ZetaChain Made Easy: Discover the Magic of Web3!

With an impressive user base of over 1,000,000 on testnet, ZetaChain has effectively addressed the market’s pressing need for interoperability. As a relatively new player in the web3 space, the ZetaChain blockchain has caught the attention of even seasoned crypto enthusiasts. To help people better understand its unique features, the ZetaChain community organized an analogy challenge, where 10 winners were selected to explain ZetaChain in creative and relatable ways.

As ZetaChain continues to develop, it aims to become the first public L1 blockchain with innate interoperability. This means it will function as an open chain that can support omnichain smart contracts, enabling them to seamlessly access and manage assets and data on any other connected chain from a single logical point. For a more comprehensive understanding of ZetaChain’s technical approach and how it compares to other solutions, you can refer to ZetaChain’s Unique Approach to Interoperability. Before delving into the winning analogies, let’s familiarize ourselves with some key terms often encountered in the realm of blockchain interoperability:

• Multichain: Refers to the multitude of chains available in the current market.
• Cross-chain: Describes the process of transferring value, messages, and data across different blockchains. Bridging is a commonly used but sometimes insecure method.
• Omnichain: The term “Omni” denotes all-encompassing or all-inclusive. In the context of ZetaChain, an omnichain dApp or odApp refers to a smart contract capable of interacting with assets and data on multiple connected networks.

The Top 10 Winning Analogies

#1: The ZETA Travel Agency

Planning vacations can be exciting but also involves numerous complexities, such as selecting accommodations and organizing travel arrangements. Some people opt to use the services of a travel agency, and in this analogy, ZetaChain plays the role of a reliable travel agency.

When you plan a vacation on your own, it’s like driving yourself to your destination. You have to navigate through numerous cross-country bridges, similar to dealing with various bridges in the crypto world for token exchanges. Just like refueling your car, you need to manage your wallet and pay for gas (Gwei) during token exchanges. Additionally, you may encounter unforeseen challenges, similar to taking detours and facing uncertainties during crypto transactions, which can affect the time-to-settlement.

However, with ZetaChain’s services, it’s like flying first class with a top-notch travel agency. ZetaChain offers a clear and detailed description of your journey, including the tour’s exact price, duration, and conditions. You no longer need to worry about the complexities of the road trip (crypto transfer) because ZetaChain ensures you have a smooth and predetermined path to your destination. All necessary services, like fuel (tokens), car insurance (security measures), and other accommodations, are already included when you pay the ZetaChain commission. Moreover, ZetaChain provides a built-in revert function, offering extra assurance in case anything goes wrong during your journey.

By traveling with ZetaChain, you can easily track the duration of your trip on the Swap counter. With an extensive customer base of over 1,000,000 users across Twitter and Discord, ZetaChain has become a highly reliable and sought-after service. You can trust that ZetaChain will efficiently and safely get you to your desired destination, making your journey fast, affordable, and worry-free.

#2: The Magic Cocktail Shaker

The Zeta Virtual Machine can be likened to a magical cocktail shaker for creating omnichain dApps, just like making delicious cocktails at a virtual bar. Imagine you spot a wonderful juniper gin on Ethereum and a sweet vermouth on Binance Smart Chain that both pique your interest. While you can enjoy these drinks separately on their respective chains, combining them into a single mixed cocktail proves challenging due to their different characteristics.

To address this, you could use a cross-chain bridge as a workaround, which is like inserting a straw into two glasses — one with gin and the other with vermouth. However, this method has limitations, is asynchronous, and carries risks. Additionally, involving other chains or tokens, such as Campari, only complicates the process further.

