Non-block ledger
Nano ticker XNO
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
- System class · Contested. Filed with non-block ledgers because each account extends its own chain and representatives vote on transactions, with no shared block production, block interval or chain selection. Nano's docs call each account chain a blockchain and each transaction a block, so a reviewer following the project's vocabulary could class it as a base-layer blockchain instead.
- Block metrics · Not applicable. There are no shared blocks: each block is one transaction on one account chain, and the docs say the protocol sets no block size or block time. Block interval, block fullness and orphan rates have no meaning; confirmations per second is the project's own rate measure.
- Fees · Not applicable. Nano charges no transaction fee. Each block carries a proof of work that the sender computes or requests from a work server; send and change blocks need a higher work threshold than receive blocks. Scheduling uses balance tiers, not payments.
- Mempool · Partial. There is no fee-ordered mempool. Unconfirmed blocks wait in a backlog that node release V28 bounded, and elections are scheduled round-robin across 63 balance tiers, with the least recently used account first within each tier.
- Slashing · Not applicable. Delegation bonds and locks nothing and representatives earn no protocol reward, so there is no stake to slash; the reviewed docs describe no penalty for representatives.
- Protocol upgrade keys · Applies. Epoch blocks, which upgrade account versions (for example the August 2020 change to work thresholds), can be signed only with a key the Nano Foundation holds; they cannot change balances or representatives. The docs say distribution of the August 2020 epoch blocks was to start once more than 90% of voting weight had upgraded, and nodes that had not upgraded were de-peered. The final-votes upgrade was activated by a canary block the Foundation distributed once at least 80% of voting weight had upgraded.
- Decentralization · Contested. Any holder can redelegate at any time and anyone can run a representative, which Nano presents as decentralizing. A nano.community index read on 2026-09-29 showed the representative labelled Kraken with about 29% of online voting weight, two representatives above one-third (enough to stop confirmations) and eleven at about two-thirds. Labels and operators were not verified. Not scored here.
- State model · Partial. Recorded as account. Nano's own terms: a block-lattice in which each account chain records the account's full state (balance and representative) in every block, and an amount is the difference between consecutive balances. A confirmed send leaves the funds receivable, outside the recipient's balance, until the recipient publishes a receive block.
- Settlement family · Partial. Recorded as other. Nano's own terms: transactions settle on Nano's own block-lattice, where nodes confirm each block through Open Representative Voting and cement it; the reference node software is the Nano Foundation's nano-node, and nothing settles to another chain.
- Scarce resource · Contested. Recorded as stake because a representative's voting weight is the XNO balance that holders delegate to it, although nothing is bonded, locked, rewarded or slashed. Nano's own term is Open Representative Voting, and its docs say ORV differs from proof of stake for those reasons, so a reviewer following the project's terms could record another resource. The proof of work attached to each block is a spam cost that plays no part in consensus.
- Finality · Partial. Recorded as other. Nano's own terms: confirmation and cementing. A block is confirmed when final votes pass quorum, more than 67% of online voting weight by default, and each node then cements it by raising the account's confirmation height, after which it is not reversed. The docs cite typical confirmation in under a second. No stake is slashed if the voting assumption fails.
- Tps · Contested. The only rate figures are the project's own, from 2020 tests and a January 2025 beta test; they are kept in the classified claims list and are not comparable with observed rates elsewhere.
Tradeoffs
- 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.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Nano 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 publication | Unknown | The 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 clients | Unknown | The 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 delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer on Nano was found in the reviewed sources. |
| Programmable spending | None found Earlier definition | Every 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 messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | At 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 |
| Rollups | None found Earlier definition | No 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 transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Not present | Each 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.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | None found | The 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 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither 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 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | None found | The ledger holds only XNO and supports no tokens or contracts, so no algorithmic stablecoin can be issued on it. 417 |
| Bridges | Unknown | No 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 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemBlockLattice, Nanexplorer, Nano.community | The 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 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (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 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryNault (open-source Nano wallet), with the Nano app installed on the Ledger deviceSame as native: Unknown | Can: 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 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: 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 |
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.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Next node release V29 'Piotric' described; development builds continue
The Nano Foundation described the next node release, V29 Piotric: startup checks that compare representative weights and balances with the ledger and stop the node on a mismatch, a backlog limit that rises during bootstrap to undo a sync slowdown caused by V28's bounded backlog, a reworked election scheduler and vote replier, topology indexing groundwork, and new operator commands including a ledger rollback option. Automated development builds of V29.0 were tagged on GitHub through 26 September 2026, and the docs list 29.0 as the next planned release with no date.
- Proposal:described by the Nano Foundation as the next node release
- Implementation:in development; automated development builds tagged through V29.0DB94 (2026-09-26)
- Release:not released; the docs list 29.0 as next planned release with date TBD
- Activation:not activated; no activation announced
Sources: Nano Foundation (Nano Blog) — Nano Ecosystem Round Up of 2026 So Far (external site) · Nano Foundation (GitHub) — nano-node releases Atom feed (external site) · Nano Documentation (Nano Foundation) — Node Releases (external site)
-
x402nano published open-source tools for paying web APIs in XNO
A community developer published x402nano, open-source packages for the x402 HTTP payment protocol on Nano: a payment scheme, helpers and a facilitator that verifies Nano blocks inside payment requests and settles them through a Nano RPC node. The earliest commits date from 5 February 2026 and the facilitator's from 6 March 2026. The Nano Foundation's May round-up groups it with other agent-payment tools and says the first autonomous agent payments on mainnet came in early 2026.
