ETZ cryptocurrency: review of EtherZero technology, wallets, prospects (2019)

Nadezhda Zakharova 09/13/2018

The emergence of new cryptocurrencies does not always happen by creating a new ecosystem. Often, already operating networks are separated using a hard fork due to various reasons.

Sometimes this happens due to hacking of the main cryptosystem (Ethereum and Ethereum_Classic), in other cases, to ensure scalability and future of the new coin (BTC and its derivatives), the team’s desire to make money may also be the reason.

In this material, we will look at the first hard fork of Ethereum – the EtherZero (ETZ) cryptocurrency.

What is ETZ?

In fact , it is a “daughter” separated from the parent network, focused on conducting smart contracts and having a higher throughput.

The split took place on ETH block 4936270 and all holders of the Ethereum cryptocurrency received an equal number of new coins in their wallets.

Users can use the new platform to build more powerful decentralized Dapps.

Technology/Algorithm

Both of these properties are inherited from the mother network. The PoW network protection protocol has been supplemented with masternodes that have proven themselves in the Dash network.

On the EtherZero network, they act as supervisory nodes and confirm transactions.

The use of a two-tier architecture made the new network more productive.

It is capable of processing hundreds of thousands of transactions per second, which delivers all shipments instantly, and also provides fast and reliable operation to all decentralized applications created within the ecosystem.

Features of cryptocurrency

ETZ cryptocurrency

According to the developers, Ether Zero (ETZ) is a new platform for implementing smart contracts. They abolished the system for collecting transfer fees and set it to zero. And they said that only zero transaction fees could satisfy network users. Using a Masternode from the Dash cryptocurrency will be able to stabilize and increase the value of ETZ cryptocurrency tokens.

The algorithm of this crypt uses two network levels at once:

Master Node is responsible for verifying transactions.
PoW node is responsible for block packaging and synchronization in the chain.

These two algorithms will ensure instant payment for smart contracts (confirmation will take up to one minute). The network can also support tens of thousands of transactions per second.

Peculiarities

There are quite a lot of them in comparison with both the parent network and other ecosystems focused on smart contracts.

Let's look at them in more detail:

Generating a block in ETZ takes 10 seconds versus 15 for ETH;
EtherZero uses a dynamic complication algorithm;
The new network does not have an intra-system fee (GAS). According to the developers, only absolute freedom of intra-system transfers will allow the popularity of Dapps to reach a level sufficient for popularization;
The “Transaction Policy Restrictions” protocol has been introduced, which is protection against DDos attacks;
Transactions over the network are instantaneous;
MasterNode support.

As you can see, the new EtherZero network is aimed specifically at mass smart contracts and development, as well as supporting the activities of decentralized applications of various types.

home

When it comes to an Ethereum (ETH) hard fork, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is usually what comes to mind first. EtherZero (ETZ), the network that emerged from the latest Ethereum hard fork, is a very interesting project, although it is not as well known as ETC. The project initially attracted a lot of attention. However, this also caused controversy because the developers had a large amount of ETZ in their hands. However, the EtherZero developers have continued to evolve over time and have managed to achieve regular developments. EtherZero, which was forked from the Ethereum mainnet in January 2022, has continued its development on its own network. Despite criticism and some doubts, the pace of development gradually increased. A lot of work has been done so far. Moreover, during this process, ETZ was listed on some exchanges and the ETZ community grew.

EtherZero Founder Gary Luo

, also known as BeFree.
It was Luo
who came up with the idea for EtherZero and assembled the team.
Luo
has many initiatives.
According to the EtherZero website, Luo
has made a number of ventures and become wealthy since dropping out of college.
On the other hand, EtherZero developers are scattered all over the world. The project has developers from Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Germany and Cameroon. The vast majority of EtherZero developers are based in South Korea. The origin of EtherZero was the same as Ethereum: to provide a better experience for developers and users of decentralized applications by creating a next-generation smart contract platform.
The ETZ website is briefly described as such and states that they are working with a professional team along the way. The developers of EtherZero state that EtherZero differs from Ethereum in several ways. The team reduced the block creation time to 1-2 seconds and reduced transaction fees. As a result, they added a feature called “instant payment” to the EtherZero network. With instant payment, there are no gas fees or wait times. Thus, EtherZero has taken an important step towards being used as a payment system. When it comes to scaling, EtherZero's developers are quite ambitious: they claim that the network can process 10,000 transactions per second. It is believed that this potential is being discovered online, although in practice these numbers have not yet been achieved.

Compared to Ethereum, EtherZero takes a different approach to smart contract development. This different approach includes zero transaction fees and no mining. EtherZero takes its features from the way the two-tier network and masternodes work.

To complete the development and move the blockchain forward, the EtherZero developers created a new consensus mechanism. This mechanism is called Masternode Proof of Stake (MPoS). EtherZero developers are confident that MpoS will provide decentralized applications and improve the experience for their users.