But fear not, the Zeta Virtual Machine shaker possesses extraordinary powers:

1. It allows you to exchange ingredients from any bar and receive any other ingredient. For example, pour gin into the shaker, give it a good shake, and voilà, vermouth pours out of it. This is achieved through omnichain smart contracts: burning X tokens (gin) on network A, converting them to the ZETA token via a one-way peg, and then minting X tokens (vermouth) on network B. Notably, there’s no “wrapping” or additional representation of the underlying assets, unlike the more common two-way peg.
2. The ZetaChain bartenders (node operators) diligently monitor the proportions of your cocktail. This ensures the best price for your ingredients with minimal waste. Consequently, it reduces slippage, volatility, and provides stronger transaction guarantees when dealing with multiple ingredients (multichain interactions).
3. The creativity of cocktail (dApp) combinations becomes limitless. Gone are the days of being restricted to using only specific liquors from certain bars (blockchains). Now, you can freely experiment and create new recipes, incorporating ingredients from various chains, like the classic Negroni with age-old Campari from Italy (representing a legacy chain like Bitcoin) or new special recipes from emerging chains like Aptos. The Zeta Virtual Machine shaker accommodates any future ingredient, making it compatible with all sorts of bars (blockchains), and it does so securely in one centralized place.

#3: The Next Generation Vending Machine

In the world of crypto, a smart contract is comparable to an automated vending machine you find in stores. Just like a vending machine processes payments and dispenses goods without the need for human intervention, a smart contract performs predefined operations based on specific conditions, such as time, cost, quantity, and asset type.

Now, let’s imagine that each blockchain network represents a separate vending machine store, each specializing in selling different office products. For example, Ethereum sells tape, Solana offers pens, Polygon provides paper, and Bitcoin deals with chairs. If you wanted to set up an office space with all these items, you would have to spend time and money traveling to multiple vending machines, dealing with different cashiers for each product.

However, with ZetaChain, a new generation vending machine emerges, allowing you to interact with all these stores simultaneously, providing a comprehensive inventory to shoppers. This means you can build your office much faster and save money, as everything happens on one centralized machine — the ZetaChain. Here, complex transactions are streamlined into a single step, and all transfers are simplified, minimizing overall gas expenditure and slippage.

This innovative ZetaChain vending machine can efficiently manage and offer the best products from any store, all from a single machine, thanks to its omnichain smart contract capabilities. And the best part is that the platform is open source, enabling manufacturers to build their own machines (dApps) tailored for various industries and customer audiences. The exciting part is that the technology will soon be available to retail shoppers in the coming months.

In summary, ZetaChain’s omnichain smart contracts act as a centralized vending machine, simplifying and accelerating the process of accessing and managing various assets from different blockchain networks, making it a game-changer for the crypto industry.

#4: ZETA Token is like Water (H20)

Water, an essential element of life on Earth, serves as a helpful analogy to explain the unique interoperability feature of the ZetaChain blockchain and its Omnichain Smart Contracts.

Just as water can exist in different states — solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (steam) — each with distinct characteristics and appearances, it retains the same fundamental formula: H20. In the context of ZetaChain, the ZETA token plays a similar role to water. It acts as an intermediary token and universal gas across all networks, powering the underlying ZetaChain blockchain.

Image one depicts the varying states of water (H20), while image two illustrates how the ZETA token is associated with various blockchains, providing unified liquidity across these external networks. Just as H20 is a vital “chemical” for supporting the different states of water, the ZETA token plays a crucial role in facilitating general data transfer and contract calls between different networks on ZetaChain.

In the analogy, ZETA is comparable to H20, as it remains consistent in its essence while being present on various blockchains, ensuring seamless interoperability. Similar to how water transitions between states like snow, rain, or fog, the ZETA token enables easy exchange of value between different assets on different blockchains. Whether it’s exchanging BNB for ETH or other transactions, the ZETA token serves as a permanent form of liquidity on any blockchain, just like H20 remains fundamentally the same regardless of its state.

The ZETA token’s functionality provides a single interface, akin to a decentralized exchange (DEX), where users can interact with multiple chains using the same wallet, with a simple click and without the need for complex bridging or locking of assets. This approach simplifies and streamlines processes, making them more predictable, cost-effective, and efficient.

In summary, just as water’s various states are unified by the H20 formula, the ZETA token plays a crucial role in connecting and harmonizing different blockchain networks, providing a seamless and interoperable experience for users on the ZetaChain platform.

#5: Multi-currency Bank Transfer

Transferring funds internationally can be a complex process, involving multiple banks and currency conversions. Let’s consider a scenario where you want to transfer rupees to your friends in India, Japan, and the United States. As a user, you see that rubles are deducted from your account, and after a commission, the money is sent to your friends’ respective accounts in their countries.

