limited to Bitcoin, Zenon might as well enable the feeless value transfer of any other digital asset, coin, or file, no matter the underlying network.
- Zenon is leaderless and fully community-governed. As such, its value is 100% derived from sound tech and organic growth, rather than fancy public figures that aim to create trust by association instead of substance.
- The core team. They are anon but man this is some of the most high-end IQ shit I’ve seen in my 5+ years in this godforsaken space. Not only do they live, breathe, eat, sleep, and shit Satoshi’s Bitcoin ethos (they quote old Sats whenever they can). They have a RIDICULOUSLY advanced understanding of Bitcoin, network economics, and user behavior. They have researched every possible L1 network architecture in existence to design the perfect network that meets the Bitcoin ethos, overcomes Lightning Network’s shortcomings, and enables feeless cross-chain asset transfers (with any network) while solving the scalability/security/decentralization trilemma. They are unwaveringly determined turbo IQ chads (probably Bitcoin OGs) and don’t care about fame, hype, or money. All they care about is delivering superior tech. Their communication style is characterized by high-end visuals, minimal hype, a certain degree of ambiguity, and unshakable confidence.
ZNN (Zenon) and QSR (Quasar)
- $ZNN is the main cryptocurrency with a disinflationary emission rate and a circulating supply of ca. 8.05m ZNN until the end of Zenon Network of Momentum Phase 0. It is a productive asset that generates QSR and it’s used as collateral for consensus nodes, and as a means of value transfer within the network.
- $QSR is the second main cryptocurrency of the dual-coin architecture. It also has a disinflationary emission rate. It can be fused to Plasma — Zenon’s novel mechanism to transact any crypto asset at zero fees while preventing network spam. Feeless because Plasma can be unfused back to the original amount of QSR. QSR is also used as collateral for consensus nodes. The QSR total supply is roughly 30.2m and its circulating supply is determined by a mint-and-burn mechanism, as well as network emissions. One can think of it as tokenized proof of network securitization with the use cases of collateral and network throughput prioritization.
Both, $ZNN and $QSR can be earned as part of the various yield generation functionalities within the S Y R I U S wallet. See zenon.tools for more details:
Zenon Token Standard (ZTS) & New NFT Standard
Zenon has introduced the ZTS (Zenon Token Standard) for the creation of transactional value units that can be transferred feelessly without network spam — all in conjunction with mass-scalable distributed applications “zApps” for the following industry verticals:
- Secure Data Storage
- AI & Big Data
- Oracles
- Digital Identity services
- DAOs and DACs
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Distributed Computing platforms
Soon-ish Zenon will also introduce a novel NFT standard, though we don’t know too much about it yet.
Mr. Kaine dropped another Satoshi quote in that regard that might or might not hint toward one of this new NFT standard’s potential use cases: The ability to resolve the original privacy issues Satoshi identified when using Bitcoin as a means of payment for non-fungible digital goods. Such as art, for instance. Note that whether this new NFT standard will cover this has not been confirmed and is speculation on my part.
A go-to framework for zApp developers
Zenon aims to be the “go-to” framework for developers researching better tools and environments and for users seeking superior utilization experiences. A vibrant place for native tokens created on NoM or a new home for tokens shifting to the Zenon Token Standard but also for the zApps being built on the Network of Momentum thanks to ready-made SDKs.
3. PROTOCOL YIELD FARMING
Zenon NoM offers a variety of yield generation opportunities. See zenon.tools for APYs.
