HackMD
NEM Announcement
NEM launched on March 31st, 2015, seeking to improve on the imperfections found in other chains at the time. It was one of the first non-turing complete chains to feature user-defined tokens (called mosaics), namespaces, multisignature accounts, and a P2P reputation system based on EigenTrust++. Its most notable contribution, however, remains the proof-of-importance consensus mechanism which sought to reward on-chain activity and deter the concentration of wealth commonly associated with proof-of-stake.
From 2016 onwards, NEM marched towards Japan and became a viral phenomenon: it saw enterprise adoption under Tech Bureau; became an alternative payment option at local restaurants and global hotels; inspired art exhibits and community-run cafe's and even donation drives. Today, it remains a heavily-traded project with a global, loyal userbase that believes in the founding principles of the project: decentralization, financial freedom, and equality of opportunity.
Six years later, we're finally bringing NEM out of BETA, and open-sourcing the project.
The Road Forward
NEM is currently going through its seventh hardfork: the Harlock update.
Harlock is intended for NEM nodes to signal explicit support and desire for the merge of the NEM blockchain into Symbol as a 'subChain', a type of transaction-specific sidechain.
Navigating the NEM Project
The following repositories make up the NEM blockchain:
nis: The NEM Infrastructure Server. Contains the core components for the NEM blockchain, including observers and validators, P2P time synchronization, proof-of-stake and proof-of-importance, and data models. Refer to the readme for a package overview.
nem.core: Contains the core cryptographic libraries, serialization, transaction and state models for NEM. Refer to the readme for a package overview.
nem-deploy: Contains logging, file handling and bootstrapping functionality for nodes. Refer to the readme for a package overview.
nem.peer: Contains the EigenTrust and EigenTrust++ algorithm implementation, HTTP connection handling and peer services. Refer to the readme for a package overview.
nis-client: The wrapper that quickly builds the NIS client. Refer to the readme for a package overview and build instructions.
nem-docker: Docker file to launch NIS and set up a NEM node. Refer to the readme for a package overview and build instructions.
Future Development
- We will be integrating NEM with Rosetta, an open-source specification utilized for working with blockchain networks, most notably utilized by Coinbase.
- Should the Harlock hardfork pass, NEM will be integrated as a subChain of Symbol. Expect to see more unification across our products (explorer, SDK, ) as a result!
- NEM is currently considered in 'feature freeze' by the core team, but it is open to all community contributions.
Previous Hardforks
| BlockHeight | Changes |
|---|---|
| 199,800 | Multisig Aggregate Transansaction v1 > v2, Longer Messages in TransferTX |
| 440,000 | Namespaces & Mosaics |
| 875,000 | Network Fee Modification |
| 1,025,000 | Remote Accounts & Max Message Size |
| 1,110,000 | Mosaic Definition Change |
| 1,250,000 | Network Fee Modification |
