New York, New York, March 1st, 2024, Chainwire
Horizen is forging a new path for the future of blockchain with its New Horizen initiative, which is building a modular Proof Verification layer that’s dedicated to verifying cryptographic proofs for any settlement layer, beginning with Ethereum.
Consequently, New Horizen will modernize Horizen’s existing technology stack and ensure it better aligns with the broader Web3 industry. It will build on the legacy of the Horizen Mainchain and its other Zero-Knowledge-powered releases while incorporating newer industry leading technologies. By doing so, it future-proofs Horizen’s Layer-0 network to unlock vastly greater value for participants in its ecosystem, taking advantage of existing needs in the Web3 space.
One of the biggest problems for modular Web3 protocols today is the issue of volatile and expensive proof verification costs for Layer-2 networks, especially those based on ZK-Rollup architectures.
Generic settlement layers in blockchain are not designed to support proof verification natively, resulting in significant tradeoffs between cost, security and speed, and exorbitant and often unpredictable fees. According to calculations by Horizen Labs based on publicly available data on block explorers, the annual spending of ZK-Rollups for proof verification was $50 million in 2023. This is expected to rise to over $1 billion by 2028, given the projected rise of ZK-Rollups.
According to L2BEAT, the ZK-Rollup sector experienced significant expansion in 2023, with 20 active projects and another 18 set to launch in 2024, marking an approximate 90% growth and underscoring the sector’s vast potential. With such growth, we anticipate almost a doubling of active ZK-Rollups and Validiums each year between 2024 and 2028. By 2028, a projected total of around 500 ZK-Rollups and Validiums is expected, along with a dramatic escalation in proof verification costs, surpassing $1 billion.
“With New Horizen, we’re not just adapting to the current landscape; we’re actively shaping the future of blockchain technology. Our goal is to make blockchain more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective for everyone. By addressing the critical challenge of proof verification costs, we’re paving the way for a more scalable, secure, and user-friendly web3 ecosystem.” – Rob Viglione, Co-Founder of Horizen & CEO of Horizen Labs.
With an optimized and modular proof verification layer that exists separately from the rest of the blockchain stack, New Horizen is perfectly positioned to solve this major proof verification cost issue. Similar to how the industry has already embraced separate execution and data availability layers, New Horizen intends to build a dual-chain blockchain architecture where proof verification is handled by an independent, dedicated blockchain that’s highly optimized for performance.
With its specialized verification layer, New Horizen has extensively researched the potential ability to reduce proof verification costs by an average of more than 90%, which would have saved ZK-Rollup users a combined $43 million in costs in 2023 alone.
A dedicated proof verification layer will provide the Web3 industry with a clear path to achieve lower and more predictable verification costs, backed by an infrastructure that’s customized to handle the demands of modern blockchains. In this way, the initiative promises to reinvent blockchain architectures as modular networks, paving the way for them to scale in a more sustainable and competitive way.
New Horizen was conceived by the experienced team at Horizen Labs, which has deep expertise in zero knowledge and a proven record of delivering ZK-powered interoperability protocols and tools along with EON, the EVM-compatible smart contract platform that’s built for scalability.
Ultimately, New Horizen will become the go-to blockchain layer for proof verification, leading to greater collaboration and adoption of EON, ZEN, and other Horizen projects.
About Horizen
Launched in 2017, Horizen is a proof verification network that makes settlement cost-effective for modular blockchain stacks. Horizen redefines the blockchain infrastructure, enabling Layer 2 platforms to scale effectively and sustainably in the competitive Web3 ecosystem.
This offering stands next to Horizen EON, an EVM-compatible smart contracting platform and the first of many smart contract sidechains in the Horizen ecosystem. Horizen EON allows developers to efficiently build and deploy decentralized applications (dapps) on Horizen while benefiting from EVM compatibility.
For more information on both products, visit https://www.horizen.io/
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