{"id":37004,"date":"2018-03-19T13:09:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T20:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=37004"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:40:19","slug":"nem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/nem\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to NEM (XEM): The Proof-of-Importance Coin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of the top blockchains, such as Litecoin<\/a> and Bitcoin Cash<\/a> are either hard forks or software branches of the original Bitcoin code and blockchain. However, that is not the case with NEM. It's built with 100% original code. NEM has done away with Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake \u2013 instead, NEM is the first cryptocurrency to use the “Proof-of-Importance” algorithm.<\/p>\n

The new consensus system provides fast transactions, minuscule fees, low power consumption and 100% transparency \u2013 the development team\u00a0designed NEM to be a functional coin in today's economy.<\/p>\n

Formerly known as the New Economy Movement,\u00a0NEM (ticker: XEM)<\/a> aspires to become the new medium for everyday exchanges in addition to the common enterprise use cases that many blockchain projects seek to become. Transactions appear in your wallet in 5 seconds and are confirmed in just 20 seconds. Moreover, the network is known to handle 3,000 transactions per second.<\/p>\n

NEM History<\/h2>\n
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NEM is an acronym for “New Economy Movement,” and it bills itself as a blockchain for “enterprise-grade performance.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEM was founded by a Bitcointalk user who called himself by the username “UtopianFuture.” Initially he wanted to improve on Nxt<\/a>, but eventually, he and a group of devs decided they would start from scratch.<\/p>\n

The project was launched in March 2015 \u2013 a group of 15 developers and nearly 30 marketers comprised the NEM.io team. Founded in Singapore, they are the driving force behind the token and thus far, have chosen to remain\u00a0pseudonymous.<\/p>\n

Proof-of-Importance<\/h2>\n

The Proof-of-Importance algorithm does not make use of expensive mining hardware, instead,\u00a0harvesters<\/strong> are in charge of validating the network.<\/p>\n

What is a harvester? This is simply someone who is staking their coins to assist in network validation. Anyone can harvest the NEM network. As a result, a substantial amount of energy is conserved. Sending a payment on the Bitcoin network consumes 100x more electricity than the NEM network.<\/p>\n

Before you can begin harvesting, you will need at least 10,000 XEM vested\u00a0<\/strong>in your account. Once XEM is purchased and stored in your Nano Wallet<\/a>, 10% of your wallet's balance becomes vested every 24 hours. For example, if you bought 100,000 XEM, 10,000 would be vested after one day and you'd be ready to start harvesting.<\/p>\n

Harvesters connect to a supernode, a high-performance node that is required to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One must have 3,000,000 XEM vested before they can run a supernode.<\/p>\n

The NEM Blog<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n

The NEM network has been designed from the very beginning with the goal in mind that any light client can securely connect to and use any server safely to make any transaction. Supernodes are expected to be high performance and reliable nodes. They are regularly tested on their bandwidth, chain height, chain parts, computing power, version, ping, and responsiveness to make sure that they are performing to high standards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The POI network looks at three things when determining who gets to verify transactions:<\/p>\n