Nano (NANO) is a cryptocurrency that was launched back in 2014 (announced to the public in 2015), and it was designed specifally for better speed and efficiency. It also offers a high level of scalability and a zero fees policy. Colin LeMahieu came up with the idea of Nano to solve some problems that people still experience with Bitcoin blockchain. One of the biggest problems with Bitcoin is that every time it performs a transaction, it doesn’t contain the entire chain’s information.
One of the biggest differences between Nano and most of the other cryptocurrencies is that Nano uses a combination of directed acyclic graph technology and blockchain and provides each account with its very own blockchain. This unique feature is one of the reasons why the Nano community is one of the most solid ones in the whole crypto world. This article contains all the information that you need to know about Nano (NANO).
Brief History of Nano Coin
Nano, at the time of its creation, was known as Raiblocks (XRB), and the name was changed in early 2018. Nano came with a CAPTCHA faucet system (for initial distribution) instead of the usual distribution methods such as Proof-of-Work mining, airdrops, ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), etc.
Yes, it’s like the same CAPTCHA that you normally come across while using the internet, as shown in the picture below.
However, later in 2017, when Bitcoin was struggling with the scalability issues, Nano became more popular during the crypto bull run. It was the time when one single transaction on Bitcoin was taking days, and the transaction fee per transaction was even more than 55 US dollars.
Because of these reasons, the crypto community started noticing Nano (NANO) that allows the user to have instant and completely free transactions. Therefore, the price of a single Nano coin from 2017 December to 2018 January increased by over 100 times. It got so much attention that an exchange (Bitgrail) which was the only one at that time from where the users could purchase Nano coins, got hacked. Resultantly, users lost about 170 million US dollars in Nano coins. Later on, the cryptocurrency experienced many other hacking attacks and scams. That’s when using Nano Wallets became very famous, and it’s now one of the safest ways to keep your Nano (NANO) safe.
How Does Nano Work?
Just like IOTA (MIOTA), Nano (NANO) uses DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) algorithm, but rather than using DAG for the tangle, the network uses block-lattice, which is its novel technology. It generally works like a traditional blockchain, but there are a few differences. Nano offers a native protocol known as account-chain to start an account, and only the users on the account-chain can update or change their individual chain. This functionality allows every account-chain to be modified asynchronously. In simple words, it means that without relying upon the entire network, you can easily send and update blocks using your own account-chain.
In order to achieve it, you’ll need to fulfill a couple of transactions on block-lattice of Nano to send any funds. These transactions are “a sender transaction” and “a receiver transaction,” respectively. Until the receiving party signs for the block confirming that they have received the funds, no transactions will be fulfilled. The transaction will remain unsettled if only the sender party has signed the block.
Nano uses UDP (User Datagram Protocol) for all the transactions that it performs. Not only does it keep the overall computing cost and processing power low, but it also enables the sender to send the funds even if the receiver is not online.
Block-Lattice Ledger
Another important feature of the block-lattice is the way its ledger stores and handles transactions. Every new transaction on Nano is its own new block that replaces the earlier one on the account-chain of the user. Every new block records the current balance of the account holder and incorporates it into the new transaction processing in order to maintain the correct account history. For example, if you want to send Nano to someone, the system will make the difference between the balance on your current block and the preceding one to verify the transaction. On the other hand, the balance on the current block of the receiver will have the addition of the received amount and the amount on the receiver’s preceding block.
The Nano system also keeps the record of the balance of each account on its main ledger. But unlike the traditional distributed ledger, it doesn’t contain the complete history of all the transactions. It means that the system only takes the record of the current account standing on its main ledger in the form of account balances.
Advantages of Nano Block-Lattice Infrastructure
As mentioned, Nano is not only fast, but it doesn’t charge any fee as well. Here are some of its advantages that you need to know.
Scalability Solutions
The transactions that the users make on Nano platforms are managed independently from the main chain of the network. Moreover, the transactions are also fit into a single UDB (Users Datagram Protocol) packet, and they are stored in the users’ block. This way, the nodes don’t need to manage a detailed record of all the transactions taking place on the network. Rather than maintaining the whole transaction history, the network only needs to store the current balance standing of each account on the network’s ledger, and resultantly, it eliminates the block size issue.
On the other hand, until the complete block is successfully made into the blockchain, any transaction can’t be cleared on the traditional distributed ledger of Bitcoin. The blocks on bitcoin work as detailed ledgers that contain all the financial information of the network. It means that these blocks contain the entire transaction history of the Bitcoin Network. Because of a load of information on the blocks, the users experience a very high transaction fee and sluggish transaction time. The lightweight infrastructure of Nano (NANO) offers improved scalability as compared to all the other legacy blockchains.
