Ardor and Nxt Pave the Way for Crypto
Some time back last year, a Steemit user explained why cryptocurrency traders and investors should look into the Nxt and Ardor digital currency platforms. And, to do it "before it is too late." Introduced in 2013, the Nxt platform was dubbed "Cryptocurrency 2.0", however, at the time this crypto failed to receive the attention many crypto devotees and experts thought it should have. This could have been largely due to the fact that the Nxt platform was considered to be "ahead of its time."
Moreover, the Nxt ICO reportedly only raised a meager 21 Bitcoins (BTC), but it did not take too long for crypto traders to notice its unique features and soon the investments began pouring in. In fact, the Nxt platform has managed to accumulate hundreds of million of dollars in market capitalization since then. There were many critics of the platform though who claimed that the majority of the platform's funds belonged to just a few monopolizing "whales." This eventually led to creation of the New Economy Movement (NEM), but this article is not about all what NEM aims to offer - which has been previously covered here.
Crypto Platforms Inspired By Previous Ones
Instead, as stated, we'll take a brief look into both Ardor and Nxt and why investors should maybe consider giving them a closer look. Before going into this, it is worth noting that NEM began as pretty much a copy of Nxt . Notably, even the first NEM client resembled the Nxt client initially. Eventually though the creators of NEM developed a unique and legitimate digital currency platform of their own. The interesting thing to note here is that this short lesson in crypto history teaches us that great ideas and "old-school" platforms like Nxt paved the way for more innovation in the cryptosphere.
Inspired by Nxt, Ardor can be thought of "Nxt 2.0". But what exactly is Ardor? It's described as a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform that enables users to leverage Nxt's blockchain technology through the use of "child chains." The bulk of the computing and maintenance of security is handled by Ardor's main chain, so those who are running child chains are not burdened with all the network management work associated with running a typical blockchain. Instead, Ardor users are able to access and take advantage of all the notable features of Nxt such as "decentralized phasing, voting, and trading" by simply running child chains.
The Spread of Blockchain As a Service (BaaS)
Additionally, users have the option to communicate and work with other child chains running on Ardor. Notably, the first child chain to be implemented on Ardor is IGNIS. Today, BaaS is offered by a number of big name companies, but Ardor might have been one of the first platforms to offer a legitimate BaaS solution. Within the Ardor network, anyone with a decent programming background can launch their own child chains, and not be limited to just creating their own digital assets or tokens.
Basically, all Nxt features are accessible to Ardor child chains. These features include Aliasing, which is marking transactions with easy to remember names instead of long and complex sequence of arbitrary symbols. Then you have something called the Data Cloud that can be used to safely and securely hold data on a private or public blockchain. Each data entry is also timestamped.
One of the First to Offer Multi-Sig
Perhaps also for one of the first times in crypto history, Ardor and Nxt offered/offer robust Account Control features such as multi-sig to protect accounts from unauthorized access. Furthermore, there's a built-in Monetary System on Ardor through which users can issue customized tokens and native child chain tokens as well. Plus users are able to send encrypted messages and files through a decentralized network.
Transaction privacy features such as CoinShuffle are also available on child chains, similar to the way it is on Nxt. This lets network users jumble up their funds fairly easily with other funds being circulated on the platform to hide transaction details. There's even a built-in decentralized and anonymous voting mechanism and a marketplace where traders can buy/sell physical or digital assets. Plugins can also be installed on the platform to offer added functionality. Last but not least, there's something called Phasing that network participants can use to execute automated conditional or unconditional transactions "with deferred execution."
Although there are now numerous cryptocurrency platforms that have similar and even more advanced features, every cryptocurrency devotee should know that Nxt, Ardor, and IGNIS are among one of the pioneers in the digital currency space.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://cryptocoremedia.com/ardor-cryptocurrency-platform/