Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain trilemma
With so much information about the crypto market itself lately, it’s easy to forget that there’s an actual underlying and revolutionary technology powering these digital assets: Blockchains
Blockchain technology, put in easy words, is a protocol with which you can send information in a decentralized way, skipping any kind of central organization which can see, modificate, or even refuse to send this information.
Sadly, this model isn’t flawless; Many supposedly decentralized and trustable blockchains have failed to keep up with their promises, losing the trust of their users and showcasing unreliability.
The inability of providing what the ideal blockchain should was defined by Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin as the “Blockchain Trilemma”; A term that englobes 3 fundamental aspects traditional layer-1 networks have always been unable to provide at the same time: Scalability, decentralization, and security.
Typically, only two of these goals are achieved by blockchains, having to sacrifice one of them to function. For example, while Ethereum and Bitcoin are 100% decentralized and secure, they lack scalability because of their high transaction cost and low TPS.
A different way of doing things
This is where Zenon comes in; the developing DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) of a dual-coin blockchain that introduces a new way of understanding this technology.
By re-thinking its fundamental aspects and coming up with new sediments, the Network of Momentum aims to solve the blockchain trilemma, by providing what traditional blockchains failed to.
The Network of Momentum (NoM) is a smart, truly decentralized blockchain, designed for the development of zApps (Decentralized applications using blockchain technology) within its ecosystem and fueled by a dual PoS-PoW system.
But, what does the NoM do in order to solve the blockchain trilemma? To begin with, it offers scalability without sacrificing decentralization, thanks to Plasma, an anti-spam mechanism that aims to solve legacy networks’ gas costs problem.
This would normally come with the sacrifice of security, but this problem is addressed in a unique way, thanks to Zenon’s DAO nature and NoM’s PoS-PoW system, which allows for a really decentralized, secure blockchain to exist.
As explained before, one of the main differences between NoM and other blockchains is its dual-coin mechanism. ZNN (Zenon) and QSR (Quasar) are the powerhouses of this network.
The first one will allow you to participate in the consensus protocol, by locking it away in four different tiers that you can unlock by burning a set amount of the second one, which can also be locked to earn Plasma, a third dimension asset that takes network fees close to zero.
Pillars
These are the fundamental building block of the NoM; Pillars actively produce and validate momentums, while also participating in the governance framework of Zenon, by voting on things like community initiatives or choosing Accelerator-Z projects to fund, making them the DAO’s “governors”.
Establishing yourself as a pillar will require a linearly increasing amount of QSR to be burned and a minimum of 15.000 ZNN locked, with APYs going up to 80%.
Delegators
If pillars are governors, you can think of delegators as those who vote for them; they choose which pillar to delegate their ZNN to, increasing the pillar’s weight in the network and governance framework.
In retribution, pillars can choose how much revenue to share with their delegators, creating a symbiotic relationship between both. Minimum amount locked to become a delegator is only 1 ZNN, with APYs reaching 72%.
Stakers
This is the classic staking you’re already familiarized with; Lock a minimum of 1 ZNN for a certain period of time, earn rewards in retribution. APYs up to 24%.
Sentinels
Sentinels are typical nodes acting as observers for the network’s operations. These nodes store, share, and passively validate the NoM ledger.
You’ll need to lock 5.000 ZNN and 50.000 QSR in order to spawn a Sentinel node, which can offer APYs of up to 60%.
Usability
You probably noticed that the Network of Momentum is a special blockchain, different from any other out there. But, what is it used for?
The main use for this technology is the development of zApps, which benefit from the scalability and smartness of the NoM, opening new gates to developers. You can check AcceleratorZ (Zenon’s funding project), to see what the userbase is working on.
Another use is the creation of new tokens; by using the dedicated syrius wallet, you can easily create new tokens on the NoM infrastructure, without coding, and almost no fees thanks to Plasma.
Conclusions
As you have seen, the NoM is nothing like other blockchains out there, and it wouldn’t be surprising if we see the future of cryptocurrencies and zApps being run by this innovative technology; The sky is the limit.
We are coming close to the end of this article. If you want to see the latest news about Zenon and the Network of Momentum, you can check out their Twitter account. If you wanna see some cool videos, take a look at the Youtube channel. Finally, don’t miss out on being part of the community by joining the dedicated Discord server.