The overall protocol emissions are shared among Pillars, Delegators, Sentinels, Stakers, and LPs according to the following ratios:
Pillars
Lock up 15k ZNN and burn >230k QSR (every new Pillar has to burn 10k QSR more) to participate in the network consensus and yield a good part of the emissions. Pillars can fight over the highest-yielding top 30 slots by attracting as much delegator weight as possible. They can do that by self-delegating ZNN and/or sharing delegator and momentum rewards. See more on Pillar reward structures here:
As a Pillar owner, you will face various tradeoffs. If you have additional ZNN, do you self-delegate vs spin up a second pillar for which you need to get and burn more QSR first? Do you optimize your strategy for ZNN maximization or governance power? You will soon realize that the underlying economics are effectively mitigating the inherent “rent-seeking nature” and “unbreakable oligarchy” of most Proof-of-Stake networks, as community member George fittingly explained:
By the way, if you’re looking to set up a pillar check out these guides provided by long term community member Sultanofstaking:
Delegators
Delegate their ZNN to Pillars in return for a variable share of the delegation and momentum rewards Pillars are generating. The delegated ZNN function as a voting weight to each Pillar which determines the outcome of protocol votes. Think of pillars as the entities through which delegators can cast governance votes by allocating their ZNN to the respective pillars that represent what delegators want to vote for.
Sentinels
Lock up 5k ZNN and 50k QSR each (no burn this time) for minimum periods of one month or more. During staking lockup, the balance cannot be used for delegation. Note that sentinels are full nodes that maintain the state of the dual-ledger by enforcing network validation rules. Only implemented as yield generating placeholders for now, live deployment of Sentinels is expected to start with the launch of NoM Phase 1. Like Pillars, Sentinels will be able to be deployed on a VPS.
Stakers
Lock up their ZNN for variable amounts of time to generate QSR. The longer the lockup duration and the bigger the staked amount of ZNN, the higher the QSR yield. Up to a multiplier of 2.1x can be achieved when staking ZNN.
Liquidity Providers
LPs can earn the same yield as sentinels plus up to a 10x boost on QSR rewards by adding liquidity to the BSC smart contract for wZNN/wBSC trading. Once the initial 1.8m QSR reward pool is used up, LPs earn the same yield as sentinels Read up on Zenon protocol-level liquidity mining here:
Protocol Emission Allocations during NoM Phase 0
4. BUY/TRADE ZNN & QSR
Before the alphanet launch, tier 3 exchanges such as Mercatox, Stex, and Crex24 used to offer ZNN/BTC pairs. While these exchanges indicated they would support the swap to alphanet, they have not yet done so.
As a result, all trading activity happens via a Binance Smart Chain bridged version of ZNN — wZNN which is tradable on Pancakeswap:
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to buy wZNN and then bridge it to native ZNN in SYRIUS:
The wZNN chart can be found here:
wZNN on Coinmarketcap:
5. FAIR LAUNCH
TL;DR
- No pre-sale, no insider / team allocation, no VC rounds
- 80% of the emitted ZNN supply was distributed during a public sale with the majority of investors getting their BTC back after a lockup period via so-called xStakes.
- The 1.5% premined supply (72403 ZNN) to bootstrap the network was fully distributed to community nodes.
- 20% of the emitted ZNN supply (roughly 800k ZNN) was allocated to the Zenon Fabric fund. Those coins are locked and do not generate rewards.
- ZNN was algorithmically minted upon sending BTC to a specific address.
- Zenon launched with a placeholder chain (a PIVX fork) to bootstrap the network. The actual mainnet went live in October 2021 as an alpha version.
The ZNN distribution is unlike anything I have seen in 4 years of diving through the crypto sewers hunting for fundamentally sound gems that were yet to be uncovered by the majority of the market.
According to a distribution phase participant and Zenon OG, very few other projects used a similar distribution mechanism. One is Edgeware which called it “lockdrop” and the other was Nucypher which called it “worklock” (but also had a private sale).
For the Zenon Network team, one of the most fundamental principles was to ensure a fair launch.
Technically, there was a small premine of 70,001 ZNN (because you can’t start a POS network without setting up nodes that will ensure the stability of the network). But all premined ZNN were redistributed to nodes held by the community. → Read about the Network Stability Fund Distribution here:
As to the distribution mechanism per see, here’s where it gets interesting. The Zenon team used what they called a “ZX algorithm” for the creation and distribution of ZNN. It followed a certain supply/demand pattern and worked as follows:
- Contributors sent 1 BTC (or a multiple of it) to a “xStake/Refund” address where it would be temporarily locked for 2 years (this duration was eventually shortened to 1.5 years).
