Horizen’s Big Leap: Classic ZK Project Adapts to Modern Crypto Needs
The mainnet of the vintage privacy project Horizen has been formally launched on Base. This is the most recent stage in the development of the long-standing network that prioritizes privacy. The launch on Tuesday coincides with a resurgence of interest in privacy coins. In February, Horizen started to move from a Layer 1 to a Layer 3. The DAO decided to deprecate the project’s legacy blockchain, which led to this change.
In some ways, the relaunch is more of a rare governance success by a lesser-known initiative than a technological achievement. Rob Viglione, CEO of Horizen Labs, said that the new proof-of-stake appchain is largely replacing the original ZK-powered proof-of-work base layer. Overall, the development process has been successful, he continued. After almost nine years, the project’s community and brand have been revitalized due to it.
There’s value in having a project that follows through and isn’t always shifting to the next thing and launching and shutting down and so forth, and actually having continuity and grit. That’s what we have. It’s a unique thing in the market to see an OG 2016 project migrating into something very modern, very relevant, and actually keeping its DNA.
Viglione
Horizen Launches $100M Program to Bring Privacy Apps to Base
Now, the project wants Base developers and users to use privacy. This attempt relies on Coinbase‘s popular Layer 2 network. Horizen Labs promises a $100 million ZEN developer funding program over five years. This program will support GambleFi, SocialFi, and confidential financial services applications and tooling. Horizen uses selective disclosure like other reg-compliant privacy cryptos. This requires opt-in privacy for on-chain transfers, swaps, and identification features without removing regulatory control.
We’ve chosen to pivot towards what we consider a trillion-dollar market, regulatory-compliant privacy. There’s just no way that the U.S. government and others are going to allow completely unbounded, uncontrolled financial flows globally. There’s a limit to scale on that.
Viglione
Viglione, a cypherpunk fan, said totally anonymous crypto is still important. He said that the sector seemed to be regaining privacy awareness. True widespread acceptance demands assimilating into the world, not changing it. Horizen learned this along the road. Horizen’s progress continued in 2023 under global regulatory pushback. In that time, the team disabled protected transactions from its mainnet. The move was pragmatic after OKX and Huobi delisted privacy coins.
ZEN Token Gains Momentum as Major Exchanges Add Support
ZEN, which was first traded on Base-based platforms like Aerodrome and Uniswap, is gaining popularity. Binance, Bitget, ByBit, Coinbase, and OKX support it. For years, Grayscale has also offered ZEN trust. Compliance need not hinder cryptographic innovation. Next quarter, Horizen will launch its Confidential Compute Environment, which employs trusted execution environments (TEEs) for isolated processing. This system handles simple private payments and sophisticated use cases. These enhanced jurisdictional import modules allow privacy-preserving regulatory compatibility.
Though a proof-of-concept, Viglione said Horizen Labs is designing middleware with a plug-and-play authority mechanism and threshold multi-sig. According to him, developers can import modules for each jurisdiction and use case. Applications will meet local regulations with these modules. Disclosure or concealment of financial data to authorities is an example.
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