The Beginner’s guide to NEM

New Economy movement or NEM, as it’s widely known, is a peer-to-peer blockchain platform for developers. Its native cryptocurrency is called XEM and it has been split into two parts called the microXEM (the smallest unit) and milliXEM (the thousandth unit). One of the inspiring features about this project is that while other major altcoins were having Bitcoin code base as their substrate; they built every part of the blockchain from scratch in Java and JavaScript languages. The NEM Foundation plans to build a financial ecosystem that grants its members financial freedom, equality and on a decentralized platform void of any control from a central body like what we see in most of the major altcoins such as ETH, TRON etc.

NEM in a Nutshell

Is a cryptocurrency mainly invested into by Japans.

Has two blockchain networks, a public one for the community and a private one for the NEM Foundation.

Its currency is split in two parts: microXEM and milliXEM

It’s governed by a Proof-of-Importance consensus protocol which was built from scratch.

XEM was never mined, but rather distributed to its community members for their various hard efforts put into the commencement of the project.

What is NEM?

It is the cryptocurrency which plans to incorporate all the best features of Bitcoin, Bitshares, Nxt and its own features, most especially enforcing that the coin and blockchain is fully decentralized across the globe. An avid crypto enthusiast by the name UtopianFuture was inspired by some features of the cryptocurrencies mentioned above to announce the development of this project 21st January 2014.

Aside from the public blockchain which is run by the entire community for transactions, the NEM Foundation also runs a private blockchain called Mijn, which is purposely dedicated to enhance the performance and quality of activities on the platform. The consensus protocol used in building the NEM blockchain is called Proof of Importance and XEM can’t be mined, unlike other altcoins. The total supply of the coin is 9 Billion, which was distributed according to a stake system which was announced during the genesis of this project.

A brief history of NEM

UtopianFuture had an inspiration from the Nxt Platform to build a blockchain ecosystem that was fully decentralized and secured. This vision was brought in writing as he shared his idea in an announcement thread on Bitcointalk Forum in January 2014. The contributors at that time dismissed thoughts of forking from NXT to create a blockchain from scratch. In order to ensure a fully decentralized distribution of the XEM, an initial stake-based distribution system was used. The token NEMstake was first distributed among users who believed and supported the startup of this project through their writing, coding, graphic designs and also donating funds in the form of Nxt and BTC for development. The NEMstake was shared among these users on Bitcointalk forum. The team at that time thought it wise to create a sustainability fund to ensure that the core team members don’t have a huge supply of the coins in their possession. Part of all unclaimed stakes was allocated to the sustainability fund for further development of the project when the need be.

On 15th March 2017, The NEM Foundation was founded in Singapore to bring onboard business corporations, governments, and other institutions to utilize the NEM blockchain and platform. The foundation exposes the use cases of the NEM blockchain to these entities so that they can take advantage of the decentralized and secured platform of NEM to store large amounts of data. By building business on the NEM platform, users are assured of a transparent system void of any fraudulent attacks.

How does NEM Work?

NEM operates on the Proof of Importance protocol which is unique to itself alone, as no other cryptocurrency operates with this consensus protocol. This protocol was built from scratch in Java and JavaScript languages. Nodes are rewarded with XEM in a termed called as harvesting as they contribute to the network to make it secured and functioning. PoI is quite similar to Proof of Stake as users need a collateral of 10,000 XEM in their wallets in order to perform functions for the blockchain network. A unique thing about the PoI is that the allocated 10,000 XEM has to be vested fully in order to provide security to the network and also analyze transactions across the network. It takes an average of 10 days for all the 10K coins to be vested as 10% of the coin is vested every day.

A node needs to have a good score of importance in order to harvest XEM. This score of importance is attributed in the combination of how long the node has stayed online holding its coins in the wallet as well as verifying transactions on the network. This goes a long way to prevent whales from just buying a huge number of coins into wallets and controlling the network to some extent, since only holding the coins does not give you a high score of importance. The higher your score of importance the higher the chances of harvesting rewards. In the near future, we might see some cryptocurrencies switching to the use of PoI as it is an improved version of PoS.

Which cryptocurrency wallet can you save NEM on?

The safety of your NEM Coins is of huge importance, hence the Nano wallet is the ideal wallet to save your coins on, but crypto app developers have also made it possible to save your coins on hardware wallets such as Ledger, Trevor, Keepkey, etc. However, if you happen to download the Nano wallet then it’s very important to save the unique .wlt file since you will always need that in order to access the account. One unique security feature about Nano wallet is that each log in creates a new private key, hence making it extremely impossible for hackers to access your account secretly.

Where can you purchase NEM coins?

XEM can be purchased on most of Exchanges across this industry. There are several markets pairs as well so you are at liberty to make the purchase with either Bitcoin or any other altcoin you choose to. For those who might want to purchase with fiat, then you would have to purchase using exchanges that have enabled fiat payment gateways, such as Binance.

How to own NEM

There are only two ways of owning XEM which are: either purchasing them from exchanges or running a node where you help secure the blockchain network and also analyze transactions broadcast unto the network. Doing this generates some XEM as rewards which has been explained vividly under the architecture of the NEM network.

How much is NEM worth?

The price of XEM as at the time of writing is $0.037321 USD with a marketcap $304,451,744. The average daily 24-hour trading volume was about $23 million. The total supply of XEM Coins is 9 billion with 8.9 billion in circulation. It recorded an all-time low of $0.000079 in September 2015 and recorded an all-time high of $2.09 on January 04, 2018.

The Benefits of Using NEM

Aside from using XEM as payment method, its blockchain network allows developers to create their own cryptocurrencies. It can also be designed to automatically perform some accounting tasks and also used to create a loyalty reward system. It’s a cryptocurrency which is highly invested in by Japans and has seen some all-time-high in the past. If PoI is ever adopted on a larger scale, XEM would be a good coin to invest in today.

Final Thoughts

NEM’s blockchain architecture, features and design is likely to be utilized in case we ever see the global mass adoption of blockchain technology. Businesses and Corporate institutions would find it very useful to adopt and deploy their services with it. For the investors, you might want to take a critical look at it before making any concrete decision on it.

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