- These BTC inflows triggered the ZX Distribution algo to mint and distribute ZNN coins at a ratio of 5000 ZNN per committed BTC. Note that contributions lower than 1 BTC did not trigger this mechanism. To be eligible for the xStakes refunds the contributor also had to run their nodes for the entire period.
- 1/24th of the locked BTC would then be paid back to the contributors on a monthly basis in the form of so-called “xStakes” until the principal was refunded in full. (If you’re now asking yourself how the majority of the project is financed, you’re asking the right questions).
- To be eligible for the xStakes, contributors had to contribute at least 1 BTC (or a multiple of it), and set up and run a masternode for 5,000 ZNN (Pillars for 15'000 ZNN were introduced at a later stage).
- During the 14-day distribution phase, 470 BTC were committed which generated a total of 2,350,000 ZNN.
- The supply was capped at 4,500,000 ZNN (consider this took place in the middle of the last major bear market and BTC was trading at around $5,000).
To get a better understanding of the distribution process, metrics, and how Zenon presented itself in its early stages I urge you to read the following article written by an early community member:
Here are all the details that were published before the distribution phase:
6. NETWORK OF MOMENTUM
TL;DR
- Dual-Ledger (Meta-DAG + Block-Lattice) architecture
- 3 types of nodes (Pillars, Sentinels, Sentries)
- PoW-Links & Plasma for feeless transactions
- Foundation for mass-scalable zApps based on unikernels (minimal, standalone virtual machines) controlled by smart contracts
The Zenon Network of Momentum Architecture is pretty sophisticated and consists of multiple interconnected parts that form a fundamentally novel design for a mass-scalable, blockchain-based zApp ecosystem.
LEADERLESS BFT DUAL-LEDGER ARCHITECTURE
“The protocol comprises of a dual ledger architecture, a meta-DAG created by participating consensus nodes, a projection of the meta-DAG that represents the transactional ledger, a proof-of-work link between relayed transactions emitted by clients, together with the following properties and functions: a vote-weighting function based on proof of stake for participating consensus nodes, an incentivization scheme based of proof of work, a difficulty oracle and a super-quorum selector.” — Zenon Network Whitepaper
Whitepaper → go to zenon.network and scroll down to the Whitepaper download link
The NoM in a nutshell
PROTOCOL COMPONENTS
6.1 Network of Momentum (NoM) dual-ledger
The NoM protocol uses a dual-ledger approach, consisting of
- a meta-DAG used for the consensus layer, containing the transactions required by the virtual voting algorithm
- a block-lattice data structure used to store data from transactions that are settled in the network, i.e. sending, receiving, and zApp related transactions. The block-lattice forms the settled transaction structure which is stored as independent individual user account chains.
DAG visualization (bottom) vs blockchain (top):
Block-lattice visualization:
Key benefit of the dual-ledger: Massive throughput
- One key benefit of a DAG is it’s superior scalability compared to traditional blockchains (without compromise on decentralization and network security).
- In a DAG consensus is not achieved in a straight line with a 1-to-1 connection between blocks; they can be like a graph instead. 1 block can confirm 3 blocks, and those 3 can confirm 3 more, etc. This makes reaching consensus in a DAG exponentially faster and more scalable than with traditional blockchains which are linear in consensus, meaning that one block can confirm another block, then onto the next one.
- In NoM only the most recent transactions (“epochs”) are considered in the DAG. This avoids the graph of becoming bloated. Older transactions already confirmed are written to the transaction ledger, the separate block-lattice ledger.
- In itself, block-lattice is already massively scalable since every user has a separate account chain, like their own blockchain. Massive throughput, basically.
- Combining DAG and block-lattice inherently creates a mass-scalable DLT.
