Cryptocurrency Nxt: overview, price and prospects

Nxt cryptocurrency is one of the very first cryptocurrencies that was created not just as a means of payment (like Bitcoin, for example), but as an entire ecosystem that presented higher-level blockchain technologies. 

Nxt was one of the first blockchains whose goal was not just to keep track of transactions, but to create a complete infrastructure on which developers could build their decentralized applications. 

For those interested in broader applications of blockchain technology, this makes NXT an intriguing complement to the digital wallets that are popular in Indonesia.

The purpose of the NXT

Nxt cryptocurrency, like many other projects, originated from the fact that the developers wanted to present an improved version of bitcoin to the cryptocommunity. However, they did not stop there and went further, creating a full-fledged decentralized environment for developing applications of any complexity. This was a real breakthrough at the time, as very few blockchain platforms offered such capabilities. 

History of NXT cryptocurrency creation

A topic about Nxt on the Bitcointalk topic forum was created on September 28, 2013 by an anonymous user with the nickname BCNext. At the time, there was no such thing as an ICO yet, but the creator of Nxt organized crowdfunding to launch the platform. A total of 21 BTC (at the exchange rate of $5250 at the time) was collected.  Now that’s pennies compared to the sums of several tens of millions, but even with that in mind, the platform was launched less than two months after the announcement, and the genesis unit was created on November 24, 2013. The modest beginnings of NXT contrast with today’s vibrant cryptocurrency exchanges in Indonesia, where such tokens are now traded.

Technology

Nxt’s code is written from scratch in Java – this was one of the main reasons why NXT cryptocurrency attracted so much interest from the community, as at the time most projects took bitcoin code as a basis for their code. In addition, Nxt was the first coin in which consensus was reached exclusively through the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. It is believed that the first such cryptocurrency was PPCoin (now PeerCoin), but it actually used a hybrid algorithm to form new blocks (PoW + PoS). Understanding these consensus algorithms can be crucial when choosing the best wallets for securing your cryptocurrency holdings, including NXT.

Consensus algorithm and block size

As mentioned above, consensus in the Nxt network is achieved by the PoS algorithm in pure form. Therefore, there is no mining as in Bitcoin – validation of transactions takes place through forging (nodes receive a commission that users pay for sending transactions). At the time of writing (end of January), the number of active nodes is almost 150. 

The maximum block size is limited to 32 KB. The team had previously discussed implementing Blockchain Pruning, a feature that would reduce block size by removing secondary transaction information. However, at this point, no more discussions are taking place and apparently the developers have abandoned the idea. 

Transactions

Compared to PoW coins or those running on a hybrid algorithm, the Nxt cryptocurrency has a fairly fast network, capable of processing over 367,000 transactions in 24 hours – that’s nine times the average Bitcoin network speed (without using the Lightning Network, of course). On average, it takes about 1 minute 20 seconds (80 seconds) to generate a block, a transaction is considered valid after 10 confirmations and secure and persistent after 14 minutes. Since the network has been in existence, 2218301 blocks have been formed. 

This processing power may be of particular interest when considering the best crypto investments for the year ahead.

The developers plan to add a Transparent Forging feature that will allow transactions to be sent with near-instant confirmation. Similar features are implemented in some other PoS coins (eg. InstantSend in Dash). This advancement might soon influence how Indonesians trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, providing faster and more efficient transaction options.

Token NXT

There is only one token on the Nxt network – NXT. NXT is required to perform absolutely all actions on the Nxt blockchain. It allows you to:

• Transfer NXT coins to other users and pay a fee to NXT;
• Run dApps that may represent other digital, physical assets or platforms;
• Participate in voting;
• Conduct operations while utilizing the platform to store data;
• Trading on the stock market;
• Pay for goods and services.