What is NEM (XEM)?

What is NEM (XEM)?
3 min read
3 years ago

Crypto veterans will likely have heard of NEM,   or seen the XEM crypto token  on the market cap rankings. But if you've ever wondered  what NEM project is all about,   or who is behind it, then buckle up as  we answer the question: What is NEM?

NEM stands for ‘New Economy  Movement’, and it was created   well before the 2017 ICO craze  as a fork of the NXT blockchain,   although eventually, the NEM developers  created their own code for NEM to run on.

Alongside Ethereum, NEM was  one of the first projects to   recognize that a cryptocurrency could  be more than just a means of payment. The team created a blockchain platform designed  to be an integral part of the new Smart Economy,   that would support everything from custom  tokens to supply chain tracking protocols.

The NEM team refers to this  as the Smart Asset System,   where platform users can create new crypto  tokens or customized blockchain infrastructure,   publish data to the blockchain, or set  up multi-signature security systems. All of this is managed by the NEM.io Foundation,  a non-profit organization based in Singapore.

One of NEM’s most unique features is the Proof  of Importance consensus mechanism, which differs   quite significantly from Bitcoin's proof-of-work  and Ethereum's proof-of-stake mechanisms.

The basic idea is that to vote to approve  transactions on the NEM blockchain, an investor   must hold at least 10,000 of the platform's  native XEM tokens for a certain amount of time. Each day that an investor holds XEM, 10%  of their XEM becomes “vested.” Once the   vested amount exceeds 10,000 XEM,  the investor can start harvesting,   which is similar to mining. For  example, if an investor is holding   20,000 XEM it would take 7 days to reach  a point of having 10,000 vested XEM.

Put simply, the POI system is designed to  give validating power and staking rewards   primarily to investors who  actually use the network. Another of NEM's key features is their  new 'Symbol' blockchain, which aims to   make it easier for private, enterprise-level  projects to move into the blockchain space.

Businesses can choose to interface publicly with  the NEM blockchain and other public blockchains.   This would allow token transfers or  data sharing between smart contracts,   whilst also taking advantage of Symbol's hybrid   public and private architecture in order to  restrict the flow of confidential information.

Giving companies this degree  of control and customizability   solves a substantial hurdle for large-scale  blockchain adoption. To facilitate this,   the team has created a new token, XYM, which will  be the core value transfer mechanism on Symbol.

But the main advantage that NEM has  over rival smart contract platforms   is its speed since NEM is capable of clearing  an estimated 4,000 Transactions Per Second.

Although Ethereum is the  dominant smart contract platform,   NEM may be filling a niche by targeting businesses  with features that allow for confidentiality.

A recent report by Fortune Business Insights  suggests that the enterprise blockchain   market could be worth a whopping 21  billion dollars by the year 2025.

Will NEM will be amongst the blockchain platforms   that can take advantage of this trend?  Share your thoughts in the comments. 

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Alex 9.8K
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