6.2 Nodes
There are 3 kinds of nodes in the NoM Ledger:
- Sentry
Trusting nodes called Sentry nodes. A basic type of node, lightweight in the sense that they only store the transaction ledger or a pruned version of it. A light node only monitors traffic for specific accounts allowing minimal network usage and resources. - Sentinel
Trustless nodes called Sentinel nodes. A trustless node is similar to a Pillar node, but only acts as an observer, it doesn’t participate in the consensus algorithm. It carries out the creation of PoW links for transactions and requires moderate resources to operate. - Pillar
Consensus nodes called Pillar nodes. They participate in the consensus protocol and have information about the transactions made in the network by users. A Pillar requires additional resources as it relays network traffic from other Pillars and processes it.
Figure 2. There are four pillars, A, B, C and D. Each pillar computes a proof of work during an epoch, receiving transactions supplied by sentinel nodes. At the beginning of epoch 1, A doesn’t know the transactions that happen between the finishing PoW transaction for B and the starting of epoch 1 for B. At the start of epoch 2, A has received those transactions, but only from B.
At the beginning of epoch 3, A has received messages from all the pillars regarding the transactions at epoch 0, including those between the finishing PoW and the start of the epoch. — Zenon NoM Whitepaper
6.3. PoW Links & Plasma
Zenon realized the concept of Plasma through “fusing” of QSR. Effectively, a user locks up a certain amount of QSR and converts/fuses it to Plasma which increases transaction throughput. Unlike gas, neither Plasma nor QSR gets spent. As soon as it’s no longer needed, the user can unfuse Plamsa back to the original amount of QSR. Different levels of transaction complexity require different amounts of Plasma (e.g. a simple transfer of ZNN requires much less Plasma than interacting with a smart contract when collecting rewards, for instance).
In addition, Zenon introduces anovel anti-sybil and anti-spam mechanism that prevents front-running and also enables feeless transactions even without Plasma: PoW Links.
- For each transaction, the sentinels will attach a small PoW computation to it, then they will randomly relay the transaction to other sentinels, which will continue to add PoW and further relay that transaction, constructing a PoW link.
- The PoW link will be representing an eliminatory criterion to select between two conflicting transactions in case of a double spend.
6.4 zApps & Unikernels
A zApp is a distributed application that is based on a unikernel controlled by a smart contract.
Unikernels are introduced as a novel approach for an ecosystem of distributed applications to expand the limits of smart contracts and enable complex computational tasks.
Thanks to unikernels (minimal stand-alone virtual machines), zApp platforms can be made
- Secure — through sandboxed application environments with granular permission policies.
- Immutable — prevention of modifiability and tampering of zApps, making them reliable when ran on untrusted hardware.
- Private — ensuring the privacy of zApp users thanks to multi-party computation protocols.
With the rise of the unikernel (i.e. minimal stand alone virtual machine), these properties can be achieved using a smart contract layer to create a hybrid system suitable for complex workloads. The most important advantages in using an unikernel based approach are in terms of security — they are completely isolated from the host and performance — they are lightweight and run at native speeds. — Zenon Network Whitepaper
Finally, users will need to pay for the zApps usage; this system will be designed in a similar way gas is implemented for smart contracts as a fees mechanism.
A good explanation of unikernels:
A “Unikernel” provides an isolated execution environment similar to docker, but is another beast entirely. Where docker is a layered Virtual Machine, a Unikernel contains truly the minimal amount of an OS to function. A unikernel has been described as an application that along with the native libraries required to run, also includes the minimal kernel operations necessary to run. A unikernel can be compiled into a native binary that can run on bare metal and does not necessarily require an Operating System and virtualization to function. For this new distributed architecture that us as blockchain developers are building, the unikernel provides efficiencies beyond even native applications running within a traditional operating system. Unikernels have been demonstrated as small as 5mb that can boot in less than 20ms. The security of unikernels is a mixed bag. Unikernels are a newer technology and have not been proven to battle hardened. On the other hand, they remove most of the attack surface required by a hacker / malware to cause damage. — Source: I/Oracle: The Making of a Smarter Oracle which also gives some good insights into the limitations of the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
To my current understanding, unikernels can be integrated into current operating systems. In the case of Zenon, there will most likely be some general OS and unikernels that complement it.
