Preparing for ZetaChain 1.0

11 min readJan 11, 2024

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TL;DR With a big year coming up, ZetaChain introduces the vision for 1.0 including roadmap, token utility, ZetaHub, state of ecosystem, and how to prepare for what’s next.

ZetaChain’s Mission

ZetaChain’s mission is to serve as a platform for universal access, simplicity, and utility across any blockchain.

Open blockchains promise a new democratized era of the internet and hold the capacity to deliver a world of creative possibility. Yet, over time, blockchains like other internet systems tend to fragment into centralized silos, drifting away from their foundational pledge. A few large organizations control our data, finances, and digital assets.

Today, we lack best in class standards to build for the entire blockchain ecosystem. The landscape is fiercely competitive with new chains, layers, and scaling solutions popping up every day. Community tribalism and maximalism distract away from product innovation and risk pushing our industry into stagnation.

Developers need true flexibility to build on any new blockchain or layer. If we approach all blockchains as equal participants, then the ecosystem can focus on utility rather than what chain you live on.

ZetaChain is the chain-agnostic base-layer of the decentralized internet. ZetaChain is a space for any blockchain to converge, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and old and new blockchains into the future.

ZetaChain 1.0 is the first step towards realizing an omnichain vision..

Blockchain Interoperability Today

ZetaChain reimagines a new standard for interoperability and how users and developers can interact with blockchains. It provides a unified execution environment (resembling a centralized exchange), but in a decentralized, programmable, and accessible way into the future.

Centralized ledgers or exchanges (CEX) is the first example of a unified execution environment for blockchain convergence. To-date, they provide a meaningful utility: a user gets assets or data on one chain, sends it to the CEX intermediary, which interacts in a unified execution environment (trading, saving, using other instruments), and then the user withdraws out to a different chain he desires. Exchanges substantiated the need for blockchain interoperability.

Drawbacks of the CEX demonstrate a need for a more decentralized, expandable version of blockchain interoperability. For example, despite strong usage, the centralized nature of the CEX limits its utility and capabilities to trading use cases. Further, the opaque nature of the CEX can put users at risk as observed in recent events.

The latest approaches to blockchain interoperability fail to support blockchain convergence like centralized exchanges and bring new challenges including fragmentation. These solutions include standardized messaging protocols or bridges that let users transfer data and value between chains. Unlike centralized exchanges, these solutions treat blockchains as segmented systems rather than offer a place for them to mesh. With these solutions, in addition to more fragmentation of security, liquidity, and settlement, developers and users may experience higher costs, risk, and trickier user flows.

An Omnichain Blockchain

At its core, ZetaChain is a public omnichain blockchain that supports real, native cross-blockchain transactions with a complete toolkit for cross-chain messaging and general Omnichain Smart Contracts.

ZetaChain is a unified, but decentralized smart contract platform. This offers the ability to not only create exchange and transfer applications, but also apps across any vertical (social, consumer, gaming, DeFi, collectibles, and more) that converge blockchains and make crypto more accessible and cost-effective. Beyond this, users can access and use ZetaChain apps from any chain they like, establishing a new paradigm for user experience.

ZetaChain evolves interoperability from the connective threads of today to a connective tissue that serves as the base-layer of the crypto ecosystem. With the rise of more modular blockchain architectures and new ecosystems, ZetaChain provides an execution layer for all chains to converge and realize new utility for each other. It provides an entry point and hub for public good dApps that manage assets and data across many chains.

ZetaChain brings crypto back down to earth and fulfills the original promise of crypto: a truly decentralized internet that is open and accessible to all.

Unlocking Bitcoin Smart Contracts

Bitcoin was the pioneer of blockchain technology. It remains today a core pillar of the crypto ecosystem in terms of size and userbase with nearly $1 trillion in network value. However, Bitcoin is far from integrated into the rest of the ecosystem because it is not designed to have logic or interoperability with other protocols. Bitcoin users lack ways to use their Bitcoin.

ZetaChain’s programmability unlocks robust and interoperable Bitcoin Smart Contracts. Developers can easily build and deploy contracts that control native Bitcoin, and also have Bitcoin interact with desired tokens and data from other chains. Users can directly interact with Bitcoin Smart Contracts. They never have to leave their Bitcoin wallet.

The entire ecosystem can build and use native Bitcoin trading, social, identity, collateralization, restaking applications, and more, that bring the rest of crypto to Bitcoin and vice versa. While wrapped bridges and centralized exchanges allow some interfacing with Bitcoin, the opportunity to build in this space was largely not possible until now.

