Zero fees
Zero borders
Zero limits

Nano is a digital payment protocol designed to be accessible and lightweight, with a focus on removing inefficiencies present in other cryptocurrencies. With ultrafast transactions, zero fees and zero supply inflation on a secure, green and decentralized network, this makes nano ideal for everyday transactions.

Fees usually exist to pay miners or validators for the cost of producing consensus. Nano has no mining and no block rewards: representatives simply vote on transactions they already see, so the marginal cost of confirming one more transaction is close to zero and there is nothing to fund with a fee.

That means nodes earn no direct monetary reward. Businesses, services and individuals run them because a working network is useful to them, and removing the reward also removes the pressure towards centralisation that fee competition creates. Wallets, exchanges and other services can still charge their own fees. Read the living whitepaper

Two mechanisms do the work a fee would otherwise do. Every block must carry a small proof-of-work, a few seconds on an ordinary CPU and negligible to verify, so the cost of flooding the network rises in step with the number of transactions sent.

On top of that, transactions are prioritised by a round-robin balance-bucket system. Representatives rotate through 63 buckets divided by account balance, and within each bucket the least recently used account goes first. Someone spamming thousands of transactions from an account holding a fraction of a nano only crowds their own bucket, and accounts that transact rarely still get priority ahead of them. More on spam, work and prioritisation

Nano does not use one shared chain. It uses a block lattice, where every account controls its own blockchain and each block records that account’s whole state: balance, representative and all. A transaction is a single block on a single account’s chain, so accounts can be updated at the same time without waiting in line behind each other or competing for space in a shared block.

A transfer is two halves: the sender publishes a block debiting their account, the receiver publishes a matching block crediting theirs. Nothing has to be mined. Representatives vote on each block, and it is confirmed as soon as enough voting weight agrees, usually in well under a second. How the block lattice works

Nano confirms transactions through representative voting rather than competitive mining. Its design avoids the energy-intensive race to mine new blocks.

Nano was distributed through a CAPTCHA faucet rather than an initial coin offering. People completed CAPTCHA tasks to receive it, and distribution ran from late 2015 until October 2017. There is no ongoing issuance of new nano under the protocol.

Choose a wallet, back up its recovery phrase securely and start with a small amount. Then try sending, receiving or spending nano. Follow the getting-started steps

Nano is not operated by a single company. Independent representative nodes participate in Open Representative Voting to confirm transactions. You can choose a representative through your wallet; delegating voting weight does not give that representative your funds. See below for the Nano Foundation.

See the current representatives on blocklattice.io

The Nano Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation built by passionate volunteers following a collaboration model. We believe that making tangible change in the world is possible through grass-roots action and collective-effort.

Alongside other institutions, businesses and advocates, we build and encourage the growth and usability of a secure and decentralised payment network, nano (ticker: XNO, symbol: Ӿ).

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, nano stands out with a vision that is both unique and transformative: to establish a fee-free & sustainable currency that makes digital payments accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Protocol Development
With its ultra-efficient block-lattice design, the network is optimized to provide the fastest transaction speeds of any cryptocurrency.

Supporting Services
To actively participate in the creation and support of a robust ecosystem, with a focus on fostering adoption and integration of large and small-scale services.

Education and Resources
To help educate and inform people about nano and its use case as a global digital currency, by creating an accessible collection or resources and materials.

The Foundation is led by two volunteer directors: Colin LeMahieu and George Coxon.

Read about the Nano Foundation’s open-source journey