6.5 Epochs
Epochs are consensus rounds from participating nodes. Following are some more detailed definitions.
- A consensus round that consists of grouped transactions. In every epoch, each of the nodes that participate in the consensus algorithm must compute a PoW with adjustable difficulty.
- An epoch is a consensus round where instead of reaching global consensus, a sharding protocol formed from the interconnection of pillars is used to reshuffle shards in random timeframes. In this form, the pillars compute a PoW.
- Sentries validate the consensus in each shard and also communicate via sentinels to further validate and dictate a global consensus. The finished PoW and transactions are broadcast to the network, at which point a new epoch is begun.
- An epoch is a means to organize the individual rounds of consensus on the meta-DAG ledger. Participating nodes mark each epoch using special transactions.
6.6 Comparison to other Layer 1 chains
In the whitepaper, you will see that the team has extensively researched, analyzed, and compared a wide variety of different approaches for DLT architectures. As you saw in this chapter, the result is a radically novel design that aims at combining the best of several worlds to overcome the shortcomings of incumbent DLTs.
“Nano uses a delegated proof of stake and doesn’t mine the blocks, hence no need for fees. They just create new blocks for every transaction and keep their own scorecard with a “referee” to make sure everything is correct. Zenon uses pillars and nodes for sharding the PoW consensus so it’ll involve fees that are consumed by the operators of the network.” — znnAlien
For those of you that are more technically savvy, I highly recommend you have a look at this brilliant article written by one of the long-term znnAliens Sayan:
7. BITCOIN INTEROPERABILITY
NOTE: The following section is still quite speculative and at the point of this writing the functionalities outlined below have yet to be released.
“Zenon Network is working to solve some of the most fundamental issues facing decentralized networks. E.g, (Unlike corporate web3) It achieves true decentralization through its fair launch and by decoupling coinbase incentives from governance. It also eliminates transaction fees by tokenizing network bandwidth which is rewarded to those who help secure the network. Zenon is hybrid PoW and PoS, and is exploring how to incorporate Bitcoin merge mining. Rather than competing with Bitcoin as the hardest most secure currency, Zenon seeks to complement and add value to the Bitcoin ecosystem.” — @georgezgeorgez
It seems that the core team members are Bitcoin OGs. They almost religiously follow the Bitcoin ethos and know pretty much anything about it. Mr. Kaine also regularly quotes Satoshi on various topics in casual conversations.
There is also an apparent dependence of Zenon’s mainnet launch on Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade which further indicated how close Zenon is to Bitcoin. By now it is safe to say that Zenon will offer interoperability with Bitcoin, maybe even going so far as to enhance it.
According to core team member Mr. Kaine, Bitcoin interoperability can be achieved through various approaches, including (but not limited to):
- Merge mining to enable e.g. feeless Bitcoin transactions
- Hash Time Locked Contracts
- Atomic Swaps
- Pillars as native BTC vault holders
Additional topics that would make sense:
- Fixing the shortcomings of Lightning Network
- DeFi applications on Bitcoin
Kaine also signed the first Bitcoin Taproot block with a generous donation by community member @dogwithstyle.
Open the link to see the full pic or scroll down to Zenon’s tweet that shows it too:
Some more official indications on Bitcoin interoperability from the past:
One of three likes the Zenon Twitter account ever made:
Mind that the entire network design and ultimate interoperability solutions for Bitcoin must have been meticulously planned years in advance! Talk about playing the long game!
8. STRATEGIC PARTNERS
According to some older Medium articles, every 90 days, the Zenon team will announce up to 10 new strategic partners that will be added to “Zenon Fabric” — a vested Pillars program incentivizing cooperation and synergy maximization between leading industry players that act as key strategic partners to the community. Strategic partners will also be given so-called Vested Pillar Slots to incentivize their participation in and upkeep of the Zenon Network.
