Zilliqa

Zilliqa was developed by a team of academics and engineers, including Xinshu Dong as the CEO. The project was born out of research conducted at the National University of Singapore, aiming to tackle the scalability limitations of existing blockchain technologies. Max Kantelia and Juzar Motiwalla are also recognized as co-founders, contributing to the platform's foundational development. The team's combined expertise in computing, cybersecurity, and blockchain technology has been instrumental in Zilliqa's design and its focus on scalability and security​​.

The discrepancy in the start dates: 2017 for its conceptual launch and 2019 for its mainnet launch - relates to the project's developmental milestones. Zilliqa's mainnet launch in January 2019 was a significant event, transitioning from the ERC-20 ZIL tokens on the Ethereum blockchain to native ZIL tokens on its own blockchain. This move was a critical step in Zilliqa's evolution, marking the beginning of its operational phase and the ability to support dApps and smart contracts on its platform​​.