First, A Recap of the Year 2019

Since its creation, Zap tokens stressed two themes: utility and functionality. During 2019, Zap continued refining its protocol and remains one of the very few blockchain tokens to actually be associated with a real and functional product. Zap has consistently been in the top-100 in code activity on coincodecap.com and has rolled out several oracles for public use.

Since 2017, Zap development teams across the globe have turned a code and a concept, focusing on a data portal for smart contracts, into a whitepaper and then a marketplace — in which any information provider in the world can sell their data in a peer-to-peer and fully liquid market (utilizing bonding curves) to data users, aggregators and speculators.

Early on, the Zap team quickly realized the potential of Zap’s smart contracts and technology goes FAR beyond a decentralized market for data. Software is customarily always “under revision” with new updates reflected in subsequent versions, and Zap followed that theme. The Zap team has expanded its focus on developing a broader and fuller protocol for the world to build on — one which has far greater use for people holding and using the Zap token.

One of our first major steps in 2019 was expanding the Zap protocol to offer the ability to create and issue a new erc20 token with a custom bonding curve using our “TokenDotFactory” smart contracts. This feature was the first step in progressing towards more development capabilities, such as the ability to create decentralized autonomous organizations, token distribution events, and entire platforms built using the algorithmic continuous liquidity of a bonding curve market. These cryptographic tokens are also automatically available for use and exchange outside the Zap marketplace, meaning new crypto token creators can build and offer tokens on top of Zap instead of, for example, Ethereum.

Zap’s protocol then advanced by offering two contest templates for developers to build with. The first is called the “Event Contest” template and this allows anyone to bond to competing curves, each representing different outcomes, which will then be validated (using oracles) and settled by the smart contract. Secondly, our “Bonding Curve DAO” template allows a decentralized community to control the direction of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The project would simply propose, for example, Plans A, B, and C and whichever proposal has the most bonded to it by a specific date will receive all the capital bonded by having it sent to a designated beneficiary address.

The Zap protocol was then used as the back end to yield BitUnits, an asset-specific tokenization use-case for property and real estate investment. Certain jurisdictions (such as the States of Delaware and Wyoming in the United States) recognize corporation or entity ownership ledgers maintained on a blockchain. The issuance of fractional ownership via tokens and transactions made on the blockchain are recognized in these jurisdictions, as well. By meeting certain suitability requirements (such as not residing in certain other jurisdictions) tokens representing fractional interest of property and real estate can be traded.

Our protocol has been expanded to the EOS community as we have completed our initial testing of the EOS admin and contracts on the jungle testnet. This move expands access to our protocol and allows more choice to the cryptocurrency community for decentralized development and use.

Most recently, we made time-locked smart contracts available using the Zap protocol. These are smart contracts which time lock tokens that are only redeemable by a “special purpose” ERC20 token that is unique to the contract which issues it. With this ability, a company, for example, can time lock tokens and issue the ERC20 tokens to those who work on the project. This incentivizes long term holding and discourages quick conversions of the token into fiat, thus aligning the worker’s interest with the interests of developers, managers and the existing token community. Additional criteria, such as meeting a certain price point, can be applied using our protocols for data oracles.

What’s Next in 2020?

The new year has more development goals in the works. The first is the ability to use any erc20 token to access certain services available with the Zap protocol. Additionally, we are developing a “master bonding curve” that anyone can bond to with their Zap token. The amount staked results in proportional payouts derived from transaction fees.

2020 Partnerships

Several MOU agreements have been executed with strategic partners which will use the Zap protocol as the backend for many industries, covering many use-cases.

We believe the crypto industry increasingly sees the need for a fully liquid decentralized token marketplace (commonly referred to as an exchange) as existing exchanges often make it harder for the community to locate, acquire and transact in desired crypto tokens. In 2019, many “exchanges” began to disqualify (or deplatform) customers (and tokens) based on their jurisdiction or domicile/residence, or to cease offering certain trading pairs either because certain tokens were considered securities or had little trading demand. Other exchanges failed financially or sustained increasing government regulation or other pressures. These trends, which are expected to continue in 2020, are highlighting the risks of any centralized marketplace which is controlled by others!

The Zap team believes a decentralized token marketplace, which can be achieved with the Zap bonding curve combined with flexible smart contract development capabilities, is currently increasingly in demand. Zap’s powerful and dynamic protocol, offering all the previously detailed technological benefits, creates an “out of the box” functional solution solving many issues hampering entry into the distributed ledger space.

Official announcements and more details are imminent. Use the following channels to stay up-to-date with this project:

Telegram: t.me/ZapOracles

Twitter: @ZapProtocol

Facebook: @ZapProtocol

Discord: discord.gg/pvHzemX

Medium: The Zap Project

LinkedIn: Zap

GitHub: The Zap Project