Some Cold Hard Feedback about Zenon Network
(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.)
Zenon Network has been under development for over three years. The community developers have been building in the shadows and without fanfare. According to one community member his private whale Telegram chat has nothing good to say about ZNN. Check out that discussion below.
Rather than get angry, let's register this feedback and consider ways to improve. But before we do that, let's try to address some questions asked in the thread.
Is ZNN dead?
In short, no. Here is what the community is working on now:
- Implement Sentinels and PoW to finish the Layer 1 implementation
- Trustless bridge between Zenon, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain
- HTLCs to enable trustless peer to peer swaps of Bitcoin, ZNN and QSR
- Native mobile wallet
- SDKs for all languages
- Syrius improvements
- Community website at zenon.org
There is nothing new in the official Github
The official Zenon Network repo has more than one million lines of code made public in 2022. We believe Sentinels are being developed privately so the community cannot see the most recent "Official" activity. Several community developers are writing code. Check out their repos:
- https://github.com/Sol-Sanctum?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/alienc0der?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/orgs/Big-Inches-Club-House/repositories
- https://github.com/mik3mast3rs?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/KingGorrin?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/orgs/alien-valley/repositories
- https://github.com/2bonahill?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/MoonBaZZe?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/millerships/pyznn
- https://github.com/ItsChaceD/zenon-android
- https://github.com/orgs/DexterLabZ/repositories
- https://github.com/orgs/zenon-tools/repositories
- https://github.com/orgs/DexterLabZ/repositories
- https://github.com/digitalSloth/znn-php
- https://github.com/0x3639?tab=repositories
- https://github.com/sumamu?tab=repositories (Trustless Bridge is Private)
- https://github.com/zenon-network?tab=repositories
- https://www.figma.com/file/BmmfUT2DOiLzweeMfcLCse/App
- https://zenonhub.io (Private repo)
We believe the Official Zenon Network repo will not accept any PRs until Github Actions have been integrated in order to generate trustless releases. Alienc0der, Sol and Mik3Mast3rs have finished 99% of the work to enable Github Actions for:
- go-zenon
- znn-pow-links-cpp
- argon2_ffi, syrius
- znn_controller_dart
- znn_cli_dart
- Syrius
The Syrius v0.0.6 update is in the final stages, requiring some discussions among developers and some testing. The C# and Dart SDKs are in the final stages of testing to integrate HTLC. Once this is thoroughly tested, George's go-zenon branch will be merged and the network will soft-fork (spork).
And this summary of activity does not include hopium that others are known to be working on in silence.
Marketing Efforts are Pointless
The marketing of Zenon Network is a community responsibility. Hyper Growth teams were established to take over marketing. And the Hyper Growth team is working on a new website at zenon.org. The website is a community initiative and will drive measurable awareness and adoption.
Check out some recent activity on the forum where @mehowbrainz discusses GA events in SYRIUS.
mehowbrainz
Other Hyper Growth team members have been capitalized to purchase banner adds to increase awareness, but this effort is on hold given the current crypto environment. DexterLabZ is working on an incentivized marketing platform. And other community members continue to write articles, generate art, run Telegram, Discord, and the Forum, and create amazing work.
If the community does not like the current direction of marketing, this is your opportunity to get involved. It's up to us to make a difference. Write an article, make a forum post, or write an AZ proposal to get funded. The truth is Mr. Kaine is not responsible for marketing. We are, so let's get to work and make changes we think are impactful.
Official Articles are Fluff
In my opinion Mr. Kaine is unlikely to deliver anything outlined in the Official Medium articles going forward. Therefore, I believe Official Medium articles are purely informational: a road map. The community should adjust expectations accordingly.
If we want to see something implemented that was discussed in an Official Article, let's prioritize that work and ask the community to focus on it. I personally think the community should be working to find a team to start planning for Unikernels and ZK rollup solutions that support Turing-complete smart contracts. Let's not assume Mr. Kaine is going to write that code.
NFT Standard was a Joke
Most of us expected the founding devs to deliver this feature. The truth is it's up to the community to discuss implementation details, develop a proof of concept, test, and integrate into SYRIUS.
A discussion on the forum has gone stale about the NFT standard. Sol recently updated the post with some additional research notes for discussion with the community. He has an elegant solution with encrypted containers. Check it out.
In addition, he wrote a PoC for "pseudo-steganography" that should be relatively easy to integrate. Neither the community nor Mr Kaine have reacted to the code. Sol also started a true steganography PoC in Dart that could apply to various file types but this is going to take some time to complete. Sol tabled the work to focus on the HTLC updates.
If the community thinks implementing the new NFT Standard is a priority, let's start by showing interest in the forum post and Sol's code.
There is Zero Activity Outside the Core Community
This is mostly true. Let's change that. Let's do a better job of communicating our progress in hopes of attracting more contributors. I propose we write a monthly project update letter, similar to what THORChain published during early development. https://medium.com/thorchain/dev-update-147-150-74743ccf2a7b
I'm happy to take the lead on launching the first letter at the end of January. Several community members have offered to help. And if you are interested in contributing, ping me on discord @0x3639.
I will leave you with this reminder from Mr. Kaine and funny video about how the Internet is a harsh place.
The Internet is a Harsh Hostile Place
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