Zen Protocol is a blockchain built for finance. Just as Bitcoin is designed as peer-to-peer money, Zen Protocol is designed for peer-to-peer trade, giving you total control over your financial assets.
Zen is built from the ground up to help developers write
fast, scalable and reliable smart contracts. The codebase is written from scratch in F#, C#, and our own language, ZF*, a dialect of the language F*, designed by Microsoft Research and Inria for provably correct programming. ZF* makes advanced security techniques like formal verification natural to use. Zen Protocol's contracts can react to events on the Bitcoin blockchain – meaning that Bitcoiners can use Zen's financial system without third parties or intermediaries.
StatusThe Zen Protocol testnet is up and running, with code and binaries on Github.
Formally verified, cost-bounded contracts are running on our testnet today.
Our main net goes live in Q2 2018.
FeaturesBitcoin integration
Zen Protocol watches the Bitcoin network. Anything that happens in the Bitcoin blockchain can trigger contracts on the Zen blockchain. Zen can act as a sidechain to Bitcoin, using a federated peg, collateral deposit, or, in the future, mechanisms like Drivechain. Zen Protocol uses the full Bitcoin consensus, storing a record of the valid Bitcoin chain with most proof of work.
Fast, Secure Smart ContractsContracts are fast and safe. Zen Protocol makes them fast by proving how long they take to run, which means there's no need for a "gas" system. With no need to count gas, Zen Contracts are
compiled to machine code, making them an order of magnitude faster.
Here's our post on how we make this possible.
Here's the code we do it with.Contracts are safe by design. There's no global state, no accounts system: the Zen Protocol uses a UTXO design, like Bitcoin's, in which contracts store their own data on transaction outputs. The ZF* language also makes it easy for developers to formally verify contracts, in the same language that they write them in.
That makes it possible to prove smart contract exploits can't happen.Multi Hash Mining
Multi Hash Mining is a new way of using many hash functions in Proof of Work mining. Each hash function gets its own difficulty, which adjusts over time to target a hash function ratio. The different hash functions don't have to be used in a set order: if too many blocks are mined using a function then its difficulty increases. Holders of the Zen Native Token can vote to say what the ratio should be. This creates matching incentives for miners and users of the Zen Protocol.
Read our proposal paper on multi hash mining.Oracles
Our oracle solution is fast, efficient, and profitable for oracle operators. Oracles can commit to gigabytes of data in a single, 200-byte transaction. Oracle users then pay the oracle operator for each individual piece of data they want to use. The only data which gets written to the blockchain are those which users pay for.
Native token use and issuanceZen's native token is used to activate contracts. Contracts are pay-per-block, meaning they don't use network resources that they don't pay for. The token is also used to vote on what mix of hash functions should be used in Zen Protocol's PoW.
Out of 100 million Zen tokens that will ever exist, 20 million will be created in the genesis block. The remaining 80 million are issued on a six-year halving schedule.
Token Sale and Genesis Block
Full details of the Zen Protocol Sale are available in our blog post.Twelve million tokens are available for sale, at a price of USD 2.75 per token. This price will be converted into a price in Bitcoins on the 28th of November, 2017. Our pre-sale offers between a 5% and 15% discount, depending on the total purchase size.
The token sale begins on the 30th of November, 2017, 16:00 UTC. The sale will run for up to one month.
TeamIn no particular order: Adam Perlow, Asher Manning, Doron Somech, Elan Perach, Eleanor Milstein, Isaac Rodgin, Nathan Cook (topynate), and Sharon Urban.
AnnouncementsAll major announcements
appear on our blog. We recommend joining the
official Telegram group for live updates. We'll also monitor and update this Bitcointalk thread.