In simple words, most of the decentralized currencies have inherently limited protocols, such as the theoretical limit of Bitcoin is 7 transactions per second. On the other hand, the Nano platform doesn’t have any theoretical limit because it scales it with the help of its nodes’ hardware. The live Nano network has multiple times confirmed that it could easily carry out more than 100 transactions per second.
Improved Latency
On Nano Network, each account has its own chain, and the users can modify asynchronously, thanks to account-chains. It’s entirely up to the sender and the receiver to complete the fund transfer transactions because of its dual-transaction implementation. Not only does it pave the pathway to achieve feeless and almost instant transactions. But it also entirely eliminates the need for miners as well.
So, it’s completely safe to say that Nano (NANO) is one of the fastest decentralized currencies available out there. The average transaction time of the Nano network is less than one second.
Decentralization and Energy Efficiency
Nano uses DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) in order to keep the network safe and secure. If the network experiences any discrepancies due to conflicting transactions, these delegates vote to verify certain transactions as valid. As compared to the proof of work mechanism of Bitcoin, the DPoS offers several benefits.
One of the biggest advantages of DPoS is that the system safeguards itself from the different mining attacks. Moreover, if any problem occurs, the delegates only verify the transactions because of the network’s block-lattice structure. Therefore, operating a node on Nano consumes way less energy as compared to running on the proof of work models. Moreover, Nano doesn’t rely on miners to perform costly proof of work in order to secure the network. It means that the energy consumption of the network is very light. To put it in perspective, you can literally perform six million Nano transactions, and all of them will consume the same amount of energy that a single Bitcoin transaction does.
You Can Test Nano Without Actually Purchasing it
You can test Nano without purchasing it as it’s completely fee-less and allows you for the community-driven faucets. From there, you can actually transfer NANO in a little amount to your Nano wallet for testing purposes.
Nano Protects the Network Against Spams
All the users need to perform a simple and small proof of work calculation before making any transaction. This proof of work can be easily verified 20 million times faster as compared to its generation time.
What Incentive Does the Node Owners Get if there is No Fee?
As we have already discussed, Nano was initially distributed completely free through a CAPTCHA faucet system. This system was closed back in 2017, and out of 133 million, 126 million were distributed, and the remaining 7 million were allocated as the developer fund. If you want to run a Nano node, then you can do it for about 20 US dollars per month, and users who will be incentivized if:
- Investors who want to grow their investments
- Vendors who, because of the lack of fees, save money
- Exchanging that buy and sell node are benefitted from people
On the other cryptocurrencies only, the miners are incentivized, and that’s not the case with Nano. There is a fixed supply of Nano which is more than 133 million coins, and all of them are currently in circulation.
Nano Transactions are Irreversible
Most of the decentralized systems of cryptocurrencies come with probabilistic finality. It means that you can never be 100 percent guaranteed that your transaction is final. On the other hand, the Nano network comes with a deterministic finality which means that the transaction will be 100 percent irreversible. Once the receiver observes a 51 percent weight of voting from his/her representative node, it means that the transaction can’t be reversed. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t even take one second.
Healthy Network
There is literally no downtime that the Nano user has to experience. Moreover, there is no recorded instance where the network even went out of work.
Completely Decentralized Network
Many cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have grown less decentralized over the course of time. That’s because of how miners are incentivized to create larger pools. That’s not the case with Nano, as it doesn’t rely on the miners to operate and keep the network running. It means that no incentives can pull the network towards centralization. In fact, Nano is growing more decentralized with time, and it has already superseded Bitcoin in this regard.
Suitable for Charity
Yes, Nano is a perfect match for charity, and you can use different apps such as WeNano. Such apps allow you to create a spot anywhere on the planet, and people can collect your donations from there. Moreover, as there are no fees, it also makes Nano feasible for tipping, and you can achieve it via Nano Twitter Tip Bot or Nano Reddit Tipper.
Highly Divisible
If you wish to divide 200 US dollars Bitcoin between 10 different accounts, you’ll be left with no amount of money. That’s because of the high transaction fee. On the other hand, there is no transaction fee on Nano. You can easily divide it down up to 30 decimals as there is no lower fee that a user needs to maintain to hold his/her account.
Nano (NANO) Trading History
Just like most cryptocurrencies, Nano experienced an impressive rise up in the last couple of years. The cryptocurrency increased its value in December 2018 dramatically and reached a staggering 35 US dollars per coin. Later on, Nano (NANO) has fallen from grace, and the current price of a single NANO is 5.12 US dollars. It’s still pretty high as compared to what it was in early 2019 (0.95 US dollars per coin).
