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Non-block ledger

Nano ticker XNO

  • No public-data lookups yet
  • 3 reviewed developments
  • 39 cited sources

Summary

Nano runs Open Representative Voting (ORV) over a block-lattice ledger. Each account owner signs blocks onto their own account chain; a transfer takes a send block from the sender and a matching receive block from the recipient. Every account names a representative, whose voting weight is the sum of balances delegated to it; delegating locks nothing and gives the representative no spending power. Representatives vote on blocks and votes are gossiped. Once a first round reaches quorum, representatives issue final votes, and a node confirms a block when final votes exceed 67% of online voting weight (the default), then cements it. Representatives with at least 0.1% of online weight are principal representatives, whose votes other nodes rebroadcast. A small proof of work on every block and balance-based scheduling, not fees, limit spam. The Nano Foundation maintains the reference node. 3451213162122

Design

System
Non-block ledgerNano's ledger is a block-lattice: every account has its own chain of blocks, each block is one transaction signed by the account owner, and no miner, staker or leader produces shared blocks. Representatives chosen by holders vote on transactions, and each node cements one once votes pass quorum. It is filed with non-block ledgers because there is no global block production, block interval or chain-selection race. Nano's documentation calls each account chain a blockchain and each transaction a block, so a reviewer following that vocabulary could class it as a base-layer blockchain instead.
Settlement family
Its own design
Scarce resource
Stake (proof of stake)
State model
Accounts
Finality
Other
Who makes blocks
No proposer or leader. Only the key holder can add blocks to an account chain; nodes flood new blocks, representatives vote on them, and anyone running a node can be a representative. Three nano.community index reads on 2026-09-29 listed 74 representatives seen in the last month, 66 to 68 online. The largest, labelled Kraken, held about 29% of online voting weight, the two largest over a third and the eleven largest about two-thirds. Seven labelled Nano Foundation had weight equal to about 9%, three of them offline in the last read. Labels are self-reported to the index and unverified.
Fork choice
No chain-selection rule. A fork exists only when an account owner signs two blocks with the same predecessor; representatives vote on the conflicting blocks, the one that reaches quorum is confirmed, and nodes cement it and will not roll it back. Other accounts are unaffected. If representatives holding more than a third of online weight stop voting, blocks cannot reach quorum. The reviewed docs describe no penalty for a representative that votes for conflicting blocks.

Qualifications

Tradeoffs

This view follows one way of thinking about design priorities, often called the blockchain trilemma. The design-priorities lesson sets out the counter-view. Read the design-priorities lesson.

Emphasizes
Scalability and Decentralization Contested
Gives up
Stake at risk and protocol rewards. Representatives bond nothing, earn nothing from the protocol and face no penalty, so safety depends on holders delegating to honest, online representatives and on outside reasons to run nodes. The ledger records only XNO balances, so programmable features live outside the protocol. Some past protocol upgrades were switched on by canary blocks the Nano Foundation distributed or by epoch blocks that only a key the Foundation holds can sign.Nano's documentation describes the design as scalable and decentralized at once and argues that consensus without fees or rewards removes pressure toward centralization. Open delegation lets any holder move voting weight at any time, but a 2026-09-29 index read showed two representatives, one labelled as an exchange, holding more than a third of online weight, so the decentralization emphasis is contested and not scored here.
Full node at home
Demanding 1011Nano's docs recommend, for a non-voting node or a small representative, 8 GB of RAM, a quad-core CPU, an SSD with at least 400 GB free and a 250 Mbps connection with at least 4 TB of monthly transfer; a principal representative needs 16 GB of RAM, 500 Mbps and 8 TB a month. Initial sync downloads and verifies blocks from peers and can take hours to days. A faster route loads a ledger file the Nano Foundation posts on its Discord, which means trusting that file, and node releases ship hard-coded representative weights to help bootstrapping.
Throughput claims
  • Observed window: 161 2Observed in the stated window only; not capacity.Confirmations (blocks) per second; a transfer needs a send and a receive block, so the docs give 80.5 to 161 transfers per second.Peak production-network traffic stated in Nano's Living Whitepaper, which cites 2020 stress tests; the exact window is not given.The figure is the project's own and cites a 2020 forum post that could not be read at review because forum.nano.org did not resolve, so its window and method were not checked. A peak seen under test traffic reflects that load, not capacity. It predates node releases V24 to V28, which changed prioritization, queueing and the unconfirmed-block backlog.
  • Lab benchmark: 1,800 2Controlled benchmark; not observed network behavior.Confirmations (blocks) per second on the beta network, stated as more than 1800; the docs give 900 to 1800 transfers per second.Beta-network test stated in Nano's Living Whitepaper (2020); exact window not given.The beta network is a test network with its own nodes and load, not mainnet. Hardware, bandwidth and node count are not stated, and the cited forum source was unreachable at review. Not comparable with observed mainnet load.
  • Lab benchmark: 300 tx/s 18Controlled benchmark; not observed network behavior.Controlled beta test of the V28 bounded backlog, reported in January 2025: a sudden influx of 200,000 blocks.The Nano Foundation reports sustained backlog processing of about 300 transactions per second in a controlled test environment, not on mainnet. The post does not say whether a transaction here means one block or a send-and-receive pair. Hardware, node count and bandwidth are not stated.
Headline figures are not comparable across chains. A theoretical peak is never a like-for-like number.

