Amidst the buzz of BTC L2 concepts, the mainstream route has been to bridge Bitcoin with the EVM ecosystem. However, by further expanding to connect Bitcoin with all public chains, an omnichain network can be woven. ZetaChain, which is about to be listed on multiple leading exchanges after distributing airdrops, belongs to this category.

Many protocols claim to be omnichain. However, when it comes to chain interoperability, ZetaChain supports smart contracts, allowing developers to develop dApps directly on the mainnet. Essentially, ZetaChain not only has omnichain interoperability but also serves as a Layer1 EVM-compatible chain that supports smart contracts, meeting the complex requirements of one-stop development, deployment, and distribution.

In simple terms, ZetaChain is a cross-chain bridge, a Layer 1, and also a smart contract layer, forming the core functions of the protocol.

The star of the bear market, the fire of the bull market

On February 1, 2024, ZetaChain token $ZETA will be listed simultaneously on Coinbase, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, MEXC, Gate.io, Kucoin, Bitkup, and Bitfinex, covering the major mainstream exchanges.

The current prosperity is hard to imagine considering that ZetaChain obtained mainstream investment and completed the development of the test network and token economics design during the bear market, which is a result of long-term efforts.

In August 2023, ZetaChain received a $27 million investment, covering top-tier investment institutions in both Web3 and Web2, becoming a crossroads of capital consensus.

Web3 funds: CMT Digital, Foundation Capital, GSR, Blockchain.com, DFG, and Jsquare;

Web2 funds: Jane Street Capital (a well-known Wall Street trading company), VY Capital (an investor in several Musk companies), Sky9 Capital (founded by former Lightspeed China founder), and Lingfeng (an investor in JD.com).

The strong support from the above-mentioned big players is attributed to the strong background of the ZetaChain team, with key members from top companies in the industry such as Coinbase, Brave, Metamask’s parent company ConsenSys, THORChain, and Cosmos.

After completing the fundraising, the ZetaChain team selected Cosmos as the main component for development, using the Ethermint Cosmos SDK module, which has full EVM compatibility.

From the beginning, ZetaChain has aimed at Omnichain interoperability. Unlike building cross-chain bridges between EVM chains, the difficulty of message and asset transfer between heterogeneous chains is immense. ZetaChain deconstructs this process, building a path to asset freedom through listing assets on the chain, transfer, and omnichain circulation in three steps.

Bring Assets on-chain: Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) are used to create a secure account system that does not require smart contract support, and assets such as Bitcoin are also supported. Additionally, ZetaChain has built-in message cross-chain and token transfer functions, which will gradually be expanded to any network in the future.

Cross-chain Transfer: ZetaChain incorporates the ZRC-20 format, where upon triggering a transaction, on-chain assets are encapsulated into ZRC-20 format tokens. However, after the transaction is completed, assets withdrawn to the target mainnet are converted back to native assets of the target chain, thereby achieving omnichain circulation of non-encapsulated assets.

Omnichain Circulation: The ZetaChain mainnet will gradually integrate with EVM, Bitcoin, or other heterogeneous chains. Additionally, ZetaChain includes ZetaEVM, enabling developers to accept messages and assets from any chain, as well as transfer messages and assets freely, indirectly realizing the capability of omnipresent chain smart contracts. For example, supporting the transfer of Bitcoin and Ordinals assets by users.

For ZetaChain, there are still many demonstrations of technical prowess, such as the dream of omnichain AMM DEX, empowering heterogeneous chains with EVM capabilities, and ensuring the secure circulation of assets, especially the omnichain AMM DEX, which can be considered the holy grail of on-chain DEX.

In November 2023, SushiSwap and ZetaChain reached a partnership to jointly build an omnichain DEX supporting BTC, among others, unleashing the transactional capabilities of Bitcoin and truly creating top-tier liquidity on the chain.

Empowering Users: Listing, Airdrops, and Mining Simultaneously

To reward users who contributed during the testnet phase, ZetaChain offered a large number of airdrops. After announcing the airdrop news on January 24th, over 800,000 users were eligible to receive airdrops, totaling up to 31.5 million $ZETA tokens.

Moreover, in the face of speculators and scalpers, ZetaChain did not resort to “extermination” like other projects. After identifying 300,000 suspected speculative addresses, it acknowledged the significant contribution of some addresses, recognizing their efforts in stress testing the testnet.

According to previous reports by PANews, ZetaChain will allocate 10% of the total supply (approximately 210 million tokens) for airdrop distribution, bypassing exchanges and projects, and directly distributing tokens to users in a peer-to-peer manner on-chain, to maximize mainnet activity and decentralization.

After the listing information was announced, ZetaChain also stated that airdrops would continue. In addition to the testnet airdrops, there are massive benefits waiting for users to claim upon mainnet launch. Currently, 8.5% of the airdrops will continue to be distributed, with mainnet users accounting for 6% of the airdrop share, participants in ZetaChain’s Quest activities having the opportunity to share 2.5% of the airdrop share, and core contributors to the community being eligible for a 1.5% airdrop reward. Empowering users, this is just one aspect of it.

While launching on numerous exchanges, ZetaChain has also partnered with Bybit Launchpad for staking and mining. It is expected that more exchanges will support various financial activities. For example, ZetaChain will collaborate with OKX, Bitget Wallet, and TP Wallet for trading competitions, with a total of 4.8 million $ZETA tokens forming the prize pool. empowering users, this is the second aspect.

Finally, with the mainnet launch, ZetaChain has spared no effort to usher in the true era of the omnichain. Taking token economics as an example, the token functions of $ZETA permeate all aspects of full-chain transactions, including:

Ensuring the robust operation of ZetaChain’s DPoS consensus mechanism through voting and penalty (Slash) mechanisms.

Anti-spam mechanisms to ensure fair and efficient use of blockchain resources such as computing and storage.

Universal Gas Fee for cross-chain transactions.

$ZETA represents the value of cross-chain asset transfers.

In terms of specific allocation, as much as 22% will be allocated for ecosystem and user growth. In addition to the user airdrops detailed above, ecosystem growth accounts for 12%, which will be used for the extensive adoption of ZetaChain.

Currently, the ZetaChain mainnet launch is in countdown mode. After the mainnet launch, a large number of users can stake $ZETA in the DPoS network and share 10% of the validator node incentives. There will also be a 5% liquidity reward for on-chain transactions. Furthermore, 24% of the token allocation will enter the treasury for ZetaChain’s long-term growth, effectively achieving asset appreciation through active locking and similar deflationary mechanisms.

Ultimately, the proportion allocated to investors and the team is approximately 38.5%, ensuring that close to two-thirds of the tokens circulate among users and the community, maximizing the fairness and decentralization of ZetaChain.

Conclusion: The Future of Omnichain

The token listing is just the beginning of ZetaChain’s grand development plan. ZetaChain aims to create a full-chain experience unlike anything before. In addition to truly achieving cross-chain circulation of assets and messages and an omnichain AMM DEX, it can also support multi-chain NFT transfers, universal payments, universal DID identity protocols, multi-chain multisig treasury management, and an omnichain AA (Account Abstraction) smart contract wallet. It has ultimately realized the coexistence of omnichain DeFi and DAO, ushering in the next era of on-chain experience.

In summary, ZetaChain, along with the concept of omnichain Bitcoin, will ultimately open the door to free movement of on-chain assets, and the continuous empowerment will grow together with users after the mainnet launch.

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