In response to the EU's adoption of new AML crypto regulations in March 2022, which mandated user identification for transactions over 1000 EUR, Horizen faced a significant regulatory challenge. Subsequently crypto exchange Huobi delisted several anonymous cryptos, including $ZEN.
In response, by an announcement on June 28th 2023, Horizen declared a strategic shift in its identity. It decided to discontinue its status as a privacy coin + reposition itself as a crypto primarily intended for use as an asset.
To achieve this transformation, Horizen's development team received community approval for the implementation of the Zen 4.1 version, scheduled for deployment in September. This new version will involve the removal of the transaction anonymization feature from the blockchain, resulting in ZEN no longer being an anonymous coin.
As a result of these changes, Horizen will now function as a layer 0 blockchain, after depreciating the shielded pools on its main chain. While this strategic shift aligns with regulatory requirements, my rating for this project has now subsequently gone down as I liked it for being a privacy coin and not a layer 0 blockchain. Show Less
