Previously used as a privacy coin, Horizen has rebranded to become a Layer 0 blockchain that enables zero-knowledge network of blockchains, due to regulatory pressures that has been hitting privacy coins the entire year.
Horizen works with an Equihash algorithm for consensus as well as being a proof of work blockchain. There are over 41k nodes that are required to stake $ZEN to support the public main blockchain. Hence, users can earn $ZEN by either mining via contribution of hashpower to the network or by running a node. Block rewards are split 70/20/10 to miners, nodes and treasury respectively.
Horizen only has 10 blockchains and dapps on their ecosystem, which seems low, but they are in 11 mining pools, 47 exchanges and 17 wallet compatibility. As projects become more and more privacy focused, I would not be surprised if more dapps are onboarded into the ecosystem within the next 12 months.
They also have a faucet that provides you free $ZEN everyday via captcha, and provides a great throwback to the bitcoin faucet, which is extremely fun. Although a small amount, the process is simple and I am in the midst of withdrawing the rewards. Show Less