However, for the banks, this operation is more intricate. The Russian bank holds rubles but not rupees. Moreover, there is no direct exchange rate between rubles and rupees, so the bank needs to convert rubles to dollars first. Then, the dollars are sent to the bank in India, which further converts them into rupees and credits your friends’ accounts. In such international settlements, the US dollar often acts as the intermediate reserve asset, and the SWIFT system supports this process, facilitating fund transfers and safeguarding individual recipient privacy.

Now, let’s imagine the countries (India, Japan, and the United States) as individual blockchains, and the ZETA token as the reserve currency instead of the US dollar. In this analogy, ZetaChain blockchain functions similarly to the SWIFT system. It interprets where and how a user wants to send funds and executes the transaction via smart contracts without the need for complex bridging between different banks (blockchains) or creating representations of currencies like wrapped Ether. ZetaChain enables token swaps and transfers with the simplicity of a local bank transfer, providing seamless cross-chain functionality.

For dApp developers, imagine you’re building a multinational corporation that conducts business in India, Japan, and the United States. Each country’s business processes and accounting databases are supported by different programs. However, with the power of omnichain smart contracts on ZetaChain, developers can write a single program that unifies data across these diverse databases (blockchains). This allows for a more efficient and streamlined process, eliminating the need to maintain separate programs for each country. The possibilities for innovation and creativity with omnichain smart contracts on ZetaChain are boundless!

In summary, ZetaChain’s smart contract capabilities simplify international fund transfers, acting as a powerful intermediary and reserve currency across various blockchains, similar to the SWIFT system’s role in traditional banking. Moreover, the creative potential of omnichain smart contracts opens up new possibilities for multinational businesses, streamlining operations and unifying data across different blockchain databases.

#6: Universal Power Adapter

ZetaChain can be likened to a universal power supply for electronics. Just like different electronic devices may have various charging ports, blockchain platforms also operate with distinct protocols and standards, making communication between them challenging. However, ZetaChain acts as a universal power adapter, allowing different devices (blockchains) to connect and interact seamlessly through a standardized interface.

Much like a universal power adapter allows various devices to charge using the same port, ZetaChain enables different blockchains to communicate with each other using a common language and protocol. This interoperability fosters a cohesive ecosystem where data and assets can flow freely between chains, promoting efficiency and ease of use.

Furthermore, ZetaChain provides an open source toolkit, similar to a universal open source toolkit that anyone can use to build their own device (dApp) that effortlessly interacts with any blockchain, regardless of its unique characteristics. This open approach empowers developers to create innovative applications that can connect with multiple chains, without being limited by proprietary barriers.

In essence, ZetaChain is designed to be future-proof, accommodating the diverse needs of various chains in the ever-evolving world of blockchain technology. By acting as a universal power supply for blockchains, ZetaChain ensures seamless connectivity and compatibility, fostering a more interconnected and efficient blockchain ecosystem.

#7: First Island with Built-in Connectivity

Blockchains can be compared to isolated islands, each operating with its own distinct rules, purposes, and characteristics. However, ZetaChain stands out as the first island with built-in connectivity to all other island land masses.

ZetaChain’s groundbreaking innovation lies in its Omnichain Smart Contracts, which are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). These smart contracts allow developers to create and deploy applications on ZetaChain that seamlessly interact with all other blockchain islands.

In addition to this, ZetaChain introduces the ZRC-20 standard, enabling Omnichain Smart Contracts to manage native assets on connected islands (blockchains). This means that even the oldest blockchain island, like Bitcoin, which previously lacked the capability to interact with others, can now access assets and data from different chains.

Whether we envision ZetaChain as a new, interconnected island or a sophisticated post office system that links all countries, the significance for developers and users cannot be underestimated. ZetaChain empowers developers to have an improved experience in a globalized world with multiple blockchains, while users benefit from a simpler, more secure, and cost-effective experience in the complex landscape of blockchain technology.

#8: The ZetaChain Smart Home

A smart contract can be likened to an advanced home automation system that takes specific actions based on predefined conditions, just like a temperature control system in a house. For instance, when the apartment’s temperature reaches a certain level, the smart contract would automatically activate or deactivate the air conditioning unit to maintain the desired temperature. Similarly, smart contracts execute programmed tasks and record them as transactions on the blockchain.

