Zel is a fork of Zcash, which has borrowed elements from Bitcoin. Zel, therefore, leverages the zk-SNARK technology championed by Zcash to be a privacy coin. Its consensus mechanism is a mix between Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Masternodes. These Masternodes, known as ZelNodes, consist of a three-tiered node structure that requires three different levels of collateralization and system hardware specifications. The computational network of the Zelnodes will be used for the open-source ZelFlux OS, the “operating system” designed to run the Zel Ecosystem. ZelFlux providing the ability for Zel and third-party developers to run decentralized applications (dApps).
The concept of ZelNodes emerged from a discussion of how to potentially scale a smart contract platform such as Ethereum. Instead of using Ethereum, the project opted to fork the Zcash codebase to use the privacy coins' zk-SNARK technology for private transactions.
Zel uses a system of ZelNodes, which are a three-tiered node structure, requiring three different levels of collateralization and system hardware specifications. The computational network of the Zelnodes will be used for the open-source ZelFlux OS, the “operating system” designed to run the Zel Ecosystem. ZelFlux providing the ability for Zel and third-party developers to run decentralized applications (dApps).
ZelFlux has been open-source from the start of October 2019 and has launched on all ZelNodes with the Kamata upgrade March 2020.
