Cryptocurrencies have rapidly evolved from just a niche for a few technocrats to legitimate digital assets recognized by most regulatory authorities worldwide. In 2021, the prices of most cryptocurrencies have reached a record high. Besides Bitcoin and other crypto coins that were among the first to be invented, there are fairly new cryptocurrencies like Zilliqa (ZIL) that have also gained popularity among cryptocurrency users.
This post will shed light on the Zilliqa blockchain, ZIL cryptocurrency, and Zilliqa price prediction/forecast from 2021 through to 2022.
What is Zilliqa (ZIL)?
Zilliqa (ZIL) is the native token/cryptocurrency of the Zilliqa blockchain. It serves several roles within the blockchain network, with the primary role being used as a digital currency within the network.
What is the Zilliqa blockchain network?
Zilliqa is a decentralized blockchain network that enables developers to develop decentralized applications (DApps) for enterprises using smart contracts and sharding technologies. It is based in Singapore and was launched in 2017 co-founded by Amrit Kumar, the current president; Yaoqi Jia, its current chief scientific officer; Xinshu Dong, who is currently a board member; and Max Kantelia, who is a board member and an adviser.
Zilliqa was the first public blockchain network around the world to use sharding, which refers to the use of side chains (or smaller blockchain networks attached to the mainnet) to perform certain tasks instead of burdening the mainnet everything.
In a nutshell, sharding makes a blockchain network more scalable as it avoids congestion in the mainnet. Besides the side chains responsible for processing transactions within the blockchain network, a Zilliqa user can develop a decentralized application and attach it to Zilliqa’s mainnet as a side chain.
By integrating sharding, Zilliqa blockchain has remained highly scalable as its user base continues to grow.
How does Zilliqa Network work?
Zilliqa was developed to solve scalability concerns, one of the biggest concerns among legendary blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. By using Sharding, Zilliqa has achieved high scalability.
There are multiple shards (side chains) attached to Zilliqa’a mainnet responsible for processing a very high throughput of transactions in a cost-effective, speedy and efficient manner. Zilliqa can process thousands of transactions within a second compared to Bitcoin, where transactions can take up to 10 minutes to be processed.
Because of its scalability, Zilliqa is an ideal blockchain for processing complex computational tasks like financial modeling and data mining, making it a perfect choice for data-based academic research, internet of things (IoT) applications, training neural network training, and machine learning applications.
What are the benefits of using Zilliqa (ZIL)?
Though a relatively new blockchain technology compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, Zilliqa blockchain offers a wide range of benefits to its Zilliqa (ZIL) users. These benefits include:
- Decentralization
Zilliqa is a public decentralized blockchain network meaning it has no central coordinator(s), and users do not have to worry about their transactions being handled by middlemen or a central authority since there are none.
Anyone can purchase the Zilliqa (ZIL) cryptocurrency on a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance, OKEX, Huobi, TRANSAK, UPbit, Changelly, SimpleSwap, BitFinex, or KuCoin, among others, and use it for staking, buying merchandize from Zilliqa Merchadize store, covering smart contract execution fees, and covering transaction fees.
- High scalability
By using sharding, Zilliqa can handle large transfers within minutes without becoming congested.
- Smart contracts
Zilliqa provides developers with a smart contract-enabled programming language called Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language (Scilla).
They allow developers to develop DApps and allow parties to execute agreements efficiently without third parties.
- Security
Zilliqa integrates enterprise-grade security features that have gone a long way in ensuring that hackers cannot access its transactions or the DApps developed on the blockchain. It has never been hacked since it was invented, and developers have been developing exciting DApps that run on the blockchain.
- Low fees
By using sharding, Zilliqa has avoided congestion, which is a major contributor to rising miner fees and gas prices on other blockchains.
Figure 1. Zilliqa (ZIL) transaction fees
The fees are currently below 60,000Tx, and one million TX currently represent costs 2000 ZIL, meaning the transaction cost is about 0.002ZIL.
Historical data of Zilliqa (ZIL) price
Zilliqa conducted an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that ended in January 2018, raising ether (ETH) worth $22 million. At the time of the ICO, one ZIL coin was going for 1 ZIL = 0.0000084656 ETH, and only 30% of the ZIL’s total supply of 21 million ZIL coins was up for the ICO sale.
Originally the ZIL cryptocurrency was an ERC20 token since the Zilliqa blockchain had been launched on the Ethereum blockchain. However, Zilliqa blockchain introduced its mainnet in 2019, and the ERC20 was swapped with Zilliqa (ZIL) tokens.
