Haha ZK Tokens Go Brrrrr
How tokens leveraging 'zero knowledge' proofs are setting the next big trend in crypto.
In January, we saw the crypto market go crazy for literally any token that could somehow tether itself to the ruling artificial intelligence (AI) narrative.
All of these so-called “AI tokens” — many of which had little or nothing to do with AI at all — recorded some seriously impressive gains.
SingularityNET (AGIX), a cryptocurrency that markets itself as a blockchain-powered artificial intelligence marketplace where anyone can “create, share, and monetise” AI services grew an astonishing 1,182% in just 38 days.
Similarly, another crypto called Artificial Liquid Intelligence (ALI) grew a whopping 987% in the same timeframe. ALI is the native token of Alethea AI: a company working on a decentralised blockchain-based protocol that will create what it calls an ‘Intelligent Metaverse’.
Why ZK tokens are about to surge
It’s important to remember that crypto moves quickly and with many AI tokens having surged more than 700%, advanced traders are currently dusting off their hands, with many already hunting for the next big thing.
Now, many of these expert crypto investors are buying up large positions in ZK cryptocurrencies.
ZK is the future of Ethereum scaling
Ever since Ethereum launched, developers have been looking for new ways to improve the volume of transactions the network can handle, reduce gas’ fees on the blockchain and make the entire network quicker.
Now, developers have finally come up with a seriously good answer to these long-running problems within the space, and investors are looking to make some serious bank on the rise these solutions.
Essentially ZK is the future of scaling Ethereum, and with the upcoming token launches of ZKsync, Starknet and Polygon, the narrative around ZK is starting to gain some solid momentum.
What does ZK even mean?
Whenever you read the acronym ‘ZK’ what you’re seeing is the shorthand for “zero knowledge rollup”— which refers to a special type of blockchain, usually built on top of another blockchain like Ethereum.
In slightly more technical terms: ZK-rollups are Layer-2 blockchain protocols that process transactions, perform computations, and store data off-chain while holding assets in an on-chain smart contract.
As the name suggests ZK networks ‘roll up’ transactions into batches that are executed off the main blockchain network, saving users time, resources and effort.
This makes ZK rollups the ideal solution for decentralized exchanges (DEXs), NFT marketplaces, and a whole array of other decentralized applications that require fast and efficient transactions.
Ethereum currently uses ZK rollups Polygon (MATIC) to reduce congestion on its own base layer network. The video below gives an extremely solid overview as to how ZK rollups work.
It’s worth noting that many ZK cryptocurrencies operate quite differently to one another and use ZK rollup tech in a variety of different ways.
Here’s a list of the 5 best ZK tokens on the market right now, with a brief explanation of what they do and how they work, so you can decide if they’re the right investment for you.
Top 5 Zero Knowledge tokens
1. Mina Protocol (MINA)
The Mina Protocol markets itself as “the world’s lightest blockchain”. By using ZK technology, Mina keeps the size of its nodes really small, making making it ideal for the developers of decentralized applications looking to provide users with lightning-fast and cost-effective transactions.
Mina has rapidly become one of the most popular Ethereum scaling solutions in the wider crypto market, with its ZK-based infrastructure making it an ideal solution for developers looking to build new decentralized exchanges and NFT marketplaces.
At the time of writing, MINA is trading at a price of $1.11 and has a total market cap of $924 million. Its price has grown a touch over 25% in the last 24 hours.
Investors can check out MINA on CoinSpot.
2. Loopring (LRC)
The Loopring platform is an open-source decentralised exchange and payments protocol.
Loopring (LRC) is built on the Ethereum blockchain and leverages ZK rollups to provide quick, low-fee transactions for its users.
On Loopring, users can securely and even privately trade various available assets and provide liquidity with speed and efficiency.
In addition to this, Loopring is a fully decentralised exchange that provides users full control over their funds.
While Loopring is still technically in the beta stage of its development, the team moves quickly and it looks to be one of the more promising ZK tokens of the coming months.
At the time of writing, LRC is trading at a price of $0.42 and has a total market cap of $569 million. Its price has grown a respectable 11% in the last 24 hours.
Investors can buy LRC on CoinSpot.
3. Celer Network (CELR)
Celer Network (CELR) is what’s known as a Layer-2 scaling platform. These platforms allow blockchain developers to create and launch decentralized applications (DApps) across various blockchains.
The Celer Network offers users of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols high levels of scalability, something which is becoming attractive as demand for these products surge.
CELR leverages ZK rollup technology to provide rapid and almost-free transactions for a wide range of DeFi applications, making it the ideal solution for those looking to get started in the burgeoning DeFi market.
Celer Network’s infrastructure is constructed with high levels of scalability in mind, which puts CELR in a unique position to become one of the leading DeFi platforms in the comings months, especially with the market’s newfound appetite for everything ZK-related.
At the time of writing, CELR is trading at a price of $0.02 and has a total market cap of $157 million. Its price has surged more than 20% in the last 24 hours.
Investors can find CELR on CoinSpot.
4. Syscoin (SYS)
Syscoin is one of the more interesting ZK projects on the market. SYS is a blockchain where miners can mine both Bitcoin and Syscoin simultaneously, also referred to as ‘merge-mining’.
Syscoin itself can be staked to earn rewards and in the future, users would most likely need Syscoin to pay transaction fees.
The Syscoin blockchain is an incredible combination of features from both Bitcoin and Ethereum. In short, Syscoin takes advantage of Bitcoin’s security, uniting it with Ethereum’s smart-contract capabilities.
Syscoin uses ZK technology to increase the volume and speed of transactions on its network, as well as providing it with greater interoperability with other major blockchain networks.
At the time of writing, SYS is trading at a price of $0.20 and has a total market cap of $164 million. Its price has grown 10% in the last 24 hours. After reading Syscoin’s roadmap, I’ve found Syscoin to be an extremely undervalued and little-known project that holds a good deal of upside.
Investors can find SYS on CoinSpot.
5. Dusk Network (DUSK)
Dusk (DUSK) is a privacy-focused project that uses ZK rollups to create a secure and decentralized platform for the trading of digital assets.
The key feature of the Dusk Network is its ZK-based decentralised exchange dubbed the ‘Dusk Exchange’.
With centralised crypto exchanges coming under fire recently due to the epic collapse of the once multi-billion-dollar crypto empire FTX, DEX’s are poised for high levels adoption in the near future.
Dusk Network offers users lightning fast and extremely low-cost transactions, which makes it one of the more exciting projects in the burgeoning ZK space.
Investors can purchase DUSK on CoinSpot.
Meet the investors betting on ZK
Don’t just take it from me. A growing number of a well-established investors have also pointed out the fact that the ‘Zero Knowledge’ narrative is only just getting work.
One such investor is crypto and DeFi analyst Miles Deutscher, who posted an invaluable thread on everything ZK tokens.
Another trader, who goes by ‘Reetika’ on Twitter posted her insights into how the crypto market is pivoting to the new ZK narrative and all of the best ways for investors to take advantage of this.
Reetika made some impressive calls at the start of this year and predicted the many of the top-gaining AI cryptocurrencies well ahead of time.
It goes without saying but cryptocurrency remains on of the most volatile asset classes in existence today. While this volatility provides you with the opportunity to make massive sums of money it can equally shift to the downside with disturbing speed.
Never invest more than you can afford to lose, and always make sure you’re picking projects where you have some idea of what’s going on behind the scenes.