EtherZero is currently at version 2.0, which includes MpoS and several improvements. In this version, security measures have been strengthened compared to the first version, and the network has become more secure. We can list some features of MpoS as follows:

— To become a Masternode in the ETZ network, you must have 20,000 ETZ. — Every 10 minutes, 21 new nodes are randomly selected and take over the generation of the block. “In the same process, another 21 randomly selected nodes form a selection committee. These committee members avoid duplicating blocks. Compared to other PoS options, this system prevents decentralization of the network and closes major gaps in other PoS consensuses. In addition, it produces better results in terms of scaling than PoW miners.

According to EtherZero developers, EtherZero precedes EOS because there are no huge requirements to become a masternode. This is one of the main factors enhancing decentralization.

ETZ tokens

were distributed among users holding Ethereum in a 1:1 ratio. However, the supply of ETZ is twice the supply of ETH.
The ETZ FAQ page describes the ETZ supply as follows: The initial supply of ETZ is set at 194 million units.
ETZ is distributed to all ETH holders. As a result, 97 million ETZ were distributed. The remaining tokens are reserved for development and other operations. When the ETZ token was first created, it was seen as an attempt to raise money. At least he got a lot of criticism. The fact that half of the printed tokens are in the hands of the development team created a question mark in the minds. When the ETZ price was first published, the price rose sharply between $0.4 and $0.2. The ETZ price, which has remained stagnant since October 2022, also hit a low in volume. EtherZero, while attempting to offer technical innovation, was unable to retain investor interest. Again, it should be noted that no marketing has been done on behalf of the project, and if more partnerships and marketing are developed with it in the future, things could change for ETZ.

It's hard to say how far the EtherZero developers have come. But we can use the development of public codes as a relative guide. Looking at GitHub, EtherZero seems to be quite active. In fact, it's gaining attention because it was the third most active project last year.

While the developers continue to develop the Masternode PoS system, work on creating the main network continues. The team is also expected to release web wallets in the future.

To attract more participants and developers to the EtherZero network, the Star Dapp program is in place. In this program, app developers are rewarded according to the product they produce online. Thus, it aims to strengthen the influence of the community. Considering the number of decentralized applications on the network, this initiative is quite significant. This may even be the most important question that will determine the future of ETZ.

On the positive side, EtherZero developers regularly post improvements on social media. Support for the project has been quite strong in the past, we'll see if it can go back to those days.

How and where to buy ETZ cryptocurrency

Due to the fact that the coin is a fork and was awarded to Ethereum holders, there was no classic ICO with a presale and other opportunities to buy tokens that had not entered the market.

You can purchase Etherzero on crypto exchanges that have listed the new asset.

More than 10 sites were posted on the official website of the EtherZero cryptocurrency where placement was planned.

After the fork, the page was edited and only crypto exchanges where the cryptocurrency was already circulating were left.

According to the developers, ETZ has great potential and will soon take its rightful place on key trading platforms.

Exchanges trading EtherZero

The trading opportunity opened immediately after the hard fork on January 20, 2022, and the rate immediately dropped significantly due to the fact that many holders dumped their funds.

The starting price was about $149, the price at the time of writing barely reaches $42.

The peak price of ETZ was $400, but immediately dropped by more than three times.

At the time of writing, the list of sites where the ETZ cryptocurrency is circulated looked like this. The main pair is ETZ/ETH.

Cryptopia. Trading is carried out with a pair of BTC. Recently, the trading volume exceeds 100 BTC per day. This indicator speaks in favor of the developers’ assurances;

DigiFinex. The platform is aimed at Asian markets and is therefore not translated into English. Here trading is paired with ETH. The story with the exchange rate is identical, a sharp drawdown after the start of trading;

7ebit. More trading pairs are offered here. ETZ is traded against EBT, BTC and ETH;

HQEX.io. Eterzero is traded in pairs with ETH;

Exrates. ETZ is traded here in pairs with BTC, ETH and USD. Due to the low popularity of the site, volumes are very small, therefore there is practically no volatility for the crypto coin.
Coin918 – just opened the ETZ/USD pair – trading has not started.

Exchangers for withdrawal

Trading circulation of the ETZ cryptocurrency has only recently begun, and its prospects are not fully understood.

Owners of exchange platforms are in no hurry to introduce the asset into the rack of available instruments, allowing it to gain critical mass.

ETZ cryptocurrency, prospects and features

ETZ cryptocurrency Ether Zero was created as a result of a hard fork of the Ethereum cryptocurrency on January 20, 2018. The Ether Zero cryptocurrency was credited to the wallets of Ethereum token holders in an amount equal to the coins of Ethereum holders. 116 million electronic coins have been issued, but there is no way to withdraw coins from exchanges.

Ether Zero (ETZ) cryptocurrency rate

ETZ cryptocurrency rate

At the end of January 2022, the cost of the ETZ cryptocurrency fluctuates around $70 for one Ether Zero coin. The cryptocurrency reached its maximum value on January 22, 2022, costing about $140.

Capitalization of the ETZ cryptocurrency

The planned total number of issued coins after the issue will reach a threshold of 194 million pieces. Ether Zero may be able to reach a value of $100, but as of late January 2018, there is no guarantee that the coin will survive another year or two.

