NEM is a revolutionary peer-to-peer crypto platform written in standard Java and JavaScript languages from 100% original source code. NEM was started off with the ambition of making sure digital currency distribution was widespread and fair. The company did have its own share of problems administering this, but in the end, it's now among the most widely distributed coins in the cryptosphere.
NEM has many unique features such as multisignature accounts, encrypted messaging system, and the Eigentrust++ node reputation system. It is for these reasons that NEM is generally viewed as an evolving solution, replete with an outstanding core blockchain technology.
Proof-of-importance (POI).
POI is the algorithm used by NEM to time stamp transactions. The POI algorithm is an alternative to P. O. S. (Proof of Stake) and P. O. W. (Proof of Work) types. P.O.S. enables stakeholders to secure the network while P.O.W. enables miners to secure it. Nem’s proof-of-importance is used to determine who will calculate the next block. A Nem user becomes important through how many coins they control and the amount of transactions they make.
POI is different from other algorithms, which use a fee-sharing model that does not reward one’s overall support and contribution the network. In some proof-of-stake systems a person only needs to have large amounts of coins to form a block; however, in NEM the transaction amount as well as support of the network become a factor. This has been designed to encourage users of NEM to not simply hold NEM but instead actively carry out transactions within the NEM ecosystem.
Spam-Resistant.
Bitcoin has suffered numerous transaction spam attacks whereby attackers flooded the network with small value transactions resulting in the Bitcoin network grinding to a halt. NEM has spam protection in built that kicks in when its blocks are full. The network detects these 'attackers' and makes transaction fees exponentially more expensive for these attackers in relation to the spam they produce while keeping other normal transactions with the normal fees.
Wallets.
Today, NEM's supported wallet is the NanoWallet, a full fledged crypto currency wallet built with JavaScript and HTML. The advantage of being built with standard coding languages is that it can run on most platforms with a browser.
Distribution of Nemcoins.
Approximately 75 percent of the Nemcoins were doled out evenly among close to 3,000 stakeholders. By evenly distributing NEM among stakeholders, it is guaranteed that no one has a huge advantage over others, since each stake holder only controls 0.025 percent of the currency. However that balance might not hold since it's a free market, so at some point a few users will be in control of a lot coins.
Timeline.
NEM announced on Bitcoin Talk forum.
The NEM cryptocurrency was started by a Bitcoin Talk forum user called UtopianFuture after having been inspired by Nxt and wanted to improve upon it. Starting on January 19, 2014, an open call for participation began on bitcointalk.org. The goal was to create a community-oriented cryptocurrency from scratch.
NEM Alpha and Beta Testing.
NEM went through an extensive alpha testing that started on June 25th, 2014, followed by a lengthy and comprehensive beta testing that started on October 20th, 2014. NEM finally launched on March 31th, 2015.
Mijin.
In late 2015, NEM developers partnered with Tech Bureau Corporation on a private block chain project called Mijin based on NEM's open source code. The “Mijin” blockchain is continually developing and enhancing, is a private block chain product whose applicable functionality has been proven as a bank, a microfinance ledger and an electronic money core banking system. All instances have been tested within multiple lines of businesses based on organizational and industry needs/use cases. Several banks in Japan ran successful tests on Mijin, and it achieved 1,500 transactions/second with over 2 million virtual bank accounts.
Catapult.
In April 2016, NEM announced that they would continue work with Tech Bureau; this time on a different project. The focus of their partnership is developing a blockchain engine, codenamed as Catapult, which is meant to be an augmented and newly amended version of the Mijin platform. Some of its features include improvements in throughput, flexibility, stability and overall performance, migration from use of Java to C++ for better performance, and the optimization of network communication.
Further, any system can be used to communicate with Catapult, provided it adheres to the standard web design standard. This flexibility allows for the Catapult blockchain to not only assume 3 important roles - public permission-less, private partially permissioned, and absolutely permissioned - but also allows it to be inter-operable and shareable among different clusters of distributed ledgers.
Chronobank.
As awareness about NEM continues to expand within the crypto scene, it has formed new collaborative relationships. In February2017, ChronoBank a blockchain project that aims to modernize the recruitment sector announced its partnership with NEM to build a separate currency wallet for NEM. ChronoBank would also issue its Labour Hour tokens with the NEM network. ChronoBank would also use on chain multi sig, which is a flagship security feature introduced by NEM.
Ecobit.
Still earlier this year, XEM registered a rapid growth after partnering with EcoBit, in a project supported by Malaysia's Kelantan State Government. The project will manage several acres of tropical rain forest within the region in the next 30 years.
XEM's price chart showed a strong bullish trendline following the EcoBit events. There was an approximate 154% spike in NEM's prices from $0.0037 to $0.0094 from January to March 11, 2017.
Xhai Studios .
On May 13, Malaysia based video game publisher Xhai Studios announced the incorporation of NEM’s distributed ledger technology into its next video games services platform. Xhai Studios plan to implement the NEM block chain so that video game developers can directly distribute their products to gamers cost-effectively and efficiently, getting rid of intermediaries.
500% growth in May.
NEM has made significant gains in the past few months. Analysts have attributed the spike in the market capitalization of NEM and the price of XEM to the exponentially growing alternative cryptocurrency market in Japan. One major factor that is responsible for NEM's increase in popularity in Japan is the fact that the company has Japanese founders and its development team has Japanese talents.
Future of NEM.
NEM has a number of features that can be useful with higher blockchain adoption among financial institutions. You can expect price hikes when new information about NEM or Mijin is released to the public, especially around the Catapult release.