Recently, a few community members asked the team to confirm whether these official introductions were still planned. The replies given were somewhat vague, which could indicate that whomever they had lined up will just take part in Accelerator Z and the Vested Pillar Program as “new community members”. This would ensure the team’s long-stated independence from third parties remains.
9. TEAM
Anonymity
Zenon’s team is, has always been, and will likely always remain anonymous. One of the core principles of Zenon is that it is a community-driven project — just like Bitcoin. Another benefit of not having a known leading entity is the elimination of a central point of attack. And with increasing adoption by developers and industry players, and SDKs to build on top of a productive Network of Momentum, the project’s dependence on the core team can make way for decentralized governance and technology diffusion.
The team intentionally chose to remain anonymous to maximize the structural solidity and resilience of the network in the long term.
Further, unlike so many crypto projects that rely on creating trust through association with doxxed founding members that have not much more to show for than fancy backgrounds and former big-name employers, an anon team ensures that a project can only be assessed and valued based on its design and technical merits.
While off-putting for many new crypto investors, an anon team that delivers is 1000 times more trustworthy than a doxxed one because you know they are unironically in it for the tech and have to let it speak for itself.
Satoshi would say “this is the way”.
Reserved Communication
The Zenon Network team values decentralization above everything else and they truly live by this principle. Mr. Kaine and his passionate team are extremely humble, unconditionally helpful, and relentlessly focused on enabling Zenon to become a maximally community-driven network.
The team generally uses a rather restrained style of communication as they prefer to deliver rather than talking about it. It is therefore all the more exciting that Mr. Kaine & Co. have started making more ambitious announcements in the recent months — although their statements have always kept the somewhat stoic and gentlemen-like vibe.
I personally love this approach because you know the risk of exaggeration or over-promising is intentionally kept at a minimum. However, it will be interesting to see whether the team will flip this switch and start making more noise once the technological foundation is live and running in order to increase network adoption — or whether they will just keep letting their work speak for themselves by continuously acquiring strategic partners and key industry players for the network behind the scenes.
But in any case, keep in mind that while the team is not known for proactively make big announcements, they are usually very transparent and responsive when they can.
So don’t be shy and just ask the team directly — you never know if your question just unlocked a little info leak goodie :)
10. FUNDING
If you
- used the Syrius wallet and noticed the extreme technical depth and proficiency;
- had a look at the code;
- consider that many genesis investors got their BTC refunded;
- saw the zenon.network website and the high-end visual content Zenon is constantly pushing out;
- saw the tech they released prior to the genesis event just to bootstrap the network;
- think about the fact that a team of top percentile, world-class pros have been working on Zenon for over 3 years and is constantly delivering,
you might ask yourself how are they paying for all of this?
We’ll probably never find out but there aren’t many possibilities. Either the team is self-funded (which is quite possible given how strong their Bitcoin OG vibes are) and/or they have benefactors that see Zenon as something humanity and Bitcoin need to ensure this space remains decentralized and doesn’t get corrupted by VCs, centralized/commercial pseudo-DLTs — just like it was the case for the internet.
Hopefully, Zenon will never disclose who is behind it so that it can remain an independent entity in order to ensure maximal decentralization and minimize the attack surface for competing or even malicious economic and political actors. Satoshi would say “this is the way”.
Join the community
DISCLAIMER
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice whatsoever. It only represents my personal views, experiences, and opinions. I am in no way affiliated or associated with the Zenon Network team and I don’t know anyone from the Zenon team, nor their identities.
Although I tried to collect only factual data and highlight any speculative elements within this paper, I cannot guarantee that all of it is correct. I have a financial interest in the success of Zenon which may influence my views and perceptions presented therein.
All art in this document was created by znnAliens (Zenon community members).
Written and compiled by Shazz.
