It’s not another Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash. New Economy Movement (NEM) is different. Unlike these two, it is not another hard fork or any branch of any prior blockchain. Instead, it has been developed from the ground-up with unique code initially written in JAVA and being extended to C++.

For any layman, that means a whole new blockchain.

A New Blockchain?

Yes, a new blockchain, thanks to its distinct features.

Harvesting

First off, NEM has introduced the term “harvesting” for mining. If we look at the basis of the two, they both are the same in terms of generating the coins of a respective blockchain. However, by delving deeper into their makeups and performances, there are some marked differences.

For example:

Harvesting XEM (the token of NEM) requires no redundant technology or computer hardware.

Because of this minimal use of energy, the process becomes more economically yet environmentally sound.

Since there’s no need for any Proof-of-Work, you can shut down your PC, but not worry about interrupting harvesting.

Mounting coins in the wallets was a thing of the past. NEM’s unique harvesting rewards only those who use coins (thus, not for the faint-hearted).

You don’t need to panic over the absence of PoW. Here’s another surprise, it also doesn’t utilize the PoS (Proof of Stake). Instead, it has its own algorithm.

Proof of Importance – the algorithm

Instead of measuring how much you’ve worked on a particular blockchain, the Proof of Importance of NEM determines how much you’ve invested in the network. This ultimately means that in order to be able to generate new blocks, you only got to have a limit of 10,000 XEM “vested” in your wallet.

By the way, “vested” refers to a 10% retention of the XEM from the original amount present. For example, if you’ve got around 3000 XEM in your wallet, it would become vested in 5 days at the rate of 10% every day (refer to the table below).

Day Wallet balance (XEM XEM Vested XEM not vested 1 30,000 0 30,000 2 30,000 3000 27,000 3 30,000 5700 24,300 4 30,000 8130 21870 5 30,000 10317 19683

According to our example, when you reach day 5, you’ll be good to generate new NEM blockchain blocks.

Voila!

This PoI is revolutionary in a sense that it isn’t the landlord kind of a system that PoS is, where those who have more coins get to have the upper hand. Also, as said above, it doesn’t require you to have machines straight from the Lucy movie to let you handle all the work. All you need is your reputation or trust points (Eigentrust++) gained through the number of transaction that you make, which ultimately increases your vesting chances.

While that was all about the algorithm of the NEM. There are certain other features that make this a completely new blockchain aiming at diversity and variety.

Namespaces and Mosaics

Much like a website domain, the Namespaces are crucial to the existence of NEM and just as the domains have sub-domains, Namespaces have sub-namespaces. Mosaics, on the other hand,refer to anything that is hosted on the Namespace. It could be a file, a music contract, or a token like XEM.

Therefore, as you can see, NEM allows anyone who wishes to create their own enterprise, business, or whatever based applications without having to deal with a lot of complications and Smart Contract language. They only have to name their Mosaic, determine its value, and start with their own thing, and that, too, on a formidable blockchain like NEM.

This facility makes NEM more diverse than any other blockchain as it gives freedom of creation to everyone living anywhere in this world.

The Smart Asset System of NEM Blockchain

Both the Namespaces and the Mosaics give rise to the Smart Asset Systems, which is better than the smart contracts of the Ethereum.

How?

Well, it doesn’t force you to write your own smart contract. Rather, NEM allows to have a direct API access to some of the useful features of the blockchain and build applications by using those features. Creating a Mosaic is actually one those features.

The Namespaces give a business its unique address, while the Mosaic is simply its fixed assets. However, the story doesn’t end here. Creation of the Smart Assets also requires two other components.

Addresses – A single unique object on the NEM blockchain. These addresses have Mosaics, in turn, which as explained above, could be anything from a package to a document waiting to be notarized.

– A single unique object on the NEM blockchain. These addresses have Mosaics, in turn, which as explained above, could be anything from a package to a document waiting to be notarized. Transactions – The real driver of your Smart Asset. It allows you to put your Mosaics to use when you want to transfer these assets from one Address to another (one business to another), send messages, or transfer the ownership of any Addresses.

Use Cases of NEM

Owing to the versatility that NEM has, its use cases can be limitless. It can be used in:

Financial sector to send and receive payment, make mobile payments easy and secure (you can even make something like your own PayPal!), protect your liquid assets ( NEM is immune to inflation, mind you )

) Business management where accounting can be automatic, knowing your customers can be easy, and also keeping logistic track record can be a breeze,

Encrypted messaging,

Notarization of the documents,

Doing away with the counterfeiting,

Issue certificates, and much more!

Public Vs. Private blockchains

NEM comes in two versions – the public blockchain that is open to everyone, and the private blockchain called Mijin, developed by Tech Bureau. The private BC is more suitable for business who want privacy.

Talking about the tokens on both of these, you can either create your own or use XEM for transactions and transfer of assets.

NEM is a true champion of versatility, as evident from its features. It is likely to disrupt possibly the way businesses work and the way they are established; thus, giving you–the developer–a full control over the way you realize your imaginations.

This makes the platform more than just a transaction medium, which is inflation resistant and has possibly the lowest transaction fee in the world of the blockchain.

Both of these major aspects truly make NEM a new and a different blockchain.