Nxt is an open source cryptocurrency and payment network launched in 2013 by anonymous software developer <em>BCNext</em>. It uses proof-of-stake to reach consensus for transactions—as such there is a static money supply and, unlike bitcoin, no mining. Nxt was specifically conceived as a flexible platform around which to build applications and financial services.^[1][2]

Nxt has been covered extensively in the "Call for Evidence" report by ESMA.

History

NXT was created with a total of one billion coins. On 28 September 2013 Bitcointalk.org member BCNext created a forum thread announcing the proposed launch of Nxt as a second generation cryptocurrency and asking for small bitcoin donations to determine how to distribute the initial stake. On 18 November 2013 fundraising for Nxt was closed.

The initial coin offering collected 21 bitcoins that were worth USD$17,000.

On November 9, 2015 Farla Webmedia launched a project on the NXT Asset Exchange. In July 2016 NXT launched Smart Transaction templates. Meant to serve as building blocks for businesses to construct Blockchain solutions for particular problems.^[3][4]

Features

The core infrastructure of Nxt is complex. This adds risks as compared to the more lean bitcoin, but makes it easier for external services to be built on top of the blockchain.

A peer-peer exchange allowing decentralized trading of shares, crypto assets. Since the blockchain is an unalterable public ledger of transactions, the Asset Exchange provides a trading record for items other than Nxt. To do this, Nxt allows the designation or "coloring" of a particular coin, which builds a bridge from the virtual cryptocurrency world to the physical world. The "colored coin" can represent property, stocks/bonds, commodities, or even concepts.

Arbitrary^[5] Messages enable the sending of encrypted or plain text, which can also function to send and store up to 1000 bytes of data permanently, or 42 kilobytes of data for a limited amount of time. As a result, it can be used to build file-sharing services, decentralized applications, and higher-level Nxt services.^[6]

Allowing holders of the currency or Nxt-Assets to vote in a cryptographically proven and externally verifiable way. This can be used for future development decisions, or for shareholder voting. It can also be applied to public elections and community based decision-making.

This makes it possible for external developers to add features or usability enhancements. The plug-ins are not contained in a sandbox.