Nano, a low-latency cryptocurrency built on an innovative block-lattice data structure offering unlimited scalability and no transaction fees. Nano by design is a simple protocol with the sole purpose of being a high-performance cryptocurrency. The Nano protocol can run on low-power hardware, allowing it to be a practical, decentralized cryptocurrency for everyday use. The original Nano (RailBlocks) paper and first beta implementation were published in December, 2014, making it one of the first Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based cryptocurrencies [6]. Soon after, other DAG cryptocurrencies began to develop, most notably DagCoin/Byteball and IOTA. These DAG-based cryptocurrencies broke the blockchain mold, improving system performance and security. Byteball achieves consensus by relying on a “main-chain” comprised of honest, reputable and user-trusted “witnesses”, while IOTA achieves consensus via the cumulative PoW of stacked transactions. Nano achieves consensus via a balance-weighted vote on conflicting transactions. This consensus system provides quicker, more deterministic transactions while still maintaining a strong, decentralized system. Nano continues this development and has positioned itself as one of the highest performing cryptocurrencies. Nano is a trustless, feeless, low-latency cryptocurrency that utilizes a novel blocklattice structure and delegated Proof of Stake voting. The network requires minimal resources, no high-power mining hardware, and can process high transaction throughput. All of this is achieved by having individual blockchains for each account, eliminating access issues and inefficiencies of a global data-structure. We identified possible attack vectors on the system and presented arguments on how Nano is resistant to these forms of attacks. Check out CoinBureau for the complete review of Nano.
Solarcoin is a Scrypt based alternative digital currency and its innovation comes from the secondary proof of work reward: the Solar Proof of Work. Green solar energy producers are entitled to receive one SLR for every MWh electricity generated. In order to claim a Solar Proof of Work reward, solar plant owners must submit 3rd party verified energy generation certificates such as a Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) or equivalent country specific documentation. All Solar Proof Of Work rewards will be stored as transactions in the blockchain. The supply of SLR comprises of the following: - The Mining Pool: 105 million Solarcoins (0.1%) to be publicly mined over the next 40 years. All publicly mined Solarcoins represent historically generated and unclaimed solar electricity. - The Generator Pool: 97.5 billion SolarCoins (99.4%) are currently stored in the OCA non-circulating generation pool account. These will be exchanged for Solar Proof of Work claims of solar electricity generation submitted over the next 40 years at the rate of 1 SLR per MWh of solar energy. - The Genesis Pool: 500 million Solarcoins (0.5%) are stored in the genesis pool account for environmental charities, early volunteers, advisers, builders and maintainers of SolarCoin infrastructure. Genesis pool circulation is capped so that it will never represent more than 5% of total Solarcoin in circulation.