Cryptocurrency 0x (ZRX) review: technology, history of creation and prospects of the protocol

What is 0x (ZRX)?

0x (ZRX) is an open source protocol that enables seamless peer-to-peer asset exchange on the Ethereum blockchain. The team sees a future where all types of assets are tokenized on the Ethereum network.

For example, when someone is selling their home, instead of a complex process involving lawyers, escrow agents, and title companies, the 0x protocol provides a comprehensive solution that can be used to tokenize ownership and exchange ownership with the buyer through a smart system. This completely eliminates the need for any costly middleman while speeding up the entire process, essentially turning the property into a liquid asset.

Anyone can create their own decentralized exchange (DEX) on top of 0x using the 0x Launch Kit and choose to charge for their services. The 0x protocol provides a standard messaging format; just like SWIFT is the standard messaging system that banks around the world use to communicate with each other about fiat currency transfers.

The team also launched the 0x API (Application Programming Interface) that aggregates liquidity across the network, allowing users to exchange assets at the best price at any time.

History of the foundation 0x

Based in San Francisco, the 0x team consists of 32 core members with experience in various fields, from finance to engineers. The 0x Protocol was founded in 2016 by Will Warren and Amir Bandiali, who hold the positions of CEO and Technical Director, respectively.

After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in mechanical engineering, Will Warren worked as a technical advisor for the Basic Attention Token (BAT) and won first place in the 2017 Consensus Proof-of-Work Pitch Competition.

Co-founder Amir Bandiali earned a degree in finance from the University of Illinois before working for Chopper Trading and DRW as a trading specialist.

In addition to the core team, 0x also has five advisors, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ersam and COO of Pantera Capital Joey Krug. The ZRX Initial Coin Offering (ICO) took place in August 2017 and was a novelty in the world of technology. In just 24 hours, all coins were sold out, raising $24 million in one day.

How does 0x work?

0x facilitates decentralized token exchange through the use of smart contracts that are free, public and can be integrated by any decentralized application (dApp). A smart contract is a transaction that is automatically executed when certain conditions are met.

Most decentralized exchanges use Ethereum smart contracts to secure all of their trades, but these are executed directly on the blockchain. This means that every time an order is placed, modified, canceled, or filled, a gas fee is charged, which can make the process quite expensive.

The solution presented by 0x is to use an off-network repeater with on-network calculations. This assumes that the user is submitting an order to the relay, which is like a bulletin board for the network. The relay then broadcasts the order outside the network, where any other user can complete it by sending their cryptographic signature to the smart contract.

0x also offers point-to-point orders, in which a user submits an order that can only be completed by the specified person. In both types of orders, the assets are never held by the relay and only the actual transfer of value occurs on-chain, drastically reducing both gas fees and network congestion.

ZRX token. How many 0x (ZRX) tokens are in circulation?

ZRX is a utility token that is used to reward relayers for trading fees for placing an order book. The 0x ecosystem has shown tremendous growth in 2020, with the protocol reaching $5.7 billion in trading volume in January 2021 alone.

ZRX also benefits from being a governance token. All ZRX token holders can vote on protocol updates and developments that can drive demand for the token. Since the maximum supply of ZRX is limited, the price and market cap of ZRX can be subject to scarcity.

0x (ZRX) currently has a circulating supply of 847,496,055 and a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000 ZRX.

500 million ZRX, which is 50% of the maximum supply, was sold to investors during the 2017 ICO.

The team set a hard limit on the number of ZRX tokens that each member could buy to incentivize wider adoption of ZRX. It was subsequently determined that ZRX tokens were distributed to over 13,000 different Ethereum addresses. This was especially important due to ZRX's role as a governance token.

The remaining tokens were distributed as follows:

• 10% -ZRX was reserved for the founding team;
• 10% for early adopters and consultants;
• 15% - the main organization of developers 0x and an external fund for the development of the project.

As of today, the ZRX token is trading at $0.2412, with a market capitalization of $204,457,247. The daily trading volume is $9,212,000.

How to use 0x?

Users can trade their ZRX tokens with a specific person by sending them a 0x order via instant message or email, which is automatically executed when the other person accepts the trade. In addition, they can browse the market for orders placed by others and confirm the one they want. The transaction will be completed safely and autonomously using the 0x protocol.

The 0x API can be integrated with DeFi wallets and applications to provide exchange functionality at the best prices on the market. The 0x API is used by projects such as Matcha, MetaMask, Zapper, and many more.

The 0x API allows any market maker, automated market maker (AMM) or other decentralized exchange protocol on the network to provide liquidity to the 0x ecosystem. AMMs currently providing liquidity include Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, and Crypto.com.

Projects can also build on the 0x protocol to gain direct access to existing liquidity - and dozens of teams are already doing this. These include exchanges like 1inch, wallets like MetaMask, derivative products like Opyn, portfolio management platforms like DeFi Saver, NFT-based projects like Gods Unchained, and investment strategy products like Rari Capital. 

Where to buy and how to store 0x?

Since ZRX is an ERC-20 token, any wallet that supports Ethereum will work to hold your ZRX coins, and the type you choose will likely depend on how many tokens you have and what you intend to do with them.

You can buy ZRX both on specialized cryptocurrency exchanges and on online exchangers such as Coin24.io.

ZRX Price Forecast

As for the ZRX rate in the near future, the opinions of experts and analysts differ here. Let's consider some of them:

• Wallet Investor is talking about the long-term growth of the token - by 2026, the rate is predicted at around $ 3.58.
• Trading Beasts believe that in 2024 the rate will skyrocket to $1.01.
• PrimeXBT is firmly confident in the growth of ZRX tenfold - by the end of 2025, the price of the token will be $22.
• CoinSwitch - over the next 5 years, the token rate will grow, reaching a maximum of $9.125.
• Digital Coin Price is confident in the rapid interest of the audience in DeFi, so ZRX will trade at $0.9291 in the coming year, and by the end of 2025 the price will be $1.51.
• Tokeneo is confident that 0x ZRX will become one of the top 30 crypto coins by market capitalization, and the rate will grow by 258% within a year.
• GOV Capital - the price will reach $0.713 by the end of the year, and over the course of 5 years it will grow to $5.2371.

Whose forecast will be the most accurate - we will see in the near future.

Prospects for the development of cryptocoin 0x (ZRX)

Not so long ago, 0x (ZRX) started a partnership with Coinbase. 0x has announced that its infrastructure will be used to support the Coinbase Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Market (COIN).

0x will benefit from a partnership with Coinbase as the latter is considered the second largest crypto exchange in the world in terms of trading volume. This may result in the 0x protocol infrastructure being used more widely.

With the rollout of 0x Protocol v4 exchange support, NFT 0x Labs announced that work on integrating other supported 0x chains - Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Celo, Optimism - is "very soon" ongoing.