Nano is an alternative to fiat currencies, aiming to be faster and more efficient than Bitcoin and any of its clones. With a fast and minerless (FFM) structure, similar to IOTA, Steem and EOS, Nano offers a more advanced structure then Bitcoin. Using an architecture called “block lattice”, there is no long single chain of blocks. It is more of a database of different chains where each user gets their own blockchain that is only added to by them.

For every transaction on the network, two blocks are created. A send transaction subtracts from your current account balance and then a receive transaction, initiated by the recipient, adds to the receiver’s balance. For the transaction to be completed, the recipient will need to sign the block. These two actions do not have to happen at the same time. If the recipient is offline, it will be settled at the next available opportunity.

To explain this, if a user wanted to send NANO (the coin on the NANO network), the difference between the send block you just created and your total balance on the previous block is done to verify your transaction. When looking from the receiver’s point of view, the send amount would be added to the their account chain’s preceding block. This results in a new block being formed that is a record of an updated account balance of each user.

Nano cuts out the need of miners by requiring the sender and receiver to verify the transactions. All of these transactions are handled off the main Nano blockchain which allows for much more scalability. The blocksize (how much data can fit onto a single block) debate has been pretty loud lately, however with the Nano protocol there is no need for nodes to store the entire record of the network. They only need to store their own individual transactions.

With a bigger spotlight on currencies and the growing pains associated with adoption, Nano is aiming to be a major competitor in the space. A project that offers user an alternative to Bitcoin’s problems is in a great position as time moves on.

Cheers!

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