ZetaChain is the foundational, public blockchain that enables omnichain, generic smart contracts and messaging between any blockchain. It solves the problems of “cross-chain” and “multi-chain” and aims to open the crypto and global financial ecosystem to anyone.
One fundamental challenge for decentralized application (dApp) development is the fact that individual blockchains are not interoperable by design. If you want to release an application that spans blockchains or leverages features that are only available on another blockchain, the standard workaround has been to wrap tokens and leverage a bridge-like wormhole to pass the value of those tokens between the two distinct blockchains. Depending on the relative market cap of the two blockchains and the number of wrapped tokens involved, these bridges have created desirable attack vectors for bad actors looking to exploit security shortcomings, which I covered in more detail in a previous article.
In a recently released whitepaper, ZetaChain is proposing a different approach to the challenges of blockchain interoperability, through the creation of a public L1 (layer one) blockchain that is specifically designed to agnostically connect blockchains. It does this in order to facilitate interoperability, coupled with a generic smart contract for this L1 blockchain that can hold and manipulate assets on external blockchains.
When it comes to engaging with multiple blockchains, one common approach to dApp development is to build an app for each chain. This has the potential to become fairly impractical to maintain, particularly as the number of heavily used blockchains continues to grow. ZetaChain proposes that app developers can create a single “omnichain” app that interfaces with all other blockchains via ZetaChain. The diagram below, from the whitepaper, provides an example of what this might look like.
Theoretically, ZetaChain addresses one of the core issues that plagues bridging, by eliminating stored value being tied up in wrapped currency that can fall victim to infinite minting scams, like the $300 million Wormhole exploit that managed to draw attention even in the mainstream financial press like CNBC. There is no wrapped currency waiting to be stolen in the ZetaChain approach.
They also seem to have thought through the risk of 51% attacks (explained in more detail in the shared security article linked above) and have a smart contract in place that controls ZetaChain supply.
What’s less clear is how ZetaChain is going to build trust in its model of acting as an intermediary. In their model, you need to trust the blockchain you built your dApp on, the blockchain you’re connecting to, and ZetaChain as the layer in the middle that’s making it possible.
ZetaChain has confirmed to launch an own token called “ZETA” and may also do an airdrop. Early users who’ve done testnet actions on the platform may get an airdrop when they launch their token.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Visit the ZetaChain testnet page.
Verify your Twitter account.
Connect your Metamask wallet and change the network to Goerli.
Now request some test ZETA.
You will also need to have test assets on each chain to pay for the gas fees.
Join their Discord channel to get the links to the faucets page for each chain.
Now go to the “Swap” section and make swaps from one testnet chain to another.
You will get ZETA points for trying out the testnet.
Also earn more points for each referral.
Also try to collect their NFTs from Galxe and complete their Guild tasks.
They’ve confirmed to launch an own token called “ZETA” and early users who’ve done testnet actions may get an airdrop once they launch their token.
Please note that there is no guarantee that they will do an airdrop. It’s only speculation