0x, created by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali in 2016, is an open-source protocol designed to facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of Ethereum tokens. The 0x platform allows the exchange of tokenized assets such as stocks, gold, real estate, and certain financial services. The goal is to promote interoperability between decentralized applications (DApps), which include decentralized exchanges (DEX).

The parties operating the DEX and building on 0x are known as relayers. They host off-chain order books and have the option to charge for their work. 0x itself does not stipulate that users have to pay to use the platform.

The ZRX token has two main use cases within the blockchain. The first is paying relayers for their services. The second to empower ZRX token holders to have a say in the blockchain’s governance. This gives the project decentralization: all holders of ZRX have a say over how the project is run, proportional to what they hold.  

What is 0x (ZRX) trying to achieve?

Simply put, 0x is trying to make it easier to switch from one token to another on the blockchain. It accomplishes this by making token exchange much faster.

Traditional cryptocurrency exchanges are expensive, which is one of the problems 0x is trying to address. Even for decentralized exchanges, 0x is looking to reduce costs and address slow transaction times, and lack of liquidity. 

Unlike most decentralized ledgers, which record every transaction on the blockchain, 0x instead waits for transactions to settle off-chain before sending the orders on-chain. 

How much 0x (ZRX) is on the market?

0x has capped ZRX supply at 1 billion tokens. 500 million were sold to the public through an initial coin offering (ICO) for a total of $24 million dollars.

There is a circulating supply of 720,082,673 ZRX

What the bears are saying about 0x (ZRX)

Too tied to Ethereum: The 0x protocol was designed to be used on the Ethereum network with ERC-20 tokens. Ethereum faces stiff competition from emerging networks such as EOS, Cardano, and more. For 0x to succeed, Ethereum must also.

Adoption is lacking: Many analysts thought that decentralized exchanges would change the way investors trade due to their lower fees and faster transaction times, But Exchanges such as Binance & Coinbase show that users are more concerned by user experience than fees.

What the bulls are saying about 0x (ZRX)

No fees: Who wouldn’t like a service where there were no fees?

A credible protocol that is running DApps: 0x has already successfully hosted DApps such as the prediction marketplace Augur. Dharma and dydx are other examples of DApps that are running on the 0x network. Successful proofs of concepts like this underline the credibility of the project.