Welcome back to CCR, I hope you enjoyed yesterday's article on Firstblood! The price has gone down a bit further so keep it in mind for either before tomorrows chaos, or after when you have more cash. Today I'll be discussing Nimiq a new cryptocurrency aiming to be the future currency of the web. The mining and wallet client run in a browser through JavaScript and there's a google extension to connect and mine on the betanet. The mainnet will use a memory hard POW algorithm in order to be ASIC resistant so that any user can contribute hashing power. The target block-time is 1 minute so transactions won't be instant but this could change in the future.
One of the most interesting features this crypto provides is cashlinks which allow a user to prepay an amount of NIM and then send a one-time use link to someone that can collect that payment. It's similar to a check made out to cash instead of an actual transaction to someone's address which is more secure. It will be good for paying someone quickly for a service (plumber, cleaning service, babysitter) and the URL could be put into a QR code so that it could be easily given to the recipient. I believe cashlinks provide a great solution for the 1 minute block time as the cashlink is prepaid and you know you'll get the money.
The beta client is nice and mines quite quickly and the wallet is good but the app will be better once it has cashlinks. For developers, there is a cdn API for us to use so that websites can include Nimiq as the currency to use in purchases. I think Nimiq is going to fill a very special place in the market for those that can't fully enter the crypto scene as it brings down the barriers tremendously and will be able to run on the current internet. In the next 50 years as cryptocurrencies are accepted more and dApps (or whatever comes next) take over who knows where Nimiq will be. I believe having a pure cryptocurrency that doesn't do anything other than act as cash is a really good idea and is necessary for the more complex cryptos (OPUS, 1ST) to take off. As Nimiq gains traction more people will be willing to convert Nimiq to other currencies to try out those products that require their own coin.
