Nano: Fast and Free Bitcoin Analog

Superorder.io
Superorder
Published in
5 min readJun 26, 2019

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Disclaimer: the cryptocurrency industry is extremely volatile and unpredictable. Superorder isn’t responsible for any consequences of your investments. Always do your own research before making a deal.

Yeah, yeah, this article is about blockchain 3.0 project but it also has “Bitcoin” in the title. No paradoxes! Nano is a DAG-based cryptocurrency so it obviously falls into the category of 3.0 projects. Simultaneously, this system is all about transnational quick and cheap payments without extra stuff like apps or smart contracts. Nothing redundant, only one core goal and pretty polished tech. Let’s talk about Nano and the crypto community behind it.

Feel free to check other guides about innovative blockchain projects. Some of them like IOTA also feature unusual architecture such as DAG. Others utilize different options to improve scalability, e.g. sharding in Zilliqa.

Nano Basics

In a nutshell, the project is pretty clean and understandable. Nano is based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) that is not blockchain at all. It allows users to launch numerous tiny chains that process and validate transactions separately but then connects in the single system. Nano also utilizes DPoS for better scalability. Finally, the core goals of the system are borderless and simple zero-fee payments with possible trading automation.

As a result, this cryptocurrency is a market competitive of Bitcoin, Ripple, and hundreds of other traditional coins. However, Nano tries to develop an innovative ecosystem based on the principles of blockchain 3.0.

Nano History and Key Events

Back in 2014, Colin LeMahieu summarized his experience in Dell, AMD, and Qualcomm to create a new project. He called it RaiBlocks and launched in 2015. Three years later, the author rebranded his brainchild to Nano with subsequent price surge of 40%. Developers regularly introduce new nodes with higher efficiency and wallets’ updates.

Today, Nano slowly moves away from pure tech phases to more elaborate business evolution. Recently, authors announced the launch of decentralized trading platform Appia where users will be able to use different currencies. LeMahieu hopes to see high interest in Nano, though. Right now, you can already trade Nano via Superorder!

The team lists four major adoption goals in the actual roadmap:

  1. Enter global markets. Nano plans to be listed at way more crypto exchanges. Now, it’s presented at Huobi, Bitinka, Binance, OKEx, Nanex, and KuCoin only.
  2. Enable merchant services. Nowadays, Nano is pretty limited in terms of acceptance. Authors want to make it easy-to-use, safe, and legit for different merchants.
  3. Develop the Point-of-Sale. To reach the previous goal, devs create the ultimate platform for traders. It will act as a gateway for higher adoption.
  4. Add fiat. Only Bitinka supports NANO/EUR and NANO/USD pairs. Developers want to add more on-ramp options, surely.

Nano Major Features

  • Adapted DAG. The main architecture provides for separate blockchains for each user in the Nano ecosystem. These smaller chains process and verify transactions so the main part has to connect them only.
  • Delegated Proof-of-Stake. This consensus algorithm is similar to DPoS features realized in EOS or other blockchain 3.0 projects. According to it, users can block their funds to vote for validators who define the Nano’s strategy.
  • Pre-cached verifications. Partially, the system also utilizes a Proof-of-Work. Launched wallets pre-cache info for the next transaction once the previous one is sent. This approach lowers spam danger significantly.
  • The single goal of money transfers. Generally, Nano is focused on creating a global network of instant and free payments. It doesn’t provide for additional goals like developing applications or deploying smart contracts.

Nano Advantages

  • Instant transactions. Authors claim that Nano can process thousands of transactions per second but now has only 0.3. It’s possible because the system doesn’t have to wait for updates. Data is updated by its owner and then expanded asynchronously.
  • Lightweight systems. Nano records balances only instead of all amounts. Each deal creates a new block which replaces previous ones so users have light account-chains that host only relevant info.
  • Unlimited scalability. Thanks to the block-lattice structure, Nano increases its scalability with new users, similarly to IOTA. Each participant has its own blockchain called account-chain. Hence, the main system doesn’t suffer from the load.
  • Zero-fee. The most important advantage of the project. No fees have to be paid for miners and validators because of two reasons. Firstly, Nano is non-mineable. Secondly, it’s light so token-based payment systems aren’t needed at all.

Nano Drawbacks

  • Low global adoption. Sadly but this pretty polished and efficient project that lacks nearly all drawbacks of Bitcoin isn’t as popular as its rivals. Merchants and ordinary customers just aren’t interested in it. Yet.
  • No fiat tools. Apart from fiat-crypto coin pairs supported by a single crypto exchange, Nano doesn’t provide features related to traditional currencies. Inside the chain, it’s impossible to trade USD for NANO, for example.
  • No off-chain transactions. Unlike IOTA, Nano works with records inside the system only. Actually, account-chains in DAG aim at the same result of quick and cheap transactions. But, technically, they can’t be considered off-chain features.

Nano Price, Trading & Investing Tips

Currently, Nano is placed at the 48th position in the worldwide crypto ranking. Its price is slightly lower than $1.5 but it was higher than $30 at the peak! The market cap is almost $200 billion today.

You may be wondering why such a tech-savvy project isn’t as successful as competitors. The problem is that investors aren’t interested in the coin. There are way more popular projects with the same goals and a bigger audience. It’s a big problem of the modern crypto community that prices aren’t driven with the real value of projects but based on the interest and hype, often.

For traders, we’d suggest spectating the coin. That’s it. The maximum range of trading is $0.5 so it’s possible to succeed in day trading crypto but not greatly. You want to follow news and open long positions right before the next big move like the launch of Appia or listing by a new crypto exchange.

Investors don’t have bright perspectives with Nano, sadly. We can hope for huge surge related to wider adoption but, let’s be honest, more successful projects are on the rise now. Still, you can grab some tokens to diversify portfolio but be sure not to invest a lot. Up to 5% will be good.

Don’t forget to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages with all the important updates about the trading automation and various tools for traders. And join the crypto trading terminal Superorder that also supports Nano. See you!

NANO/USD

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