Zilliqa runs a decentralized network of computers as means of operating a blockchain platform on a global scale with the objective of increasing user scalability on the back of a process they call “sharding”.

By doing so, Zilliqa is one of a many other competing blockchains which allows for their users to host and/or run decentralized applications (dApps) and features cryptocurrencies.

Their key differentiating feature is its sharding process in which ut splits its infrastructure into many interconnected blockchains as means to be able to support a very high number of transactions.

Moreover, Zilliqa has created their very own native programming language, Scilla, which has been very focused on security while still enabling users and developers aliek to write and launch their own decentralized apps.

These processes are achieved by use of ZIL, Zilliqa’s native cryptocurrency which is used as means to operate and execute programs, to send transactions, and to serve as an incentive for network supporting activities.

Zilliqa Explained

By using Scilla, Zilliqa’s native language, developers can run their own smart contracts, offer services and even design new decentralized applications.

Sharding splits the network into, as the name suggests, shards. This process allows nodes to only process a very small part of the Zilliqa network transactions.

Each shard also has the capability of acting as its own blockchain and thus allowing nodes to store or assign them data, add new blocks to their chain (known here as microblocks) and/or process transactions.

These microblocks contain only a subset of Zilliqa’s blockchain and get combined in what can be seen as a transaction block an added to the blockchain by DS Nodes (directory service nodes).

Of note, the shard nodes contain a specific subset of the Zilliqa blockchain, and do not have to store Zilliqa’s entire history.

To what concerns achieving consensus, Zilliqa’s governance mechanism is known as the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) and keeps the distributed network of computers in sync.

The History Behind Zilliqa

Zilliqa is the vision of Amrit Kumar and Xinshu Don. It was launched in 2017 and wen live in 2019. Their initial coin offering (ICO) raised an estimated $22 million USD in 2017.