Scaling layers

No scaling layer recorded in this profile.

Capabilities

Capabilities of Nano: how each one is provided, or its research status
CapabilityHow it is providedNotes and sources
Account abstractionStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Atomic swapsUnknownNano blocks have no hash-lock or time-lock field and a confirmed send cannot be revoked, so a swap has to be built from signatures outside the ledger. NearInstant, an independent project, implements a swap between XNO and Monero using 2-of-2 joint accounts and adaptor signatures, but its README says no swap between two parties has completed on chain yet and the code is unaudited. 4839
Authenticated data publicationUnknownThe Nano Foundation says the protocol intentionally provides no support for storing non-currency data, blocks carry only currency fields, and transactions without currency value tend to be deprioritized. The same post notes that currency fields can be abused to hold arbitrary data; no publication tool built that way was reviewed. 417
Light clientsUnknownThe reviewed docs describe no light-client protocol; wallets read balances and confirmation status from a node over RPC. Ledger pruning, which could keep about one block per account, is described in the V28.2 notes as experimental and not recommended for production services. 3815
Native staking or delegationStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
On-chain governanceStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Parallel executionStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Payment or state channelsUnknownNo payment or state channel layer on Nano was found in the reviewed sources.
Programmable spendingNone found Earlier definitionEvery block is a fixed-format state block signed with the account's single ED25519 key (with Blake2b hashing); the format has no script, predicate or contract field, and the Nano Foundation states that the protocol carries only currency data. The nearest feature found, the 2-of-2 joint accounts in NearInstant's unaudited swap software, is built with threshold signing off the ledger, and each block still carries one signature for one account key. 481739
Protocol-verified messagingStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Reversible transfers or recoveryUnknownAt protocol level a confirmed send cannot be revoked by the sender, each account is controlled by one private key, and delegating to a representative grants no spending power, so delegation is not a recovery path. Joint-account designs with pre-signed refunds exist in unaudited software that has not completed a swap on chain, and no wallet offering a reclaim window or recovery path was reviewed. 4839
RollupsNone found Earlier definitionNo rollup settling to Nano was found. The nearest product found, Nanswap's NanUSD, runs on its own network started from a separate genesis block with a modified Nano node, and no mechanism that records its state on Nano was found, so it is a separate network, not a rollup. The Nano Foundation states that the protocol intentionally provides no support for non-currency data, and blocks carry only currency fields. 4172930
Shielded transfersStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Signed partial offersNot presentEach block changes only its signer's own account chain and XNO is the ledger's only asset, so no single transaction can settle both legs of a trade; a transfer always takes a send block and a separate receive block signed by the recipient. 345
Reading these values
How this feature is provided
Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
Structured assessment pending
The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
Unknown
The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
Earlier definition
Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
Reading across rows
The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.

Definitions, schema version and review history

Ecosystem & custody

Ecosystem products for Nano
Product typeStatusNotes and sources
Automated market makersNone foundThe ledger records only XNO balances and runs no contracts, so no pool can exist on Nano. The nearest venue, Nanswap, is an instant exchange service that swaps from its own liquidity and connected exchanges after the user sends it funds, which is not an automated market maker on Nano. 41728 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Issuer-native stablecoinsNone foundNeither Circle's USDC list nor Tether's list of supported protocols includes Nano, and the ledger has no token support. NanUSD, a coin Nanswap says is backed by USDC and powered by Nano, runs on its own network started from a separate genesis block with Nanswap's modified node software, not on the Nano ledger. 429303132 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Algorithmic stablecoinsNone foundThe ledger holds only XNO and supports no tokens or contracts, so no algorithmic stablecoin can be issued on it. 417 As of Sep 29, 2026.
BridgesUnknownNo bridge carrying XNO to another chain was verified. Users move between XNO and other assets through exchange services such as Nanswap, which hold funds during a swap. Nanswap's NanBTC and NanUSD live on its own separate networks built from Nano's node software, not on Nano. Risk: Exchange services and any wrapped XNO depend on their operators and reserves, not on Nano's representatives. 282930 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Block explorersEstablished in the ecosystemBlockLattice, Nanexplorer, Nano.communityThe Nano Foundation's Nano Hub lists BlockLattice, Nanexplorer and nanoBrowse as explorers, but nanoBrowse's domain did not resolve at review, and Nano's ledger guide points to BlockLattice.io, Nano.community and NanoCharts.info for checking representative weights. All are run by third parties and show indexed data rather than independent verification; Nanexplorer also covers other networks built from Nano's code. Nanolooker, still linked in some older lists including Ledger's currency package, served unrelated content at review. 112324262736 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Hardware walletsThinLedger (through Nault)See custody rows: a Ledger Nano X or Nano S Plus signs XNO transactions through the Nano device app and the Nault wallet, and Trezor states that it does not support Nano. 33343738 As of Sep 29, 2026.