In this analogy, each blockchain network represents a different household gadget, such as Ethereum as an air conditioner, Solana as a robot vacuum cleaner, Polygon as a smart lamp, and Bitcoin as a smart switch. However, most of these gadgets have their own individual remote controls, except for the Bitcoin switch, which lacks the capability to interact like other smart devices. Consequently, managing all these gadgets becomes a manual and cumbersome process.

However, with the introduction of ZetaChain Smart Home, all these gadgets can be integrated into a single network, allowing homeowners to set up automation rules using one centralized remote control. ZetaChain’s Omnichain Smart Contracts serve as the modern software facilitating faster responses and seamless operations across all devices, including those like Bitcoin and Dogecoin, which lack dedicated smart contract capabilities. This means faster cross-chain transaction settlements and enhanced efficiency.

Furthermore, the ZetaChain software platform is open-source, enabling other manufacturers to build their own gadgets and instantly connect with a unified base of homeowners, offering them an affordable and convenient smart home experience. The ZetaChain Smart Home brings simplicity, convenience, and interoperability to the complex world of blockchain networks, making it easier for users to manage and automate their digital assets and devices securely from a single, unified interface.

#9: A Multitool to Build a Secure House

Imagine you’re constructing a house, and you have a toolbox filled with various tools, each designed for specific tasks — a hammer for nailing boards, a saw for cutting wood, a screwdriver for tightening screws, and so on. However, constantly switching between these separate tools for each job is not only time-consuming but also inconvenient.

ZetaChain’s Omnichain Smart Contracts can be likened to a versatile multitool for building decentralized applications (dApps). Instead of deploying individual contracts on each blockchain network, Omnichain Smart Contracts allow developers to create a single contract capable of managing assets and data across multiple interconnected chains. This significantly streamlines the development process and eliminates the need for multiple contracts, just as a multitool simplifies the task of using various separate tools.

By adopting this approach, developers and users gain numerous efficiency and security benefits, much like the advantages of building a house with a multitool. In the traditional cross-chain process depicted in Figure 1, users must rely on third-party bridges and multiple contracts to move between different networks. It’s like opening one door to enter a room (the first public chain) and then opening another door to access a second room (the second public chain). Before entering each door, there are security checks, identity verification, and the risk of encountering dishonest validators or hackers. This entire process is not only risky but also time-consuming.

However, with ZetaChain’s unified approach depicted in Figure 2, the zEVM module and ZRC-20 token standard integrate all contract addresses into a single application. Now users can easily interact with cross-chain operations without the need for third-party communication. It’s a more time and cost-effective solution, providing increased security.

In terms of security, think of it like navigating within your own house — you can simply send a message to the people in another room (another blockchain). Since the contract corresponding to that room is the same, it easily receives the notice in advance, avoiding any unnecessary risks. This asset integration on ZetaChain creates a unified liquidity pool across different blockchains, leading to improved price accuracy for users.

In summary, ZetaChain’s Omnichain Smart Contracts act as an efficient multitool for building dApps, offering simplicity, security, and interconnectedness among various blockchain networks. Just like how a multitool brings convenience and effectiveness to construction tasks, ZetaChain revolutionizes the way dApps are developed and operated in the decentralized world.

#10: Natural Vegetative Propagation

A ZetaChain Omnichain Smart Contract operates similarly to natural vegetative propagation in plants, where new plants emerge from the roots, stems, or leaves of the parent plant without any human intervention. In the world of blockchain, this is akin to Omnichain Smart Contracts accessing and managing native assets on any external chain directly, without the need for intermediaries like human-operated bridges.

Much like how a fern or moss can naturally grow and combine with other plant species, Omnichain Smart Contracts can interact with multiple blockchains (like X chain or Y chain) and leverage their unique characteristics to develop new and innovative Omnichain dApps.

Developers can utilize this technology by writing and deploying EVM-compatible smart contracts that benefit from ZetaChain’s universal connectivity. This means they can tap into Ethereum’s robust smart contract ecosystem and create truly interoperable applications on top of ZetaChain, making it appear as if everything is operating on a single unified chain. This seamless integration opens up new possibilities for decentralized applications and enables a more efficient and interconnected blockchain ecosystem.