Nano (cryptocurrency)

Last updated
Nano
Nano-logo.svg
Denominations
CodeXNO [lower-alpha 1] (formerly NANO, XRB)
Previous namesRaiBlocks [1]
Precision10−30 (raw)
Development
Original author(s)Colin LeMahieu
White paper "Nano – Digital money for the modern world"
Initial release4 October 2015(8 years ago) (2015-10-04)
Latest release V25.1 "Daric" / 2 June 2023(9 months ago) (2023-06-02)
Code repository github.com/nanocurrency
Development statusActive
Written in C++
Developer(s) Nano Foundation
License FreeBSD
Ledger
Timestamping scheme "Open Representative Voting", a form of proof-of-stake
Hash function Blake2
Issuance scheduleCaptcha faucet (ended 20 October 2017;6 years ago (2017-10-20))
Supply limit133,248,297
Website
Website nano.org
  1. ↑ Compatible with ISO 4217, though is not approved

Nano (Abbreviation: XNO) is a cryptocurrency characterized by a directed acyclic graph data structure and distributed ledger, making it possible for Nano to work without intermediaries. To agree on what transactions to commit (i.e., achieving consensus), it uses a voting system with weight based on the amount of currency an account holds. [2] [3]

Contents

Nano was launched in October 2015 by Colin LeMahieu to address the Bitcoin scalability problem and was created to reduce confirmation times and fees. [4] The currency implements no-fee transactions and achieves confirmation in under one second. [5]

History

Colin LeMahieu started the development of Nano in 2014 under the name "RaiBlocks". [1] [6] A year later, RaiBlocks was distributed for free through a captcha-secured faucet. [7] In 2017, after 126,248,289 RaiBlocks were distributed, the faucet shut down. This fixed the total supply to 133,248,297 RaiBlocks, after addition of a 7,000,000 RaiBlocks developer fund. [8]

BitGrail hack

On February 9, 2018, an Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail announced its hack and eventual shutdown. [9] Users were prevented from accessing assets stored on the platform, which was collectively worth 17 million Nano. [10] The victims then launched a class-action lawsuit against BitGrail owner Francesco Firano for recoupment, inside the Florence Courthouse. The exchange was ruled to be guilty in January 2019, as it was found to fail at implementing safeguards and reporting losses. [11] The Italian police branch Network Operations Command (Italy) alleged the Bitgrail founder had conducted fraud. [12] Nano prices had been around $10 prior to the hack and after the hack fell to $0.10. [13]

Design

Nano uses a block-lattice data structure, where every account has its own blockchain for storing transactions. [14] [15] It is the first cryptocurrency to use a directed acyclic graph data structure, [16] by having a "block" consisting of only one transaction and the account's current balance. [17] [14]

Consensus is reached through an algorithm similar to proof of stake. [18] In this system, the voting weight is distributed to accounts based on the amount of Nano they hold; accounts then freely delegate this weight to a peer (node) of their choice. [19]

If two contradictory transactions are broadcast to the network, indicating a double-spend attempt, nodes will vote for either transactions. Afterward, they broadcast their vote to the other nodes for strictly informational purposes. The first to reach 67% of the total voting weight is confirmed, while the other transaction is discarded. [20] [ non-primary source needed ]

Related Research Articles

A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need for trusted intermediators, arbitration costs, and fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions. Smart contracts are commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, and the smart contracts introduced by Ethereum are generally considered a fundamental building block for decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFT applications.

Non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic primitives, where information between a prover and a verifier can be authenticated by the prover, without revealing any of the specific information beyond the validity of the statement itself. This function of encryption makes direct communication between the prover and verifier unnecessary, effectively removing any intermediaries. The core trustless cryptography "proofing" involves a hash function generation of a random number, constrained within mathematical parameters determined by the prover and verifier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin</span> Decentralized digital currency

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Nodes in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network verify transactions through cryptography and record them in a public distributed ledger, called a blockchain, without central oversight. Consensus between nodes is achieved using a computationally intensive process based on proof of work, called mining, that requires increasing quantities of electricity and guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptocurrency</span> Digital currency not reliant on a central authority

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin protocol</span> Rules that govern the functioning of Bitcoin

The Bitcoin protocol is the set of rules that govern the functioning of Bitcoin. Its key components and principles are: a peer-to-peer decentralized network with no central oversight; the blockchain technology, a public ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions; mining and proof of work, the process to create new bitcoins and verify transactions; and cryptographic security.

Proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchains that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings in the associated cryptocurrency. This is done to avoid the computational cost of proof-of-work (POW) schemes. The first functioning use of PoS for cryptocurrency was Peercoin in 2012, although the scheme, on the surface, still resembled a POW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethereum</span> Open-source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software.

A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain, with each additional block linking to the ones before it. Consequently, blockchain transactions are irreversible in that, once they are recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.

A decentralised application is an application that can operate autonomously, typically through the use of smart contracts, that run on a decentralized computing, blockchain or other distributed ledger system. Like traditional applications, DApps provide some function or utility to its users. However, unlike traditional applications, DApps operate without human intervention and are not owned by any one entity, rather DApps distribute tokens that represent ownership. These tokens are distributed according to a programmed algorithm to the users of the system, diluting ownership and control of the DApp. Without any one entity controlling the system, the application is therefore decentralised.

A distributed ledger is the consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data that is geographically spread (distributed) across many sites, countries, or institutions. In contrast to a centralized database, a distributed ledger does not require a central administrator, and consequently does not have a single (central) point-of-failure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verge (cryptocurrency)</span> Cryptocurrency

Verge Currency is a decentralized open-source cryptocurrency which offers various levels of private transactions. It does this by obfuscating the IP addresses of users with Tor and by leveraging stealth transactions making it difficult to determine the geolocation of its users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IOTA (technology)</span> Open-source distributed ledger and cryptocurrency

IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger and cryptocurrency designed for the Internet of things (IoT). It uses a directed acyclic graph to store transactions on its ledger, motivated by a potentially higher scalability over blockchain based distributed ledgers. IOTA does not use miners to validate transactions, instead, nodes that issue a new transaction on the network must approve two previous transactions. Transactions can therefore be issued without fees, facilitating microtransactions. The network currently achieves consensus through a coordinator node, operated by the IOTA Foundation. As the coordinator is a single point of failure, the network is currently centralized.

Hashgraph is a distributed ledger technology that has been described as an alternative to blockchains. The hashgraph technology is currently patented, is used by the public ledger Hedera, and there is a grant to implement the patent as a result of the Apache 2.0's Grant of Patent License so long as the implementation conforms to the terms of the Apache license. The native cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph system is HBAR.

A blockchain is a shared database that records transactions between two parties in an immutable ledger. Blockchain documents and confirms pseudonymous ownership of all transactions in a verifiable and sustainable way. After a transaction is validated and cryptographically verified by other participants or nodes in the network, it is made into a "block" on the blockchain. A block contains information about the time the transaction occurred, previous transactions, and details about the transaction. Once recorded as a block, transactions are ordered chronologically and cannot be altered. This technology rose to popularity after the creation of Bitcoin, the first application of blockchain technology, which has since catalyzed other cryptocurrencies and applications.

Bithumb is a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in 2014, Bithumb Korea has 8 million registered users, 1 million mobile app users, and a current cumulative transaction volume has exceeded USD $1 trillion.

Blockchain analysis is the process of inspecting, identifying, clustering, modeling and visually representing data on a cryptographic distributed-ledger known as a blockchain. The goal of blockchain analysis is to discover useful information about different actors transacting in cryptocurrency. Analysis of public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is typically conducted by private companies like Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic, Nansen, CipherTrace, Elementus, Dune Analytics, CryptoQuant, and Ormi Labs.

The blockchain-based database is a combination of traditional database and distributed database where data is transacted and recorded via Database Interface supported by multiple-layers of blockchains. The database itself is shared in the form of an encrypted/immutable ledger which makes the information open for everyone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ouroboros (protocol)</span> Blockchain protocol

Ouroboros is a family of proof-of-stake consensus protocols used in the Cardano and Polkadot blockchains. It can run both permissionless and permissioned blockchains.

Decentralized finance offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain, mainly Ethereum. DeFi platforms allow people to lend or borrow funds from others, speculate on price movements on assets using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts. DeFi uses a layered architecture and highly composable building blocks. Some applications promote high-interest rates but are subject to high risk. Coding errors and hacks have been common in DeFi.

Algorand is a cryptocurrency protocol providing pure proof-of-stake on a blockchain. Algorand's native cryptocurrency is called ALGO.

References

  1. 1 2 Baldwin, Rosecrans (2019-11-26). "Cryptocurrency Will Not Die Archived 2020-12-03 at the Wayback Machine ". GQ. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  2. ↑ Hrga, Alen; Capuder, Tomislav; Podnar Žarko, Ivana (2020). "Demystifying Distributed Ledger Technologies: Limits, Challenges, and Potentials in the Energy Sector". IEEE Access. 8: 2169–3536. Bibcode:2020IEEEA...8l6149H. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3007935 . S2CID   220667938.
  3. ↑ Bencic, Federico Matteo; Podnar Zarko, Ivana (2018). "Distributed Ledger Technology: Blockchain Compared to Directed Acyclic Graph". 2018 IEEE 38th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS). pp. 1569–1570. arXiv: 1804.10013 . doi:10.1109/ICDCS.2018.00171. ISBN   978-1-5386-6871-9. S2CID   13741873.
  4. ↑ Easley, David; O'Hara, Maureen; Basu, Soumya (2019). "From mining to markets: The evolution of bitcoin transaction fees". Journal of Financial Economics. 134: 91–109. doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.03.004. S2CID   158896456.
  5. ↑ Morais, Rui; Crocker, Paul; Melo De Sousa, Simao (2020). "A Tool for Implementing Privacy in Nano". 2020 IEEE International Conference on Decentralized Applications and Infrastructures (DAPPS). pp. 159–163. doi:10.1109/DAPPS49028.2020.00021. hdl:10400.6/7645. ISBN   978-1-7281-6978-1. S2CID   209471367.
  6. ↑ Github (2014-05-01). " Archived 2020-10-16 at the Wayback Machine ". Github. Retrieved 2022-21-09.
  7. ↑ Bottone, Michele; Raimondi, Franco; Primiero, Giuseppe (2018-07-23). "Multi-agent Based Simulations of Block-Free Distributed Ledgers". 2018 32nd International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA). Krakow, Poland. pp. 585–590. doi:10.1109/WAINA.2018.00149. ISBN   978-1-5386-5395-1. S2CID   50774787. Archived from the original on 2022-04-03. Retrieved 2022-02-11.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ Wall Street Journal (2018-03-03). "Crypto Investing Comes With a Big Risk: The Exchanges Archived 2018-03-07 at the Wayback Machine ". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  9. ↑ Morris, David (11 February 2018). "BitGrail Cryptocurrency Exchange Claims $195 Million Lost to Hackers". Fortune. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  10. ↑ Vigna, Paul (2018-02-10). "Cryptocurrency Worth $170 Million Missing From Italian Exchange Archived 2019-05-25 at the Wayback Machine ". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  11. ↑ Canellis, David (2019-01-28). "Italian court forces BitGrail CEO to repay $170M in 'lost' cryptocurrency Archived 2020-11-08 at the Wayback Machine ". The Next Web. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  12. ↑ "Italian police accuse cryptocurrency exchange boss of huge fraud". Reuters. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  13. ↑ Hatmaker, Taylor (12 February 2018). "Italian cryptocurrency exchange gets hacked for $170 million in Nano". Techcrunch. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  14. 1 2 Shahaab, A.; Lidgey, B.; Hewage, C.; Khan, I. (2019). "Applicability and Appropriateness of Distributed Ledgers Consensus Protocols in Public and Private Sectors: A Systematic Review". IEEE Access. 7: 43622–43636. Bibcode:2019IEEEA...743622S. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2904181 . S2CID   108390582.
  15. ↑ Xiao, Y.; Lou, W.; Thomas Hou, Y. (2020). "A Survey of Distributed Consensus Protocols for Blockchain Networks". IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. 22 (2): 1432–1465. arXiv: 1904.04098 . doi: 10.1109/COMST.2020.2969706 .
  16. ↑ Masood, Faraz; Faridi, Arman Rasool (2018). "Consensus Algorithms in Distributed Ledger Technology for Open Environment". 2018 4th International Conference on Computing Communication and Automation (ICCCA). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/CCAA.2018.8777695. ISBN   978-1-5386-6947-1. S2CID   199057702.
  17. ↑ Werner, Robert et al. (2020). "Anonymization of Transactions in Distributed Ledger Technologies". Twelfth International Conference on Adaptive and Self-Adaptive Systems and Applications. p. 69. ISBN   978-1-61208-781-8.
  18. ↑ Mercan, Suat; Kurt, Ahmet; Erdin, Enes; Akkaya, Kemal (2021). "Cryptocurrency Solutions to Enable Micro-payments in Consumer IoT". IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine. Vol. 11, no. 2. pp. 97–103. doi:10.1109/MCE.2021.3060720.
  19. ↑ Khalifa, Amr; Bahaa-Eldin, Ayman; Sobh, Mohamed (2019). Blockchain and its Alternative Distributed Ledgers - A Survey. 2019 14th International Conference on Computer Engineering and Systems (ICCES). doi:10.1109/ICCES48960.2019.9068183.
  20. ↑ Nano. "Protocol Design - ORV Consensus". nano.org. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.