ZetaChain 1.0 and Beyond

TL;DR ZetaChain 1.0 Mainnet comes with the introduction of core roadmap, key dApp verticals, and ZetaHub, a comprehensive entry point product for all users to interface with the blockchain and ecosystem.

Core Development Roadmap

After ZetaChain 1.0 Mainnet and beyond, the entire ecosystem of contributors and network participants will steer new protocol features and upgrades through governance. In the meantime, the ZetaDocs, the repository for official ZetaChain documentation, is now updated with a roadmap for potential pillars of development ranging from new chain connections and novel ways to interact with Bitcoin to the maintenance of open source libraries around zEVM and ZetaChain’s TSS. These will be used as a guiding light for improvements of ZetaChain and the ecosystem.

You can read more about the core development roadmap and initiatives in the docs here.

Omnichain dApp Focuses

ZetaChain’s mission includes expanding the possibilities of accessible, valuable, and useful crypto applications across all blockchains. These are key areas where Omnichain Smart Contracts create significant, new opportunities for the ecosystem and the creation of decentralized public good products.

Omnichain DeFi Primitives

Key omnichain DeFi primitives underpin the crypto ecosystem. Applications such as omnichain DEX (AMM, Perp, PMM, Orderbook, Etc.), lending, CDP, stablecoins, liquid staking, and others allow for a seamless and unified omnichain liquidity hub. These primitives can integrate with Bitcoin directly, and overall, they provide a simple and affordable experience for end-users made possible by the ZRC-20 standard built into ZetaChain. Existing EVM dApps such as Curve or Aave can be deployed into ZetaChain and become omnichain and future-proof with ZRC-20 compatibility without needing to modify their core contracts.

Bitcoin Collateralization and DeFi Integration

Despite recent upticks in activity, Bitcoin is still a heavily dormant asset. With ZetaChain Bitcoin apps, developers have a huge opportunity to bring Bitcoin into DeFi in a native, decentralized way, including new yield and value creation opportunities for Bitcoin liquidity. Bitcoin apps on ZetaChain can be called from Bitcoin and settle into native Bitcoin.

Native Token Staking, Restaking, and Data Availability

Native staking and restaking protocols can power new systems through ZetaChain’s ZRC-20 standard, which has native access to fungible assets. For example, a new data availability (DA) layer could integrate into ZetaChain, offering Bitcoin staking through an Omnichain Smart Contract component where rewards and slashing are settled directly out to Bitcoin. This framework can extend to any novel protocol that aims to secure its system via external native asset staking. ZetaChain brings new flavors of staking and protocol yield, and security with its inclusion of native assets.

Super Aggregators

With the introduction of general external contract calls into Omnichain Smart Contracts, dApps on ZetaChain can orchestrate assets and data into various dApps on connected chains. This means developers can build apps that aggregate and leverage existing protocols and liquidity on external chains from a single place. For users and institutions, super aggregators bring robust and decentralized yield aggregation, savings accounts, and portfolio management where one can optimize across opportunities on all chains into the future. This can also expand beyond pure DeFi, to opportunities like Bitcoin Ordinals cross-chain marketplaces, universal liquidity pools, and so on. While aggregators today let you access various liquidity and apps on different chains, with ZetaChain apps can truly orchestrate them in a single place, unlocking more seamless and efficient utilities.

Social, Gaming, and Identity

ZetaChain provides a single layer that has exposure to and accessibility from any chain, facilitating the creation of chain-agnostic user-focused apps across social, gaming, and identity. Users could pay for on-chain game assets using Bitcoin, maintain their identity or domain to manage all assets across connected chains, or interact with friends on-chain without needing to hop around networks. With these potential new levels of UX and simplicity, more dApps can focus on bringing more utility and fun to more people.

ZETA Utility

The first ZETA Utility pages for ZetaChain 1.0 are live in the ZetaDocs. At a high level, ZETA is used for securing the Proof of Stake network, zEVM transaction fees, cross-chain transaction gas fees, and governance. ZETA itself is an omnichain token that can be transferred across connected chains and to ZetaChain. ZETA is designed to support a sustainable and long-term future to underpin the connective tissue of ZetaChain’s network.

You can read more about how ZETA works and functions across the protocol in the ZetaDocs here. More details will be added to the ZETA Utility docs over time.

ZetaHub

ZetaHub is a foundational product that supports ZetaChain’s goal to easily onboard users into the crypto ecosystem. ZetaHub provides users with a comprehensive toolkit and space to explore and interface with the core blockchain, including features such as governance, pools, and sending ZETA. ZetaHub is an entry point into 1.0 and beyond.

ZetaHub will also serve as a place to explore the entire app ecosystem and an interface to track meaningful usage of the network and apps. At a high level, users will be able to perform and track mainnet activities through a new indexing primitive called XP. This goes beyond just points.

