December 15, 2022

Tech Update: Features on the Horizon

Season Greetings HZNation!

We hope everyone is having a great holiday season. The dev team wanted to provide some updates on the progress of development.

The team has concluded all the smart contract code changes that include all the features listed in the roadmap and more. We have now entered an active testing period where we will thoroughly battle test the system through scripts and manual tests. This phase of the development has an unpredictable ETA as we will continuously make code adjustments as we encounter any issues, but it is expected to go well into Q1 2023. Following our internal test phase, we will enlist a security audit firm to further validate the security of the smart contracts. Once all internal tests and external security audits have completed, we will release everything onto the mainnet over several updates and release documentation updates on Horizon Academy.

On the product front, the design team has been activated 1and are working to design the next generation of Horizon Protocol, which will include a completely new version for Horizon Exchange and many updates Horizon Genesis to support all the new smart contract features and improvements to the overall UX. The frontend team will begin implementing when designs have taken some shape.

Smart Contract Update Features

Below is a list of features mentioned in our previous announcements as well as an additional one. More additional features will be detailed out in our next roadmap update.

Collateralized Loans

Users will be able to borrow zUSD using either the native currency BNB or any BEP-20 token.

This will help improve the supply of zUSD beyond what is minted from HZN staking to help meet the increased demand for zUSD we expect for when Futures trading is launched. These loans will be overcollateralized but to a lesser degree than the issuance ratio of HZN as the underlying collateral is expected to be less volatile than HZN making the zUSD mint more capital efficient. Furthermore, this will add a new zUSD revenue flow for HZN stakers as interests collected from loans.

Collateralized Shorts

Users will be able to open overcollateralized spot short positions on any zAsset in Horizon Protocol using zUSD. This will allow users to gain inverse price exposure to all tradable assets on Horizon Exchange, but will differ from short positions created in the futures market. These shorts, similar to loans, will also generate a zUSD revenue for HZN stakers from interests collected.

Native BNB and BEP-20 Token Wrappers

This will allow users to wrap the native BNB token and any BEP-20 token into its equivalent zAsset counterpart at a 1:1 ratio. This will create zAsset onramp which will improve the overall supply of zAssets at a 100% capital efficiency. A small fee will be incurred on the wrapping/unwrapping mechanism at a rate that is competitive to the open market and will be another source of revenue for HZN stakers.

zAsset Perpetual Futures Market

A synthetic perpetual futures market on Horizon Exchange will enable both leveraged long and short exposures to a range of assets using zUSD as the margin denominator. This will give users a more power and capital efficient trading experience and similar to the synthetic spot exchange, will have no slippage and unlimited liquidity. Due to the leveraged positions on the futures market, a higher volume of fees will be generated for HZN stakers as revenue as well.

[New] Dynamic Trading Fees

This will introduce a dynamic trading fee mechanism that will increase based on market volatility and will remove oracle frontrunning opportunities which can occur during these times. With the deployment of this mechanism, the waiting period that occurs after each trade on Horizon Exchange can be completely eliminated which should greatly improve the current spot trading experience.

More to share in our next roadmap update!

2023 will be an exciting year for Horizon Protocol with many new planned features and releases to come. We will keep you guys up to date on our progress and look forward to hearing your questions and feedback!

‍