What Is Nano (XNO)?

Nano is a decentralized, sustainable, and secured digital payment protocol designed to be accessible and lightweight. The protocol is focused on addressing the inefficiencies in existing financial systems. So, the Nano protocol was designed to provide a unique and straightforward peer-to-peer transfer of value.

XNO is the native currency of the platform. XNO makes it possible to empower individuals with efficient and accessible digital currency that connects them to the global economy with minimal impact. Importantly, to adopt global standards, Nano has rebranded to a new ticker XNO and symbol Ӿ. Previously the symbol was N, and the ticker was NANO.

Nano aims to create a digital currency experience that has no fuss, no fees, and no waiting policy. Thereby, it tries to make Nano suitable for everyday transactions.

To achieve this, Nano has a unique transaction methodology. Nano utilizes the block lattice, a data structure that allows individual accounts to control their own blockchain. This method allows adding blocks quickly without ambiguity and sending them to the network for confirmation. Further, transactions between accounts on the network occur with two separate actions. On one end, the sender publishes a block debiting their own account to send the amount to the receiving account. Similarly, the receiver publishes a matching block crediting their own account for the amount sent on the other end.

Once the network confirms a block transferring funds, the transaction enters into a receivable state and cannot be reversed. Until a receiver is ready to publish a matching block and receive the fund in their account, they can safely leave the funds in this state.

Nano's block structure contains all the information, i.e., account number, balance, and representative of an account at that time. Also, every block must have a small, user-generated proof-of-work value and a quality-of-service prioritization mechanism. This allows processing occasional, average user transactions quickly and consistently. A modern desktop CPU typically takes a few seconds to complete a transaction's PoW computation.

In order to safeguard against double-spending and Sybil attacks, Nano has a specific consensus mechanism called Open Representative Voting (ORV). Each account can freely select a representative to vote on their behalf in this mechanism. These representative accounts are configured on nodes that remain online and vote on the validity of transactions on the network. Their voting weight is determined by the sum of balances for accounts delegated to them. They become a “Principal Representative” if they have enough voting weight. The votes these Principal Representatives send out will subsequently be rebroadcast by other nodes.

History of Nano

The project's development started in 2014 under the name RaiBlocks. In the following year, the coin (then termed XRB) was launched through a public faucet. Later in January 2018, RaiBlocks (XRB) was rebranded to Nano. The new name was chosen to better represent the speed and simplicity the project offers to users. As mentioned earlier, again in November 2021, to meet ISO requirements, Nano adopted a new ticker and a standard symbol: XNO and Ӿ.

Colin LeMahieu is the CEO and founder of Nano Foundation, a not-for-profit organization. The foundation advocates and encourages the growth and usability of a secure and decentralized payment network.

LeMahieu is a graduate of Cloud State University. He also served as a software engineer in various companies, such as eLoyalty, Dell, AMD, LabVIEW Core, and Qualcomm.

In order to ensure fair and organic distribution, Nano used a novel CAPTCHA faucet system. The faucet was opened on October 1, 2015. Here, one can complete complex CAPTCHA tests to earn coins. So, anyone with a computer can contribute time and attention instead of the less sustainable mining associated with other projects. This choice enabled Nano to be more accessible to those who could not buy high-powered mining hardware or invest in an ICO. So the unique approach paved the way to distribute Nano to people who had never used it before and helped spread Nano widely across the world.

How to Earn Nano (XNO)

Users can earn Nano in various methods. One popular way is via faucets. In addition, many apps and websites hosted by community members distribute small payouts of Nano for completing simple tasks, gaming, or watching advertisements.