Over time, the XP program will evolve into an underlying, generalized on-chain loyalty program that other dApps can leverage in order to understand their user communities and better align perks and rewards.

The ZetaHub team is extremely excited to usher in a sustainable and meaningful way to help the ecosystem understand and reward on-chain activity. With accessibility from and to all connected chains, this new primitive can grow to support the broader crypto ecosystem.

ZetaHub and the XP program will launch in-full with ZetaChain 1.0 Mainnet along with more information and tutorials about how to get involved! Stay tuned for more release details on Twitter and in the ZetaChain Discord.

The ZetaChain Ecosystem

TL;DR ZetaChain has a thriving IRL and online community including 1.8M community members, 200+ partnerships, dozens of live events, and an active grants program, which will all continue to ramp up into 1.0 and beyond.

The launch of ZetaChain 1.0 will bring together and build on a robust ecosystem. In addition tot the brief overview in this section, you can learn more about the state of ecosystem in ZetaChain Wrapped 2023 here.

State of Ecosystem

205 publicly announced partnerships across infrastructure and dApps. We recently shared a map of infrastructure service providers preparing to launch with ZetaChain 1.0 including Validators, RPC, API, Oracles, Wallet-as-a-Service, Subgraphs, Explorers, Wallets, and more.
46,000 dApp contracts deployed on testnet, as seen on ZetaScan Explorer, across DeFi, Gaming, Identity, Social, DAO tooling, cross-chain NFTs, and more.
$5M Grant Program for public goods and omnichain dApp builders that leverage ZetaChain’s cross-chain functionality. The ZetaChain community may substantially expand this program into 1.0.
Developer activities including sponsorship at all major industry hackathons, partnerships with organizations like StackUp to support dev education, and white-glove advisory support in our Discord Dev Zone including programs such as Dev Office Hours.

State of Community

1,800,000+ community members, representing over 100+ countries, including all major crypto markets with over 900,000 Twitter followers.
780,000 monthly active users across ZetaChain ecosystem dApps, collectively generating over 14M cross-chain transactions and 150M (Cosmos) transactions on the ZetaChain testnet, observable on the ZetaScan Explorer.
4.8M ZETA committed across a number of flagship wallet testing campaigns including OKX Cryptopedia, Bitget Wallet, TokenPocket, and others in development to support community member education and ecosystem app 1.0 preparation.
~10X increase in ZETA commitment for such programs leading up to and through 1.0.
200+ active contributors including, for example, 16 Ambassadors who localize all content and announcements across every ZetaChain channel in many languages e.g. the whitepaper and ZetaChain Blog. Our AMA and Events bounty program supports a cadence of community-led meetups on and offline, for example, this event in India, Africa, Turkey, South America, and Philippines.

State of Events

30+ official events around the world in 2023, sponsoring every major web3 event. For example, in our last monthly recap, we cover the keynotes, hackathons, panels, and meetups ZetaChain participated in from Turkey Blockchain week to The India and Taipei Blockchain Week recap and more.
In-person official ZetaChain-hosted event series worldwide including our Unlock the Chains roadshow in San Francisco, followed by NYC, and a roster of new cities coming on our Q1 2024 schedule including our Mainnet Countdown gathering in Korea.
Online official ZetaChain events including the launch of ZetaTalks, official ecosystem roundup panels across Asia, Korea, Vietnam, and more coming soon. Currently, we are planning our biggest event ever early this year: Omnichain Summit.

What’s Next

In preparation for ZetaChain 1.0 launch, we will release more documentation and details about online and offline spaces to interact with the ZetaChain contributor community. Also, we will soon share an important ecosystem update on how to contribute to ZetaChain 1.0 after our recent update about ZETA Points in ZetaLabs testnet.

Check out upcoming events here and stay tuned on Twitter for the latest on the Omnichain Summit and beyond.

About ZetaChain

ZetaChain is a simple, fast, and secure Omnichain Blockchain. A pioneer implementing the concept of chain abstraction, ZetaChain serves as the base-layer of the decentralized internet. With ZetaChain’s Omnichain Smart Contracts, developers can build truly interoperable dApps that span multiple chains from any existing blockchain from Ethereum to Bitcoin and beyond. Access all of crypto from any chain, including new blockchain innovations into the future. ZetaChain’s mission is to build a platform for global access, simplicity, and utility across any blockchain.

Follow ZetaChain on Twitter @zetablockchain and join the conversation on Discord and Telegram. Reach out to partnerships@zetachain.com if you’re building on top of ZetaChain.

Any projects mentioned are 3rd party, not ZetaChain.