On December 12, 2024, $ZEN will undergo its last halving before a major transition in the project’s tokenomics. This milestone marks a pivotal moment in Horizen's evolution and sets the stage for an exciting new phase in 2025.

This is Horizen's second halving! It is a celebration of 8 years since the genesis of the $ZEN blockchain, this is eight years of community growth, continuous improvement, ups, and downs of the price in the market, and working together.

After this halving, there will be no more sudden cuts to emission rates. Instead, the Horizen ecosystem will adopt a smoothly declining emission rate, which promises to offer greater sustainability, predictability, and steady growth for $ZEN holders and participants.

Looking at the cohort of projects from 2016, ZEN stands out for many reasons. The team has adapted and grown the technology, adding sidechain capability in 2022, an EVM sidechain in 2023, and in 2024 doing the difficult work to prepare for the major technical upgrade in 2025 that brings Horizen right into the middle of the current narratives and capabilities.

This isn’t just another halving—it’s the beginning of a new era for Horizen. Let’s take a deeper look at what this means for the $ZEN token, the Horizen ecosystem, and the security of the network.

The adoption of a smoothly declining emission rate as part of Horizen’s new tokenomics will have significant benefits for the project’s long-term success:

• Increased Token Stability

• More Ecosystem Growth

• Enhanced Network Security

But what does that mean?

In the past, Bitcoin’s model (and by extension, Horizen’s model) has seen a halving every four years. Each halving reduces the number of new tokens created, which in turn can create sudden market shocks as the rewards for miners and stakers are slashed. This can lead to increased volatility and decreased market confidence.

With the new smooth emission curve, the gradual decline in $ZEN emissions will reduce market speculation and help stabilize the token’s value over time. By eliminating the abrupt drops in rewards, we can foster more predictability and long-term stability for $ZEN, which is essential for investors, stakers, and the broader ecosystem.

One of the key issues with the traditional halving model is that it introduces uncertainty, making it difficult for stakers and miners to plan long-term. Abrupt changes in reward rates can discourage participation in the network, reducing overall security and slowing down ecosystem growth.

The new model ensures consistent and predictable rewards for stakers, encouraging long-term participation. This stability will make it easier for the Horizen network to grow and scale efficiently, without worrying about the disruptions caused by halving events. This is especially important as Horizen looks to attract new developers, users, and stakeholders to its ecosystem.

The security of any blockchain network is heavily reliant on the participation of miners and stakers. As the emission rate drops drastically after each halving, miners’ profitability decreases, leading some to exit the network. This can jeopardize the network’s security and decentralization.

The new emission model solves this problem by ensuring competitive rewards for Collators and Delegators, thus incentivizing continued network participation. A more sustainable and predictable emission rate means long-term security for Horizen, which in turn enhances the overall health and decentralization of the network.

Because Horizen follows the same Proof of Work (PoW) mining model used by Bitcoin, the halving events in the past have mirrored Bitcoin’s schedule, cutting the emission of new $ZEN in half approximately every four years. However, as we approach the last halving on December 12, 2024, it marks the end of this traditional model.

So, what comes next?

The Horizen DAO has proposed and successfully voted on a major upgrade to the network’s tokenomics. The changes, which will be implemented in H1 2025, will bring about a shift from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).

The new PoS model will be based on the Substrate blockchain framework, the same framework used by Polkadot. This switch to PoS is critical for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project, as it reduces the energy consumption and hardware requirements associated with PoW while still maintaining a decentralized and secure network.

The upcoming upgrade includes several major changes:

Smooth Emission Curve:After the final halving, $ZEN will transition to a smoothly declining emission curve, marking the end of abrupt halving events. This ensures stable and predictable token issuance in the future.

EVM Compatibility with ZK-Proof Verification:Horizen will become a Proof of Stake EVM-compatible chain with Zero Knowledge (ZK) Proof extensions. These same ZK extensions are being developed for zkVerify, enabling fast, inexpensive proof creation and verification for a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps). This is a huge win for developers and users alike, as ZK-proof technology provides granular privacy and regulatory-compliant applications for all jurisdictions.

For a blockchain to grow, adoption is key. To encourage the development of dApps and attract users, Horizen will be funded in a way that allows the project to invest in its future.

On the day of the upgrade, the Horizen DAO will be funded with $ZEN to support the growth of the ecosystem. These funds will be allocated to a variety of initiatives, including:

• Grants for developers to create new and innovative applications on the Horizen platform.

• Marketing efforts to raise awareness about Horizen’s new features and capabilities.

• Operational expenses to maintain and upgrade the network, ensuring its long-term stability and security.

This funding will not only support the network's security but also drive the development of exciting new dApps, making Horizen a more attractive platform for developers, users, and businesses alike.

The ZEN halving event occurs at block 1680000 on December 12th. Block rewards will be 50% of current rewards from that block forward.

• Current block reward: 6.25

• Block reward after halving: 3.125

10% of the block reward is allocated to Super Nodes.

• Current Super Node block reward: 0.625

• Super Node Block reward after halving: 0.3125

There will be two partial earning periods.

1. The first period will be the day up until and including block 1680000

2. The second with the new reward will be from block 1680001 until the usual earning period end - approximately 1-2AM UTC

Subsequent earning periods return to the usual schedule.

December 12, 2024, will mark the last halving in Horizen's history—an event that signals the beginning of a new chapter for the project. With smoother emissions, more stable tokenomics, and exciting upgrades on the horizon, now is the perfect time to get involved in the $ZEN ecosystem.

The future of Horizen is bright, and we’re excited to see where this new era will take us. Stay tuned for more updates and be part of this historic moment!

Let’s make this final halving a milestone to remember! 🚀