- Implementation:open-source packages published on GitHub
- Release:published; no audit found
- Activation:no protocol change; each service adopts it separately
Sources: x402nano (GitHub) — x402nano schemes commit feed (external site) · x402nano (GitHub) — x402nano facilitator (external site) · x402nano (GitHub) — x402nano (external site) · Nano Foundation (Nano Blog) — Nano Ecosystem Round Up of 2026 So Far (external site)
-
Nanswap published a run example for its separate NanUSD network built from Nano's node software
Nanswap offers NanUSD, a coin it says is backed 1:1 by USDC reserves, and later NanBTC, which it says is backed by BTC reserves. Both run on separate networks: Nanswap's nan-node repository is a modified Nano node with a customisable genesis block, and its NanUSD example starts a network with its own genesis account, address prefix and peering host. The NanUSD run example was added to the repository on 22 October 2025, and the Nano Foundation's round-up dates NanBTC to February 2026.
- Implementation:networks running according to the issuer's sites
- Release:launched by Nanswap
- Activation:live according to the issuer's sites; not independently checked
Sources: Nanswap — NANUSD: Zero Fee Stablecoin (external site) · Nanswap — NANBTC: Zero Fee Bitcoin (external site) · yxse (Nanswap) on GitHub — nan-node: Nano-node with customisable genesis block (external site) · yxse (Nanswap) on GitHub — nan-node commit feed (external site) · Nano Foundation (Nano Blog) — Nano Ecosystem Round Up of 2026 So Far (external site)
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:
- The forum post behind the Living Whitepaper's 2020 rate figures could not be read because forum.nano.org did not resolve on 2026-09-29, so their window and method were not checked.
- Representative weights and labels come from same-day reads of the nano.community index on 2026-09-29; who operates each representative, and whether several belong to one operator, were not verified.
- What the node does when too little online voting weight is available to reach quorum was not reviewed in node code.
- Current ledger size on disk was not measured; the docs' 400 GB recommendation and a 2020 figure in the ledger guide were the only sources.
- No light-client or compact verification path was found in the reviewed docs; node code and wallet backends were not reviewed.
- No live atomic-swap tool, reclaim window or recovery product for XNO was found; NearInstant's adaptor-signature swap was pre-release at review and other wallets were not surveyed.
- No bridge that carries XNO to another chain was verified, and exchange services were not reviewed one by one.
- Payment or state channel designs for Nano were not searched beyond the docs.
- No readable Ledger page on XNO in Ledger's own wallet app was found, because Ledger's support article renders only in a browser; the Ledger row rests on Ledger's current wallet code, its Nano app repository and a 2020 wallet guide.
- The V29 node release was in development at review; its release date and whether it changes protocol rules were not confirmed.
- Plans the Nano Foundation described in January 2025, a large cut in proof-of-work difficulty and receive blocks that no longer need separate user signing, had no shipped release found.
- Nanswap's reserve claims for NanUSD and NanBTC come from its own pages and were not checked.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.
- What is nano? (external site)
- Protocol Design: Introduction (Living Whitepaper) (external site)
- Protocol Design: Ledger (external site)
- Protocol Design: Blocks (external site)
- Protocol Design: ORV Consensus (external site)
- Protocol Design: Spam, Work, and Prioritization (external site)
- Protocol Design: Distribution and Units (external site)
- Integration Guides: The Basics (external site)
- Integration Guides: Work Generation (external site)
- Running a Node: Overview (external site)
- Running a Node: Ledger Management (external site)
- Glossary (external site)
- Network Upgrades (external site)
- Node Releases (external site)
- V28.2 release notes (external site)
- nano-node repository (external site)
- The problem with mixing currency and data (external site)
- V28 Electrum: The Start of Commercial Grade (external site)
- Frequently Asked Questions (external site)
- Currency Kit (name, symbol and ticker) (external site)
- Nano.community representatives API (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
- Nano.community voting weight API (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
- nano-community repository (external site)
- Nano Hub: Block and Account Explorer (external site)
- Nano Hub: Wallets (external site)
- Blocklattice Explorer (external site)
- Nanexplorer (external site)
- Nanswap FAQ (external site)
- NANUSD: Zero Fee Stablecoin (external site)
- nan-node: Nano-node with customisable genesis block (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- app-nano: Nano wallet application for Ledger devices (external site)
- app-nano build manifest (ledger_app.toml) (external site)
- ledger-live: currency families in ledger-live-common (develop branch) (external site)
- @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (external site)
- How to use the Ledger Nano in Nault (external site)
- Nano support status (external site)
- NearInstant: Nano and Monero atomic-swap DEX (README) (external site)
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