Hardware-wallet custody

Hardware-wallet custody for Nano
Device makerStatusWhat users can and cannot do
LedgerThrough an intermediaryNault (open-source Nano wallet), with the Nano app installed on the Ledger deviceSame as native: UnknownCan: Install the Nano device app from Ledger's device manager and send, receive and change representative in Nault, confirming each block on the device
Can: Use other wallets that the Nano Hub lists with Ledger support, such as NanChat
Cannot: Manage XNO inside Ledger's own wallet app: the currency families in Ledger's current wallet code do not include Nano, and its Nano app repository and Nault's 2020 guide send users to wallets with Ledger support insteadThe Nano device app is published in Ledger's GitHub organization, and its current build manifest targets only the Nano X and Nano S Plus, so other Ledger models were not shown to run it. Ledger's currency package lists the currency under its old ticker NANO with an explorer link to nanolooker, which served unrelated content at review, so the entry was not taken as evidence of support in Ledger's own app. Ledger device models named Nano S Plus and Nano X share the word Nano with the currency but have nothing to do with it. 253334353637 As of Sep 29, 2026.
TrezorNone foundSame as native: NoCannot: Manage XNO in Trezor Suite; Trezor's Nano page says Trezor does not currently support NanoTrezor's page asks users who used Nano with Trezor before to contact support and names no third-party wallet to use instead. 38 As of Sep 29, 2026.

Public data

iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Nano yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.

Public-data lookups for Nano
LookupStatusWhat it covers and its limits
Address or accountNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
Tokens and assetsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
NFTsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
TransactionsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.

A lookup covers one address or transaction from one provider. It is never a complete wallet, and an error or private value is reported as unknown, not zero. About public data · Connect your AI

Sourced developments

Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.

Publication date · newest first

Topics your AI can explain

Your AI can explain these topics for Nano through the connection, with sources.

Known gaps

What this profile's review did not establish:

Sources

Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.

All 39 sources were checked in the last 30 days.

  1. What is nano? (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  2. Protocol Design: Introduction (Living Whitepaper) (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  3. Protocol Design: Ledger (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  4. Protocol Design: Blocks (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  5. Protocol Design: ORV Consensus (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  6. Protocol Design: Spam, Work, and Prioritization (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  7. Protocol Design: Distribution and Units (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  8. Integration Guides: The Basics (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  9. Integration Guides: Work Generation (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  10. Running a Node: Overview (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  11. Running a Node: Ledger Management (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  12. Glossary (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  13. Network Upgrades (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  14. Node Releases (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  15. V28.2 release notes (external site)Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  16. nano-node repository (external site)Nano Foundation (GitHub) · retrieved
  17. The problem with mixing currency and data (external site)Nano Blog (Colin LeMahieu) · retrieved
  18. V28 Electrum: The Start of Commercial Grade (external site)Nano Blog (Nano Foundation) · retrieved
  19. Frequently Asked Questions (external site)Nano Foundation · retrieved
  20. Currency Kit (name, symbol and ticker) (external site)Nano Foundation · retrieved
  21. Nano.community representatives API (read 2026-09-29) (external site)Nano.community (open-source project) · retrieved
  22. Nano.community voting weight API (read 2026-09-29) (external site)Nano.community (open-source project) · retrieved
  23. nano-community repository (external site)mistakia (GitHub) · retrieved
  24. Nano Hub: Block and Account Explorer (external site)Nano Foundation (Nano Hub) · retrieved
  25. Nano Hub: Wallets (external site)Nano Foundation (Nano Hub) · retrieved
  26. Blocklattice Explorer (external site)blocklattice.io · retrieved
  27. Nanexplorer (external site)Nanexplorer · retrieved
  28. Nanswap FAQ (external site)Nanswap · retrieved
  29. NANUSD: Zero Fee Stablecoin (external site)Nanswap · retrieved
  30. nan-node: Nano-node with customisable genesis block (external site)yxse (Nanswap) on GitHub · retrieved
  31. USDC contract addresses (external site)Circle · retrieved
  32. Supported protocols (external site)Tether · retrieved
  33. app-nano: Nano wallet application for Ledger devices (external site)Ledger (LedgerHQ on GitHub) · retrieved
  34. app-nano build manifest (ledger_app.toml) (external site)Ledger (LedgerHQ on GitHub) · retrieved
  35. ledger-live: currency families in ledger-live-common (develop branch) (external site)Ledger (LedgerHQ on GitHub) · retrieved
  36. @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (external site)Ledger (npm package via jsDelivr) · retrieved
  37. How to use the Ledger Nano in Nault (external site)Nault Docs · retrieved
  38. Nano support status (external site)Trezor · retrieved
  39. NearInstant: Nano and Monero atomic-swap DEX (README) (external site)dhyabi2 (GitHub) · retrieved

Report an error

Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.

Funding disclosure

Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding