Nano (XRB), formerly known as RaiBlocks, is a cryptocurrency that aims to make payment between two entities as fast, seamless and as secure as possible.

Like many other cryptocurrency projects Nano relies on blockchain technology, but uses an alternative form of it known as ‘block-lattice architecture’.

Nano’s benefits include unlimited scalability (something that Bitcoin has struggled with severely) and instant transactions without fees. These factors have made people all over the world sit up and take notice, and with over 4 million transactions completed to date, the project is growing at a rapid rate.

How does Nano work?

If you don’t know how block chain technology works, have a look at our primer here to get you started.

Nano operates on block-lattice architecture, which differs from blockchain because each user processes their own individual blockchain. These blockchains can be updated asynchronously to the rest of the network, meaning that transactions don’t have to wait for validation from foreign nodes before being processed. This is what allows for instant transactions, which has been a large hurdle for currencies like Bitcoin.

The block-lattice keeps transactions accurate by using a delegated Proof of Stake system. Every account selects a representative node that remains online and ready to vote on the legitimacy of a transaction. The more Nano that node holds, the more heavily weighted its vote is – as the people with the most amount of Nano have the most incentive to keep the system honest, as their holdings will become worthless if the system breaks.

What are the benefits of Nano?

The benefits of a payment system that is entirely secure can process transactions to and from anywhere in the world instantly with no fees, really do speak for themselves. To put these into practical terms, we have a brief write up from a gentleman named Andrew, the CEO at Headphones.com, who started accepting Nano as payment a month ago:

“Here's what we've learned in a month of accepting Nano at Headphones.com:

These are the fastest transactions we've ever processed.

We get the currency immediately instead of waiting days or weeks while a payment gateway invests OUR money for some riskless profit before depositing to our bank. This has a HUGE effect on cash flow.

We're not paying any fees and neither are our customers!

We don't have to worry about Visa or Mastercard blaming fraud caused by their own lack of security on us (FYI if your Visa is compromised and you get reimbursed, that's coming from the merchant - not Visa. Even though it's Visa that allowed the money to be spent in the first place).

The point above has given us the freedom to ship products to places we usually would have avoided due to fraud concerns.

Every single customer who has paid with Nano has been awesome to deal with. The quality of people we've encountered from the Nano community has been astonishing.”

With cryptocurrency starting to enter the mainstream, and use cases like the above becoming a reality rather than just a theory scribbled down on paper somewhere, we’re starting to see real world application of blockchain technology.

Nano is currently the 25th largest crypto currency in the world at a market cap of $1.2 Billion, making it one of the more major players in the space.

Nano is positioning itself as one of the few currently viable digital currencies, as it’s one of the only ones with a solid working product that does what it promised. However, technology is evolving rapidly especially within the cryptocurrency world, so if that throne wants to be held – it will need to keep advancing and covering new ground.