Zenon (ZNN) Project Analysis

About

Intro

In another edition of our project reviews, we decided to have a look at Zenon, who aim to progress the evolution of existing blockchain and DAG architectures with their project.

So what is the deal with Zenon? In this review, we will dig deep into this project and give you all the answers. We took an in-depth look by examining the project, its team, tokenomics, community and technical analysis, among other metrics.

If you wish to skip to the summary to see the SWOT analysis, matrix score and rating, click here.

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Overview

Zenon was launched as a POS/MS hybrid cryptocurrency on the 20th March 2019 and proposed a new sharding based decentralised architecture called the Network of Momentum (NoM), designed as an evolution of existing blockchain and DAG architectures.

Use case

The primary use case for the Zenon project is intended to solve the issue of network congestion amongst current blockchain solutions. 

From the project’s website “Zenon is an evolutionary step in distributed ledger technology, enabling an efficient trust layer for transfer of value and data globally.  Based on The Network of Momentum, it proposes a new type of architecture designed to overcome the limitations of current blockchain or DAG-based cryptocurrencies.”

Adoption

The scope for adoption for the Zenon project is potentially a large one as they aim to introduce a more efficient blockchain solution compared to the 1st and 2nd generation blockchains that currently exist. 

Currently, there is no minimum working product, so there is no current adoption amongst users for the proposed Zenon product and protocol. The test-net for the Network of Momentum is estimated to be launched in March 2020. 

However, we can gauge adoption sentiment for the project from the ZNN coin distribution and community engagement later in the review.

Competition

Along with the large addressable markets, Zenon would also have a large number of competitors in the numerous existing blockchain smart contract platforms, from the majors such as Ethereum ($17.9bn market cap), EOS ($4.7bn market cap) or Tezos (USD 670mn) to medium/small up and coming contenders such as Fantom ($39 million), Tomo ($41 million) or Bismuth ($3.9 million).

Ethereum, in particular, aims to implement PoS and Sharding in its 2.0 implementation. At the same time, other smart contract platforms currently focus on specific aspects designed by Zenon (Zilliqa with sharding, Tezos or EOS with proof of stake, Holochain with non-blockchain based distributed ledger architecture, and so on).

Zenon, apart from being in early stages of development with more room for growth than most competitors, differentiates itself with its new Network of Momentum architecture and its innovative launch strategy aiming at incentivising network participants to keep supporting the network over the next two-year network development phase.

Products/Features

The core feature of the Zenon project are as follows:

• Network of Momentum (In Progress)
• Satellite (In Progress)
• zApp’s (In progress)

Examples of technologies that the team envisage will be able to benefit from the NoM protocol are:

• Digital Assets
• Decentralised storage solutions
• Artificial Intelligence (A.I) systems

About Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
Aiming to address current blockchain deficiencies with the Network of Momentum	Low rate of adoption	Increase brand awareness
	Limited use case
	No clear and detailed whitepaper

Tokenomics

Token info

SYMBOL	ZNN
GENESIS BLOCK	MAR 2019
BLOCK EXPLORER	EXPLORER
CONSENSUS	MN
CIRCULATING SUPPLY	3,832,739 ZNN
MAX TOKEN SUPPLY	N/A
% MAX SUPPLY MINTED	N/A

 

Financials

MARKET CAP (30 DAY)	$2,491,252 USD
VOLUME (30 DAY)	$2120 USD
PRICE	$0.65
VOL TO NETWORK	0.085%
AVG PRICE 30 DAY	$0.82 USD
TRADING PAIRS	BTC

Token distribution

Circulating supply

The Zenon block explorer does not provide a rich list which means we are unable to analyse the distribution amongst the current circulating supply.

There are currently 266 Masternodes in the ZNN network.

41% of the current circulating supply is locked in Masternodes.

Token utility

The current utility of the ZNN coin is securing the ZNN network by locking the coins in a Masternode

Token Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
None identified	Possible coin swap when Network of Momentum launched	Improve utility
	No fixed final supply
	Potentially classed as a security due to ZX distribution algo
	Limited utility

Team

Experience

There is no publicly listed team for the Zenon project.

We are not able to assess the teams’ experience and skills, aside from development milestones achieved on the Zenon project

Advisors partnerships

There is no listed advisors or partnerships listed for the Zenon project

Development

The roadmap listed on the project website gives a brief outline for the upcoming milestones for the project along with dates for completion [ref]. 

On the 22nd June 2019, the team disclosed that at block 120555 a network participant experienced a bug that allowed the creation of 2,592,000 ZNN. 

The team have worked to resolve the issue with the updated wallet version since 1.2.0 and state that the 2,592,000 created were burnt on the following txid https://explore.zenon.network/address/ZNNisBurnedHereDoNotSendZNNXZZkEhL.

Anticipated upcoming milestones are the lock-in of the Pillar Masternodes in Oct 2019, the publishing of the Whitepaper in Dec 2019 and the launch of the Network of Momentum testnet in Mar 2020.

Team Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
The team is recruiting to expand	Anonymous team	Increase team transparency
	No clear information around project funding
	No registered company/foundation

Code

Audit

For the purposes of this review, we did not conduct a code review on the project.

Code Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
Addressed the network exploit	No code audit	External code audit recommended
	Exploit in code discovered

Community

Followers

There are less than 1000 followers on the projects social media channels.

Engagement

The majority of the Zenon community involvement and engagement takes place on the Telegram channel; however we recommend the team migrate to a Discord server.

Both platforms have daily activity in the chat, and admin/mods address any questions from the community replying promptly.

Analysis of the Twitter channel shows a rating of 34.8 engagement per tweet according to RivalIq rating. This score is nearly five times higher than the average engagement rate across all industries [ref].

Governance

There is no currently no formal governance model within the project.

Community Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
Organic growth in users	Small community	Increase brand awareness
	Limited engagement

Technical analysis

Chart

Chart Analysis

ZNN is currently trading under its initial sale price of 0.0002 satoshis for several months, which can be explained by the emissions from the Masternodes.

Price has recently broken down below the 0.0001 satoshi range, with no previous floor for any price support as reference.

Price Summary

✅ POSITIVE	⛔ WEAKNESS	📝 IMPROVEMENT
Listed on more than 1 exchange	No listings on regulated exchanges
More than 1 base pair for trading	Low liquidity

Summary

Conclusion

In summary, the Zenon project scored 47/100 based on our scoring matrix, and we would usually rate the project at a D rating. However, there does seem to be some promise for the project with its community following. We, therefore, upgrade our rating and rate the project at a C-.

However, there are several areas of weakness for the project that need addressing highlighted throughout the review.

Breakdown

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Disclaimer

• This review is a sponsored review on behalf of the Zenon team.
• This review is intended for educational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be considered by you as financial advice. 
• Before investing in any project, we recommend you do your research + consult a registered financial adviser.
• All information listed is accurate at the time of publishing in October 2019.

 

Methodology

• We use a combined rating score out of 100, covering all the listed metrics for project reviews.
• Each metric is rated out of 2, including a potential bonus point in every metric. 
• We also reserve the right to award a bonus point for outstanding achievement for a project.
• Our rating and grading framework is available here.