How Does Nano (NANO) Make Money?
You must be wondering if the network doesn’t charge a single penny from the users on transactions, then how does it make money. The developers and the team behind this cryptocurrency don’t earn a profit or make money in the traditional way how the whole business world does. In fact, the network is funded by the 7 million NANO development fund. This fund was created back in October 2017 from the Nano supply, which in total is over 133 million NANOs.
Other than this development fund, the Nano network doesn’t have any other source of income, apparently. Many crypto experts and critics suggest that the absence of any regular source of income can be a big problem down the line for the network.
Nano Community
In spite of the hacking attacks and fall in price, Nano still has a very strong internet community. It’s certainly because of the useful and innovative features that the network has to offer. You can be a part of it by joining the Reddit Nano community, which has its own subreddit for the network. For the latest Nano news and to discuss your concerns about Nano, you can join the official Nano forum. You can also start following the Nano Coin Twitter to keep up with the latest development and up-gradation.
Nano RoadMap
As mentioned, the Nano network already offers a great set of features for instant and free crypto payments. The development team behind still has some impressive future goals in their pipeline. Some of the most significant ones are as follows:
- Making their white paper documentation and website available in multiple languages
- Community managers for recruitment to spread more awareness regarding cryptocurrency in several national and international markets.
- Adding easier and more methods for the Nano users to purchase Nano by using regular currencies such as Korean Won, Japanese Yen, Euro, US Dollar, etcetera.
- Making it easy for the investors and merchants to join the Nano community in real life
All in all, cryptocurrency has already come a very long way with its innovations and creative development. The Nano community is more excited than ever to see what the platform does next.
Where to Buy Nano Coins?
If you already own other cryptocurrencies, then you can convert that to Nano by using a crypto wallet. Many wallets come with a currency exchange feature that allows you to convert your one digital currency into another.
On the other hand, if you don’t already own any cryptocurrency, then you can buy Nano by using online platforms such as Kraken or Coinswitch. You can use your local government currency such as USD, EURO, etcetera to buy Nano (NANO). However, not all the exchanges allow you to buy Nano (NANO) directly with your local currency. So, you’ll need to buy a more popular cryptocurrency such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, etcetera first, and then you can convert it to Nano.
Where to Store Your Nano (NANO)?
The incidents such as the successful hacking attack in Bitgrail have shown the world that it’s of utmost importance to store your digital currency in a secure wallet.
Nano Coin Wallet
If you want to store your Nano (NANO) in a wallet that’s dedicatedly built for Nano, then the following options will suit you the best:
- Natrium: For smartphone users
- NanoVault: Supports desktop as well and also comes as a hardware wallet
- BrainBlocks: For web users
If you want a wallet that comes with a great set of advanced features and supports multiple cryptocurrencies, then you can go for the following:
How to Earn Nano Coin
The best way to earn Nano Coin is to use a faucet. Keep in mind that all the faucets available now won’t enable you to earn as many Nano Coins as the original faucet did. But you can still receive a small amount to get the hang of it. Here is a list of some of the Nano faucets that you can use to achieve it.
Can You Mine Nano Coin?
Unfortunately, all the Nano Coins are in circulation, and you can’t mine them like other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The best way to get Nano is to either buy it or earn it through the faucet.
Where to Use Your Nano Coin?
One of the most important questions that many people ask about cryptocurrency is where to spend it and what to buy. The answer is Coinsbee which is a single-stop platform to spend not only your Nano coin but also other cryptocurrencies. It supports more than 50 different digital currencies, and you can purchase vouchers and Giftcards for NANO, mobile phone top-up with Nano. It supports more than 500 national and international brands, and the platform is available in more than 165 countries.
You can buy gift cards with NANO on Coinsbee for many world-famous eCommerce stores such as eBay NANO gift cards, Amazon NANO gift cards, etcetera. It also supports all the major gaming stores, and you can buy steam NANO gift cards, PlayStation Giftcards NANO, XBOX Live, and more.
Future of Nano
Since its inception, the development team behind NANO has made impressive efforts to keep its community well-served and updated. The platform provided its users with Universal Blocks that consolidated the previous four different block types into one. Not only did this feature bring more scalability, but it also improved the efficiency of the whole system.
The Nano Network plans to bring many new features in the near future to make the adaptation process even easier.
Final Thoughts
Nano network is undoubtedly a great solution for the latency and scalability problems that users have to experience with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It also helps the users by cutting back on the power consumption that now defines the mining by proof of work mechanism. If the Nano continues to work with the same mechanism that it currently does and figures out the right regular source of income, you might be actually
