With so many cryptocurrencies currently flooding the market place, navigating your way around them can be a challenge. Even those who have been in the game since Bitcoin’s earliest days are finding themselves dizzied by the sheer volume of new cryptocurrencies out there. It certainly takes a lot for a new coin to stand out from the crowd.
Nano isn’t exactly a new coin. It first appeared on the scene in 2015, under its original name – RaiBlocks. RaiBlocks, and now Nano, stood out from the crowd largely because it was the first cryptocurrency that wasn’t trying to do anything other than work as a currency. “Do one thing, and do it well” has become something of an unofficial slogan when it comes to Nano, and it is this simplicity that is at the heart of Nano’s promise.
There’s No Mining
Let’s get this one out off the way first, because while many people understand the basic principle of cryptocurrency mining, its downsides to the coins it supports are often overlooked. There are problems inherent in mining, although some coins manage them better than others. Not every coin works like Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is by far the best known cryptocurrency, and is responsible for the overwhelming majority of all cryptocurrency mining worldwide.
You can read about the scale of Bitcoin’s issues surrounding mining and energy consumption in more detail here. In short, the more miners there are on the Bitcoin network, the more energy is required to mine each block of Bitcoin. With many coming to view Bitcoin as digital gold, there is now a staggering amount of electricity being used for Bitcoin mining. Every year, this energy usage is equivalent to the energy used by the entire nation of Ireland!
Another problem with Bitcoin mining is that it is beginning to work to decentralise the network. Bitcoin miners pool their computing power in order to solve hashes and mine blocks faster. The more miners there are in these pools, the greater their chances of solving the hash. Once the hash is solved, the rewards of the block are divided between the miners, with the block creator receiving the lion’s share.
If, hypothetically, the block creator and the pool of miners represent the same mining operation, the whole block is essentially being earned by one person / entity. Even if this single unit only accounts for a majority, or significant portion, of the pool, they can make some considerably above average rewards. This encourages those with access to the necessary resources to attempt to seize control of the network’s blocked. These blocks are how new Bitcoins are created, and with the value of each Bitcoin continuing to rise (and occasionally fall), there is a clear incentive for the biggest mining operations to act in this way.
Nano, on the other hand, has no miners. All the Nano that will ever exist, already exists! All 133,248,289 XRB / Nano was distributed when RaiBlocks first launched. And considering that the smallest unit of Nano (1 raw) is equal to 10^-24 Nano, there’s plenty of raw to go around!
This distribution used Captcha system, meaning that any computer, regardless of power, could be used to gain some of those initial coins. It is conceivable that, via the use of Captcha solving bots, some individuals could have harvested much more of this initial offering than was intended. However, there is no evidence that anything like this has happened at an appreciable scale.
It’s Very Low Power
The absence of any mining with Nano doesn’t just affect the supply of the coin. It also means that using Nano requires much less power than Bitcoin. As we mentioned earlier, Bitcoin mining requires an enormous amount of energy. Sending Bitcoin also uses energy. In fact, as calculated by Digiconomist, a single Bitcoin transfer uses enough energy (330kWh) to run the average house in the US for a week!
Meanwhile, Nano is among the most environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies out there. A single Nano transaction requires 1Wh = 0.001kWh. That means that a single Bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of energy as 330,000 Nano transactions. For each Nano transaction, the only energy used is the very small amount of power required to perform the necessary proof of work (PoW) using your device’s CPU.
Its low power nature also confers other benefits. For example, like all blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, albeit with a different design to most, nodes are needed to validate every transaction Nano transaction. By opening a Nano wallet, you are becoming a node. You can also set up your own node, and in the long-term the network will be dependant upon this network of volunteer nodes in order to function properly.
With such a lightweight protocol, even when a wallet running on a low-end computer or smartphone needs to use processing power, it uses a miniscule amount, and only for a very short time.
It’s Fast And Feeless
That lightweight protocol means that the Nano transaction speed is lightning fast. In most cases, transfers are essentially instantaneous. All that’s required is that trivial electricity spend on PoW that we mentioned earlier, which barely takes any time at all, even on a low-end CPU.
Nano now holds the distinction of being the fastest coin, to deposit on Binance, edging out second-place Stellar Lumens by 2 seconds. Nano’s deposit time is a mere 3 seconds to Stellar Lumens 5. Both coins scored the same block time and deposit time. It is worth noting that only the fastest 5 coins, of all the many cryptocurrencies that are traded on Binance, can boast deposit times of less than one minute.
Transactions using Nano are completely feeless. There is a theoretical cost associated with the PoW calculations, but other than this, Nano costs nothing to use. Running a Nano node is very cheap, especially when you compare it to the costs to businesses of processing thousands of credit and debit card transactions.
Nano is one of the most exciting and innovative cryptocurrencies to ever appear. For any coin to stand out amongst the ever-growing field of contenders vying for a slice of what Bitcoin has achieved, is quite an achievement. Nano almost sounds too good to be true, but you can verify the validity of the tech for yourself. Check out this guide to getting started with Nano, and join the revolution. You can read more about why Nano is set to revolutionise cryptocurrencies here.
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Nano: xrb_3xt996ctuaas1ftqo8i4gk8dugpgzp54foaphtp69qk4rx6b7swoghfzuy33
BTC: 13bb4tL8XmPeEEqpfKrzjGa5XggFtMyULx
ETH: 0x53D7ec687eE3149B9795Bede183D093be87d7eB3