Imagine a blockchain that’s not just secure and scalable but quick, aiming to overcome the infamous blockchain trilemma.
Aleph Zero does exactly that and in this video we are going to find out how!
Aleph Zero, also known by the market ticker AZERO, is a layer-1 blockchain based on a novel, peer-reviewed consensus protocol known as AlephBFT.
Having spent years on its fundamentals, Aleph Zero aims to become one of the most versatile and flexible blockchains on the market.
It aims to offer quick, reliable, scalable infrastructure for both developers and users to enjoy.
But what does that all mean? And why Aleph Zero is a unique project? Today we find out!
What is Aleph Zero?
Founded by Adam, Matthew, Michał, and Antoni back in 2018 with the blockchain itself going live in 2022. Aleph Zero aims to be a well-balanced, peer-reviewed, secure, and scalable public network.
Aleph Zero is a layer 1 Proof-of-Stake blockchain that utilises Directed Acyclic Graph, or DAG, architecture as part of its consensus protocol.
However, unlike other DAGs which are not blockchains, Aleph Zero is still a blockchain as it only uses this DAG as an intermediary data structure to help achieve the fastest possible transaction times for its network.
At its core, Aleph Zero is designed to help overcome the blockchain trilemma, which states that between security, decentralisation, and scalability, a blockchain can only have two of the three.
For example, Ethereum can only handle double-digit transactions per second, and Bitcoin’s transaction times are still timed in minutes, neither of which is fast enough to handle mass adoption on a global scale.
However, Aleph Zero does things a bit differently.
Due to the DAG in their consensus mechanism, their transaction finalisation times are almost instant.
But that leads us to the question, how does this all work?
How Does Aleph Zero Work?
In short, mostly like a blockchain.
Without getting too technical, the DAG-based consensus mechanism only needs to look up the transaction previous to it, rather than the entire ledger to confirm itself.
This is because of how DAG data is structured, to retrieve information the network only needs to follow the logical steps to get the information it requires. Anything outside of this required data is essentially ignored which cuts down on computation resources and time.
To make it simpler, imagine a city where information is distributed through interconnected roads. Traditional blockchains are like a single, congested highway where every vehicle or transaction needs to travel the same route, causing delays and traffic jams.
Now, picture Aleph Zero as a network of smart, interconnected pathways. When a new vehicle or transaction enters the city, it only needs to follow the logical steps along the roads to reach its destination, which is the confirmation point. It doesn’t have to navigate the entire city, saving time and resources.
On top of this, Aleph Zero runs a rotating collection of 128 randomly selected nodes to act as its transaction validators.
This massively decreases transaction finalisation times as it does not need to wait for thousands of nodes to all agree with each other.
The validators change over time, with the validator nodes selected semi-randomly based on how much they have staked, meaning deposited as collateral to the network.
A consensus of 67% is required before a transaction is added to the blockchain.
Through its AlephBFT consensus mechanism, the Aleph Zero network can still maintain accuracy even when faced with 33% of nodes acting dishonestly.
In addition to validators, delegators can stake to potential validator nodes in exchange for a percentage of the reward if chosen to validate a transaction, with the reward being proportional to how much they have deposited.
As is typical for Proof-of-Stake blockchains, it is far less energy-intensive to run compared with Proof-of-Work blockchains, such as those used by Bitcoin, and others.
Tokens on the Aleph Zero network use the PSP22 token standard, which is similar to the ERC 20 tokens on Ethereum.
To briefly summarise, PSP22 are a token standardisation blueprint which ensures compatibility with the Aleph Zero network, and with other applications on the platform.
What makes Aleph Zero unique?
Other than utilising a DAG as part of its consensus mechanism, Aleph Zero Shielder is probably the next most unique feature of the blockchain.
Aleph Zero Shielder is a smart contract that uses zk-SNARKS to enable private payments while using DeFi applications on their network.
By default, blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are publicly viewable ledgers. As you can imagine, not everyone would want all of their finances to be publicly viewable and this is what Shielder looks to prevent.
But, to make sure we’re all on the same page, Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge, or zk-SNARKs, are cryptographic proofs that allow one party to prove possession of certain information, such as a secret key, without revealing the information itself, enabling privacy-preserving transactions and computations on blockchains.
But what about the tokenomics?
AZERO Tokenomics
Just like everything else, Aleph Zero does their tokenomics a bit differently too.
The total supply is technically infinite, though they do not rule out a burn mechanism being implemented in the future, should the community decide it.
160 million AZERO tokens made the Initial Circulating Supply, with 30 million being issued annually since.
As is typical for Proof-of-Stake projects, AZERO can be used for all the classics like paying network transactions, staking, or governance.
Of the initial supply, 23% was allocated to the Aleph Zero Foundation which maintains the platform, and a further 10% went to the team behind the project.
A further 16% was sold during both the pre-seed and seeding rounds of funding and a further 5% to early community members.
A public pre-sale took 18% before the remaining amount was sold during the public sale in 2021.
A majority of these allocations were vested and released slowly over time to avoid any devaluation of the AZERO token.
Aleph Zero does things differently. It has looked at the crypto landscape and has made a conscious effort to fix some of the issues that haunt the industry.
With a novel consensus mechanism that provides a cheaper, quicker, and more energy-efficient alternative for developers to launch their products and applications, Aleph Zero has managed to stand out as being one of the more unique recently launched blockchains.
While it may initially sound a lot like Ethereum with a higher transaction per second, when you look under the hood of Aleph Zero it becomes clear just how different this project is.
That said, nothing is guaranteed in crypto, and it will require expert management from the top to ensure Aleph Zero not only survives but also thrives long into the future.