A big thanks to the Nano community who helped perfect this article!
Since Bitcoin was introduced, many businesses have started to accept it as a means of payment — but then quit doing so. Bitcoin is volatile, the transaction approval may take 30-50 minutes, and its network fees are way too high especially in regards to microtransactions — for some companies, these cons of accepting Bitcoin beat the pros.
In comes Nano coin. Nano transactions take no longer than a second and are completely fee-less (no network fees), allowing users to send Nano around the world in a blink of an eye without paying fees.
Keep reading to learn more about Nano, the cryptocurrency: in this article you’ll learn about how Nano works, how to use Nano, and why it’s cool to accept it as a means of payment.
What is Nano? A quick Nano review
Nano was initially introduced in 2014 as RaiBlocks — users completed CAPTCHA challenges and got small rewards in XRB (the faucet becoming available in 2015). At the start of 2018, the project rebranded to Nano as we know it today — a digital currency for seamless peer-to-peer transactions.
The Nano team aims to “make money efficient for a more equal world — simple to pay with, easy to accept, and open to all.” Besides the Nano crypto itself, the Nano community is often cited as the second most active after Bitcoin, with a whole variety of apps in the Nano ecosystem such as WeNano, Natrium wallet, Nalli, all non-custodial wallets allowing to send Nano to anyone anywhere.
The Nano price can be found here, and is ranking #94 with a market cap close to $617,930,817 (at the time of updating this article).
8 reasons why accepting Nano is better than accepting Bitcoin
- Nano allows for instant transactions of any size. The unique Nano architecture ensures that whatever happens in the market, your customers can always pay with Nano in a heartbeat. No network congestion can affect that. This means you can always rest assured that with instant payment confirmation, you can execute your part of the bargain for your customers instantly to provide them with the best service. You can try it out for yourself here or here.
- There are no fees to transact in Nano. Your customers don’t have to worry that they will spend more than your good and services cost — no transaction fees are required. Say to your customers “you pay just as much as written” — and perhaps for the first time in crypto history, you will be entirely right.
- Micropayments are possible. With the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptos’ network fees, paying for cheap goods and services is cost-ineffective. With Nano zero fees, your customers can pay for small items without any doubt they will be charged more.
- Nano is less volatile than many other cryptos. (the volatility inherent to crypto at this point in time might not be perceived as such an issue with Nano because it has the potential to be converted almost instantly). In the past months, Nano coin price has shown stability not common for coins like Bitcoin. This means you don’t have to be worried about constantly changing your prices. Just look at the volatility of the US dollar. The volatility can also be mitigated by Nano speed. All in all, together with the near instant, fee-less transactions, this is what makes Nano perfect as a payment option. It is also important to note that with Nano, volatility can be considered not a key factor for merchants as they can denominate charge in local currency, settle in Nano, then either hold or instantly convert back. That’s where fiat conversion might come in handy!
- Nano is eco-friendly. If reducing your carbon footprint is your goal, Nano is for you. Since Nano doesn’t use mining as its consensus algorithm, no energy is needlessly wasted, — and less electricity is consumed.
- Nano is user-friendly. Paying with a NANO mobile wallet is very user friendly – try any of the above-mentioned wallets. That is due to its fee-less nature and because NANO is designed for payments, and the wallets reflect that. The same goes for using the wallets to accept payments in Nano.
- Nano is global. When it comes to currency exchange, when, for example, travelling abroad or buying goods and making international transactions, there are usually quite high fees and complicated rates. Nano can play a part in reducing rates and eliminating such fees.
- Nano allows for business analytics. With Nano, you can track account balances and get a general idea of various target groups’ spending habits.
What unique architecture makes Nano so fast and fee-free?
There’s no one single blockchain in Nano. In Nano, each account has its own blockchain – this is called the block-lattice design. Rather than one big blockchain where everyone competes for space in the next “block” to be mined and blocks are mined every X minutes, the block lattice allows any user to add blocks to their own chain, which are then broadcast and verified instantly.
Only two transactions (“send” and “receive”) are needed for verification, and this job is done by separate validators. Thus, Nano wins in speed. In Bitcoin, for example, all miners have to verify all transactions — and it makes BTC so energy- and time-consuming.
User-selected representative nodes vote on each transaction. This is called Open Representative Voting (ORV) — the algorithm that keeps the network secure. The account holders vote for their representatives who then confirm blocks. Since representatives are not rewarded for transaction validation, there is simply no network fee in Nano. The representatives are incentivized to run nodes in other forms, such as having an opportunity to interact directly with the network without having to rely on a third party.
Together with the block-lattice ledger design, ORV allows Nano to process 125 transactions per second (compared to Bitcoin’s 7). 125 is also not a limit by protocol – but rather the current ability. It is expected to keep growing.
How do I start accepting Nano?
Whether you have an e-shop running on a platform like Ecwid or your own website or app, NOWPayments has a solution for you:
- Install a plugin on your e-commerce platform-based shop. Whether you merchandize on Ecwid, OpenCart, Prestashop, or any other popular CMS solution, we have a plugin that you can install in a matter of minutes with no tech knowledge. We provide detailed installation instructions and 24/7 support.
- Use a customizable API solution for your own platform. Create a Nano payment gateway fully integrated into your website or app.
- Accept Nano donations using a button or a plugin.
Why accept Nano with NOWPayments?
Accept payments, donations and make payouts with Nano.
- Instant payouts. The money your customers pay you goes straight into your Nano wallet. It is not stored anywhere in between.
- 70+ cryptocurrencies supported. If you’re interested in accepting payments in Nano, but want to get payouts in another currency — no problem. We can exchange your funds into 70+ other coins right on the way.
- Fees of 0.5% and lower. This is overly competitive compared to the other crypto payment gateways. Find more about pricing here.
- Personal account manager. Whatever question or issue you have, we got you covered 24/7.
Was this Nano review compelling to you? We admit you might want to see some examples of businesses accepting Nano first. In our next article that will come out soon, we will tell you the story about such projects. Stay in touch!