What is Zeus Network? Cross-chain infrastructure brings Bitcoin to Solana

Solana's lightning speed, Bitcoin's decentralization and ultimate security, Zeus Network will be a potential name if this combination goes well.

What is Zeus Network? Cross-chain infrastructure brings Bitcoin to Solana

Introduce

Building an expanded network or unlocking on-chain liquidity for Bitcoin is a story that has received increasing attention recently. Developers are still trying to bring DeFi flow to the currency with the largest capitalization in the cryptocurrency market.

It is still impossible to deploy smart contracts directly on the Bitcoin network, so the most popular on-chain liquidity unlocking story at the present time is to build an extension layer for Bitcoin, then develop the system. DeFi ecosystem on it. Another popular method is to bring Bitcoin into an existing ecosystem and leverage the DeFi economy on top of it.

Over the past several months, the EVM blockchain team has actively realized these ideas with many projects such as Babylon, SatoshiVM, Spiderchain, ... etc., making other ecosystems unable to sit still. Solana is the next name to jump into the fight to unlock Bitcoin liquidity. The first project with the participation of co-founder Solana, Zeus Network, was just launched in the middle of last week. In this article, we will learn details about Zeus Network.

What is Zeus Network?

Zeus Network is a cross-chain infrastructure layer built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) that helps the Solana network communicate with Bitcoin.

Zeus Network is described as being able to harness the power of both networks, the speed and flexibility of Solana and the security of Bitcoin. Through Zeus Network, assets easily and seamlessly transfer two-way between Bitcoin and Solana.

Products and Operating Models

Zeus Network's flagship product is the cross-chain infrastructure layer between Solana and other networks. The architecture of Zeus Network includes 3 main components that we will learn about below: Zeus Verifier, Zeus Node, Zeus Consensus.

Zeus Verifier

Operational model of Zeus Verifier

The first component in the architecture of Zeus Network is Verifiers - Verifiers. To become a Verifier, these people need to operate a Zeus Node and request staking of SOL or LSD-SOL (liquid staking token of SOL). Next is the process of registering to the Verifier Registry Program to begin operating the network.

Verifier staking is a key element in Zeus's operating mechanism, economic penalties will be applied to Verifiers who act maliciously.

Zeus Node

Zeus Node components

Zeus Node is a system that helps operate the Zeus network including a group of on-chain and off-chain services including registry services (transaction registration), signing services (synthesis of signatures), broadcast services (broadcasting transactions). translation), peer-to-peer services (horizontal network connecting nodes).

The separation of functional groups makes Zeus more flexible and easy to interact with many other networks including Bitcoin Layer 2, EVM Chain, MoveVM, ... and also supports many different languages such as Solidity, Move , ..etc

Zeus agreed

Operation model of Zeus Network

Zeus Network uses the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism operated by the Verifiers mentioned in the beginning. Zeus uses a network protection model similar to Optimistic Rollup with Fraud Proof.

Accordingly, transaction packages have a challenge period. If errors are detected, anyone can create evidence of fraud and conduct a challenge on the network. If the evidence of fraud is proven correct, the prover will receive a reward and the Verifiers involved in verifying the transaction package will receive an economic penalty of a reduction in the initial staking amount.

Regarding the operating mechanism, Zeus Network separates the Proposal and Verification processes. Transactions on Bitcoin and Solana are processed and sequentially stored independently by the Proposal Management Program, Verifiers then retrieve and process these transactions.

Apollo dApp

While Zeus Network is the bottom infrastructure layer that creates the foundation for connecting other blockchains to Solana and vice versa, Apollo is an application built on Zeus Network with the specific task of linking liquidity between Bitcoin and Solana. Apollo provides seamless communication between these two networks thereby promoting the flow of liquidity to both ecosystems.

zBTC is Apollo's core product, it is the representative token of BTC on the Solana network, maintains a 1:1 exchange rate with Bitcoin and operates through a 2-way peg mechanism (2WP - 2 way peg).

Apollo uses a mechanism called Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) in conjunction with a decentralized node group from Zeus Network to operate the consensus mechanism.

The zBTC supply is managed through the Lock, Mint & Burn mechanism centered on the 2WP Program. The 2WP Program is similar to Zeus Network's Proposal Management Program, it is divided into two independent units: Computation (stateless) and Storage (stateful) to process and store transactions. Economic sanctions mechanisms are also in place to protect the network.

