With the increasing prosperity of the Solana ecosystem, the introduction of BTC into Solana’s DeFi is also emerging. Zeus, as one of the outstanding projects, ranks first in the voting rankings on Jupiter’s launch platform. Why does it have such high popularity?
Zeus Introduction
Zeus is a cross-chain communication network aimed at facilitating permissionless communication between the Solana and Bitcoin ecosystems. The ecosystem mainly consists of two DeFi protocols, Apollo and Artemis, with Apollo primarily responsible for bringing BTC into Solana.
Apollo achieves this by issuing 1:1 pegged zBTC to inject BTC liquidity into Solana. Liquidity providers on A chain do not return their liquidity to B chain, with assets being locked and protected by the protocol. The APOLLO framework includes two-way pegging (2WP), liquidity management, and revenue management. APOLLO serves as an integrator for decentralized liquidity management and acts as a custodian for zBTC.
Through a flexible hot/cold reserve design to facilitate the management of 1:1 pegging, the circulating supply of zBTC is closely related to the total locked value (TVL) of SOL and LSD-SOL. Apollo will also introduce its own token in the future.
After integration, zBTC can be utilized on platforms like Solend, marginfi, Kamino Finance for lending to turn BTC into earning assets. Users who participated in Jupiter’s launch voting for Zeus will have priority access to the Apollo testnet.
According to official data, as of March 24, the total TVL of Zeus has exceeded 13 million USD.
Zeus Architecture
The Zeus architecture mainly includes four components: validators, nodes, consensus mechanism, and security mechanism. The validation process is executed on a decentralized and permissionless group model. To become a validator, individuals need to run nodes.
The Zeus node system consists of multiple components, including peer-to-peer, broadcasting, signature (with signature aggregation) off-chain services, and dual-purpose registration services that can be executed on-chain and off-chain. Possible modifications to enhance the system’s extensibility include implementing alternative signature algorithms, integrating broadcast service interfaces to support different chains like Bitcoin L2, EVM, MoveVM, and developing on-chain registry programs or smart contracts using various programming languages such as Solidity, Move, etc.
In terms of consensus mechanism, validators focus solely on validation, separate from on-chain transactions. Validators implement a threshold signature mechanism, with Bitcoin’s main root utilizing the Schnorr signature. This concept extends to Solana’s Ed25519 signature algorithm. Off-chain signature aggregation improves efficiency compared to on-chain voting, facilitating the smooth broadcasting of signature transactions to Solana. Additional protection layers include fraud proofs and assumptions of honest validator behavior.
Economic security is strengthened through the design or implementation of Slash programs. Operating under honest assumptions, the framework requires at least one honest validator, with each node incentivized to submit fraud proofs (identifying unauthorized transactions) to the program, consequently receiving a certain proportion of Slash funds as a reward.
To ensure the integrity of operations signed by Zeus validators, there is a “challenge period” after any such operation. This period includes locking and unlocking of Bitcoin, Solana withdrawals, allocation, and minting or burning operations.
Tokenomics
The total supply of Zeus tokens is 1 billion, allocated as follows:
Ecosystem and community growth (45%):
10% for TGE, remaining portion unlocks after 12 months;
Foundation (20%):
10% for TGE, remaining portion unlocks after 12 months;
Team (15%):
Unlocks after 15 months, released linearly over 15 months;
Early supporters (10%):
5% for TGE, remaining portion unlocks after 3 months, released linearly over 15 months;
Launchpad (5%):
100% for TGE;
Advisors (5%):
5% for TGE, remaining portion unlocks after 6 months, released linearly over 15 months;
Zeus Network will airdrop ZEUS to 300,291 unique addresses, including:
181889 addresses that participated in Jupiter LFG Launchpad voting;
114772 zuPoint holders addresses;
3630 Dappie Gang NFT holders addresses.
The token has various utilities within the Zeus network, including running Zeus nodes, fee sharing, cross-chain (e.g., BTC) staking activities.
Roadmap
According to official documentation, Zeus’s main goal is to launch nodes, ZEUS token staking, and BTC staking features by the end of this year. Specifically, the second quarter of this year will see the “Muses upgrade,” focusing on developing Zeus nodes for the network to run smoothly. The third quarter will involve the “Gaia upgrade,” providing staking services for ZEUS and BTC to earn rewards. The fourth quarter will see the “Athena upgrade,” mainly releasing programming libraries for ecosystem project development, including integrating browsers, collecting relay fees, etc.
In conclusion, earlier this month, Zeus announced that it had received angel investments from industry-known figures like Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mechanism Capital founder Andrem Kang, and Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali. With endorsements from prominent figures, projects in the Solana ecosystem, and the backing of Jupiter’s first launch project, the public offering event on April 4 may attract significant attention.