0x (ZRX) – A Beginner’s Guide, Review & More

Written by Adolph Obasogie - Reviewed by Coin Review Team

Published: Jun 19, 2018 | Last Updated: Mar 14, 2019

2025-01-23T14:11:32+00:00

What is 0x?

0x is an open, permissionless protocol for value exchange on the Ethereum blockchain. The 0x-protocol facilitates peer-to-peer and low friction exchange of ERC20 tokens and serves as an open standard for value exchange between decentralized applications.

The protocol can be seen as an underlying layer on which decentralized exchanges of any kind can be built upon on. Trades are executed through a set of publicly accessible smart contracts and in contrast to other decentralized exchanges where placing, canceling, or filling an order is done on-chain, and therefore every step results in a transaction, order matching with 0x and all other trading commands are executed off-chain through so-called “relayers.”

Table of Contents:

What is 0x?
History
Can 0x be mined?
What differs 0x from other Cryptocurrencies?
How much is 0x worth today?
What is the total and the circulating supply?
Where can you buy ZRX?
Can ZRX be sold for cash?
Future Development
Verdict and Rating

Only value transfers are executed on-chain, this has the benefits of reduced transaction fees and fewer data stored on the blockchain. Relayers broadcast orders through public or private order books and add liquidity to the network by hosting its order books. Every relayer receives ZRX-tokens as compensation for his work.

The native token of the protocol is ZRX, and it is used secondarily for paying fees and primary as governance mechanism for protocol upgrades. 0x combines the strengths of centralized and decentralized exchanges and forms a best-of-both-worlds solution that is entirely decentralized.

History

The 0x-project was founded by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali in the year 2017. Advisors were Fred Ehrsam (co-founder of Coinbase), Olaf Carlson-Wee (founder of Polychain Capital), Joey Krug (founder of Augur) and Linda Xie (former product manager at Coinbase).

The team is based in San Francisco. A token sale was held on from 12. to 16. August 2017 where the equivalent of 24,000,000 USD was collected. The ICO-price was 0.048$ per ZRX token.

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Can 0x be mined?

No, ZRX is a utility token on the Ethereum ecosystem. Therefore it cannot be mined.

What differs 0x from other Cryptocurrencies?

0x is not a DApp. Instead, it is a protocol where applications can be built on top of. No Ethereum-protocol is more used than 0x, which makes it one of the protocols with the most applications built on top overall.

0x-protocol differs from other decentralized exchange systems through the fact that only value transfers occur on-chain and every other step in the process is done off-chain, which saves storage space and transaction fees.

How much is 0x worth today?

What is the total and the circulating supply?

The total supply of ZRX is 1,000,000,000 and the circulating supply at the time of writing is 528,105,498 ZRX.

Where can you buy ZRX?

You can buy ZRX on several cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably Binance, Huobi, and Upbit.

Can ZRX be sold for cash?

You can sell ZRX for cash on several cryptocurrency exchanges that have fiat-pairings, most notably Ethfinex.

Future Development

The team is currently working on the release of 0x protocol V2, which has a new smart contract architecture to support multiple types of tokens, starting with ERC721. Other improvements are More efficient order matching and cross-relayer arbitrage, Bulk order cancellations with a fixed sized transaction, Support for new signature types and custom verification logic, Implementation of a standard relayer API and Ability to create “filter contracts” for permissioned liquidity pools, among others. The launch of 0x V2 is scheduled for July 2018. Overall development and industry participation are very active.

Verdict and Rating

8/10
Several high profile DApps are already using the 0x-protocol, for example, Aragon, Augur, District0x, Maker, Melonport, EasyTrade and Request Network. And there are 16 relayers at the time of writing. I expect this numbers to increase even more in the future.

The 0x-protocol has done more for the Ethereum ecosystem than any other Ethereum-based application. This protocol will play a crucial role in the upcoming rise of non-fungible tokens and in the tokenization of assets, for example, securities and bonds. And it enables many more use-cases like decentralized margin-trading, stable coin converter, decentralized sports betting, synthetic stock futures, tokenized derivates trading, etc.

The future is bright for 0x and I anticipate that this protocol will play a major role in the adoption of distributed ledger technology. The team is well respected in the Ethereum space and has very good industry contacts. The token is used as a governance mechanism, and the more projects are built on this protocol and they more money is invested in applications that utilize ZRX, the more need for participants to hold ZRX tokens in order to have a say in future development. One of the best investments that can be done in this space right now.

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0 / 10.0

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Disclaimer

The writer’s views are expressed as a personal opinion and are for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.