Apollo operating model

On the user side, there are 2 liquidity provision options:

• Deposit Bitcoin into Hot Reserve and withdraw flexibly after a certain period of time, users still have control over Bitcoin.
• Deposit to Cool Reserve is controlled by Apollo and locked for a long time. In return, you will receive an incentive reward of ZEUS tokens and a share of transaction fees.

There are quite a few complex terms and models included in Zeus Network's documentation, but basically you can simply understand that Zeus Network builds an infrastructure network compatible with Solana and many machines. Other virtualization facilitates cross-chain applications. Apollo is a dApp developed on Zeus to connect liquidity between the Bitcoin network and Solana through the zBTC token.

The Zeus network is secured based on a 1-of-n model, meaning that as long as there is only 1 honest person, the network will still operate correctly. More specifically, honest people, when discovering errors, will send fraud proof to punish malicious verifiers. In addition, the separation of computation and storage helps the network operate at high speed.

Development roadmap

Zeus Network's development roadmap for the 2024 period focuses on 3 main goals: establishing the Zeus Node system, issuing and enhancing the application of Zeus tokens, and promoting BTC staking. As follows:

2024 Q2: Muses Upgrade

Zeus Layer Mainnet Beta

• Implement Singleton Mode
• Developed Zeus Explorer block explorer
• Audit

Apollo Testnet V0.3

• Open deposits and withdrawals of tBTC
• Open zBTC custodianship feature
• Integrated Bitcoin wallet
• Audit

2024 Q3: Gaia Upgrade

ZEUS Staking

• Deploy the ZEUS staking program

Zeus Layer Mainnet Beta

• Supports Schnorr and EdDSA Threshold signatures
• Deploy Zeus Node through ZEUS staking

Apollo Mainnet

• Open BTC staking
• Mở Delegate & Stake SOL cho Zeus Node

2024 Q4: Athena Upgrade

Zeus Layer Mainnet Beta

• Launched ZPL for Programmable MPC
• Deploy Fee Relayer *Zeus Explorer integration

Development team

No information.

Investors

Zeus Network has gone through 2 rounds of capital raising with a total announced amount of 8 million USD.

The latest funding round took place in April 2024, led by Mechanism Capital, other names are OKX Ventures, Animoca Brand, Big Brain Holding, Lemiscap, Spartan.

Zeus Network's latest funding round

The notable point is that in the Angel Investor round, Zeus Network was invested by two very notable names: Anatoly Yakovenko - co-founder of Solana Labs and Muneeb Ali - co-creator of Stacks. As you know, Stacks is the Bitcoin expansion network with the largest capitalization today. The combination of Muneeb Ali and Anatoly Yakovenko will bring valuable experience in a network that combines both Bitcoin and Solana.

Tokenomics

Basic information

• Token token: Zeus Network
• Ticker: ZEUS
• Max total supply: 1,000,000,000 (1B)
• Contract address: ZEUS1aR7aX8DFFJf5QjWj2ftDDdNtroMNGo8YoQm3Gq

Allocation

Allocation of ZEUS tokens

• Eco and Community Growth: 40%, unlocked linearly every month for 24 months.
• Foundation Reserve: 20%, unlocked linearly every month for 24 months.
• Team: 15%, locked for 15 months then unlocked linearly each month for 15 months.
• Early Backers: 10%, locked for 3 months then unlocked linearly every month for 15 months.
• Advisors: 5%, locked for 6 months then unlocked linearly every month for 15 months.
• Liquidity: 5%, TGE 100%.
• Launchpad: 5%, TGE 100%.

Utilities

• Staking and network security.
• Used as transaction fees on the Zeus network.
• Used for incentive programs on the Zeus network.
• Right to participate in protocol governance.

General comment

In the context of the race for expanding networks on Bitcoin, Zeus Network chooses a completely new direction. Instead of creating its own sidechains or going into battle with dozens of Bitcoin Layer 2 EVMs, the project chose Solana as its focus.

Solana is already the hottest hit keyword in 2024 with impressive growth and a series of trends stemming from this ecosystem. When combined with the rising keyword "bitcoin scaling" it will be an easy topic to attract. attract attention.

Solana's lightning speed, Bitcoin's decentralization and ultimate security, Zeus Network will be a potential name if this combination goes well. The project is expected to deploy testnet in the second quarter and mainnet in the third quarter of 2024, until then we will really have assessments of actual operation.

Epilogue

Above is all the information about Zeus Network, the cross-chain infrastructure for Solana and Bitcoin. Hope this article helps you in your research.

Note: The information in the article is not considered investment advice, Coin68 is not responsible for any of your investment decisions.

Kudō