Currently, there about 12,221,934,551 ZIL tokens that are in circulation out of the total 21,000,000,000 ZIL tokens. The market cap is currently at $905,865,430, with a market price of $0.07322.
Figure 2. Zilliqa (ZIL) Market Cap chart from CoinGecko
The coin currently has a trading volume of about $52.94 million, and it hit its all-time high market price of $0.2563 on May 06, 2021.
Its all-time low of $0.002477 was recorded on March 13, 2020, when most cryptocurrencies were struggling with a persistent bearish trend.
Figure 3. Zilliqa (ZIL) market price chart (source CoinMarketCap)
ZIL price technical analysis and 2021 – 2022 price prediction
After hitting its all-time high of $0.2563 in May this year (2021), the ZIL price has dropped by approximately 71.42% to trade at the current price of about $0.074, a trend that most market analysts believe shall continue in the short term.
Figure 4. Zilliqa price forecast according to the wallet investor website
According to the wallet investor website, the ZIL price could drop to as low as just below $0.06 by July before rising again.
The TradingBeasts.com website predicts that by the end of 2021, the crypto coin could reach an expected maximum price of $ 0.1330861 and a minimum price of $ 0.0904986.
Figure 5. Zilliqa (ZIL) 2021 price prediction according to trading beast website
Despite the current bearish trend, the ZIL price prediction by most market analysts shows that ZIL prices will start rising from August onwards to 2022 if things remain as they are.
Figure 6. Zilliqa price prediction of 2021 to 2022 according to wallet investor
According to the wallet investor website Zilliqa forecast, Zilliqa’s (ZIL) price might once again test its previous highest price of $0.24 by the end of 2022.
The trading beast website also predicts a bullish trend into 2022 but gives a lower ZIL price prediction than the wallet investor. It predicts that the price of ZIL will be about $0.1147588 by December 2022.
However, it is important to seek investment advice before investing to find out whether it is a profitable investment at that time.
Figure 7. Zilliqa (ZIL) 2022 price prediction according to trading beasts
Zilliqa fundamental analysis
The main pointers for a long-term bullish trend of the ZIL digital coin prices include DApps, NFTs, Staking, Zilliqa Initial Launch Offering (ZILO), and the increasing adoption of Zilliqa blockchain users owing to its scalability and security features.
DApps
Already, there are a large number of DApps that are live on Zilliqa and others that are under development.
Zilliqa DApps ecosystem is expected to expand in the future as more DApps developers seek alternative blockchains to Ethereum due to the increasing gas prices on the Ethereum blockchain.
With more DApps launched on Zilliqa, ZIL token users will also increase, and thus the bullish ZIL cryptocurrency price prediction in the long term.
Staking
Besides trading the ZIL token on various crypto exchanges, Zilliqa also allows non-custodial staking through a propriety system referred to as the Zillion portal. The current APY for staking ZIL on the platform is about 6% which is considerably high compared to staking other cryptocurrencies elsewhere, making ZIL staking a good investment and a coveted yield farming option.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Zilliqa team also launched an NFT marketplace called ZILSTAR, in partnership with Polaris Sports, where users can buy and sell iconic football stars.
Figure 8. Zillistars NFT marketplace
Zilliqa Initial Launch Offering (ZILO)
Zilliqa team also launched the Zilliqa Initial Launch Offering (ZILO) platform, where DApp developers can issue initial offerings.
$STREAM was the first project to be launched on ZILO, and it successfully raised $3.4 million in just 10 minutes.
Conclusion
Although the popularity of Zilliqa coin (the ZIL coin) below that of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic, among others, and its market price is also below that of Bitcoin price, Ethereum price, and Litecoin price, Zilliqa has a great potential for growth owing to its ability to solve scalability issues and the numerous products it has developed for its users including an NFT marketplace in an era where NFTs are taking the world by storm.
In a nutshell, while the short-term Zilliqa prediction shows a continuation of its current bearish trend, the cryptocurrency’s market price is expected to rise after August and on to 2022. However, it may be quite early to speculate if it shall get back to its all-time high within that period.
However, it is important to seek investment advice before investing to find out whether it is a profitable investment at that time. It is also important to compare the ZIL price prediction to other cryptocurrencies and that of the US dollar. Besides the USD predictions, examples of cryptocurrency price predictions include Ethereum price prediction, Polkadot price prediction, and Bitcoin price prediction.