Wallets

ETZ was strange in this regard. Being a fork of the Ethereum ecosystem, it is not supported by key online wallets, such as MyEtherWallet.

At the same time, all hardware wallets and their online versions support crypto coins.

The developers offered official wallets for key platforms.

Let's look at installing and activating the ETZ wallet.

At the first glance at the official wallet, a slight deja vu arises, since it is exactly like MyEtherWallet.

Perhaps this is the reason why MEW abandoned support for ERC-20 coins.

The registration algorithm is also 100% identical.

The first step is to come up with a complex password.

In the second step , you should download and save the key file on external media, which will be required to restore access to the wallet.

In the third step, we copy and write out the code on external media that provides access to the wallet in normal mode.

Next, go to the authorization page and select the login method to your wallet.

Authorization occurs in the same window.

The interface and all elements completely copy the MEW platform.

Its refusal to support the new coin may be due to the fact that the fork circulating on the Ethereum network is also an ecosystem within which it is planned to host new systems and applications.

Perhaps such a clutter of mother and internal systems does not allow MEW to support the EtherZero cryptocurrency.

Depositing and sending are no different from any MEW-supported token, except that they are instantaneous and do not require any fees.

Conclusion

The ETZ cryptocurrency Ether Zero appeared quite recently and talking about its ups and downs is not entirely correct; it still has a long way to go to stabilize and enter the market. It also cannot be said that it burst onto the exchanges, since it was accrued on a 1:1 basis to holders of Ethereum tokens. Will it be productive in 2022? It’s unlikely, since everything is still being built, including your wallet. There is a possibility that it will behave like a hard fork of Bitcoin, but these are just guesses of imaginary experts and you should not mindlessly run to mine or wait until it appears on the exchange for purchase.

Mining EtherZero

The algorithm on which the ETHASH crypto network operates supports GPU mining, that is, with the same farms on video cards as the main currency.

The low difficulty of mining due to the absence of a premine stage allowed many quickly oriented miners to mine a sufficient number of coins by switching farms to ETZ.

At the peak price of $400 per coin, the profitability was more than $300 per knock from a rig with 6 modern cards.

The miner programs that are the most profitable at the time of writing are called by users:

ETHMiner;
Claymore Miner;
CGMiner.

There are no special settings for reorienting the software for mining the ETH fork.

One can draw a conclusion from user communication. That the only parameter that can be adjusted is Intensity.

The finished code for the Claimore miner looks like this.

ETZ Mining Pools

Despite the youth of the EtherZero cryptocurrency and its controversial reputation in crypto circles, its production is offered by a large number of pools. All active sites are displayed on the official website.

The choice of a specific site is left to the discretion of the miners.

ETZ cryptocurrency, buy

There are two ways to purchase the Ether Zero cryptocurrency: the first is purchased on a specialized exchange, the second is cryptocurrency mining.

Mining cryptocurrency ETZ

After the Ethereum hard fork, the opportunity to mine a new cryptocurrency opened up. Mining pools are presented on the official cryptocurrency website - etherzero.org. Before you start mining, you should create a wallet for electronic coins.

ETZ Cryptocurrency Wallet

To create a wallet, you need to go to the official website of the developers - wallet.etherzero.org.

We go to the developers website.
Click on the “Generate a Keystore File” icon
Enter your Ethereum wallet address and click “Create”.

ETZ cryptocurrency wallet

Done, now you have your own e-wallet.

Advantages and disadvantages

PROS:

Coins received for free by all ETH holders;
The system is promising and the coin has every chance to increase in price;
The mining difficulty is very low compared to other coins of the same price level;
The system has no commission for internal transfers;
All transactions are instant;
The network can scale many times over.

CONS:

The coin's reputation is ambiguous. Quite a few users consider the fork to be a fraudulent move and cite as an argument the obviously unfinished White Paper, in which the essence of the cryptosystem and its immediate prospects are described quite well. But there are no specifics about how the planned implementation will take place, with what forces and in what time frame. By the way, the temporary delisting of ETZ from YoBit is associated with the fact that the administration of the crypto exchange did not receive enough information about the future of the coin and the team’s plan for its development. But at the moment, ETZ is successfully trading there, despite the fact that this information is not indicated on the official EtherZero website.
EtherZero is not yet listed on CoinMarketcap. Are there any problems with listing a new fork or is it simply not the time yet? It’s more likely the latter than the former.
20,000,000 tokens to the team. The total issue is almost 120 million ETZ. Of these, 96,000,000 were distributed to ETH holders, and the rest are planned for mining at 6 coins per hour in the coming years. All users consider allocating 1/6 of the issue to themselves as a reward to be overkill. But it’s not a sin to remember Ripple and Stellar, where the creators had more than half of the tokens in their hands.
Mining fee. Another point that forces miners to rely on ETZ as a long-term investment object is the 10% mining commission in favor of developers. The allocated millions of tokens were not enough for them.
It is not clear how the network will be supported after all the coins have been mined. In other cryptosystems, transfer fees are used to reward miners.