Nano (XNO)

About Nano (XNO)

What Is Nano (XNO)?

Nano (XNO) is a lightweight cryptocurrency designed to offer secure, instant payments without fees, addressing major limitations of traditional financial systems and other modern cryptocurrencies. It’s promoted as “digital money for the modern world” because of its ability to facilitate fast, fee-free, and efficient transactions.

The development of Nano began in 2014 under the name RaiBlocks, with the coin (XRB) launching in 2015 through a public faucet, where users could claim small amounts of XRB after solving captchas. Over time, the amount of XRB given per captcha solved varied. In January 2018, RaiBlocks was rebranded to Nano to better reflect the project’s emphasis on speed and simplicity.

Nano is a peer-to-peer platform built around a unique block-lattice data structure, enabling direct value transfers between users without the need for centralized intermediaries. Instead of relying on mining networks for consensus like traditional cryptocurrencies, Nano uses a system known as Open Representative Voting (ORV). In ORV, account holders vote for representatives who confirm transaction blocks securely. This method makes Nano significantly more energy-efficient compared to proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

In November 2021, Nano introduced a new ticker, XNO, and a standardized symbol, Ӿ, to align with global standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Who Are the Founders of Nano (XNO)?

Nano was founded by Colin LeMahieu, a highly experienced software developer and engineer with a background working at prominent companies like Dell, AMD, and Qualcomm. LeMahieu, who is also the Director of the Nano Foundation, began full-time work on Nano in 2017 and has pushed the majority of commits to Nano’s GitHub repository.

In addition to LeMahieu, the Nano Foundation comprises a diverse team, including George Coxon, an Industrial Fellow and Strategic Advisor, and various other contributors. As of early 2023, the Nano Foundation transitioned to a fully volunteer-led operating model.

What Makes Nano Unique?

Nano stands out for its exceptional transaction speed — most Nano transactions are confirmed in less than a second, making it suitable for real-time payments in commercial settings. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies that have transaction delays, Nano offers near-instant finality, meaning merchants and users don’t face the issue of long wait times.

A key feature of Nano is that transactions are fee-less. Since Nano uses representatives instead of miners for network validation, there’s no need to pay transaction fees, which is particularly beneficial for microtransactions where high fees would otherwise be a barrier to small payments.

Nano’s unique architecture is based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) rather than a traditional blockchain. This structure offers high scalability, supporting up to 1,000 transactions per second with the right hardware. Additionally, it doesn’t require the energy-intensive mining networks common in other cryptocurrencies, positioning Nano as an eco-friendly digital payment solution.

How Many Nano (XNO) Coins Are There in Circulation?

Nano has a fixed maximum supply of 133,248,297.92 XNO coins, with no new coins ever being created beyond this number. The original supply limit was higher, but the excess coins were permanently burned, reducing the total supply. Approximately 39% of the original supply was distributed.

What makes Nano particularly unique is that its entire supply is already in circulation, meaning it is fully diluted and highly decentralized. As of December 2020, approximately 20% of all Nano in circulation (around 26 million XNO) was held in cold wallets associated with the Binance exchange.

Additionally, a 5% portion of the circulating supply was reserved for the project’s developer fund to support ongoing development. This fund is crucial for the long-term sustainability and growth of the Nano ecosystem.