Nano (formerly Raiblocks) has had a challenging 2018. Following a rebrand in January 2018, the cryptocurrency hit a roadblock when 170 million worth of XRB was lost on the BitGrail exchange.
This incident sent reverberations through the Nano community, and as the case dragged on, more supporters and investors began to lose confidence in the project. If you’ve been hanging out in the Nano subreddit for the past few months, you’ll remember that many supporters have wondered if the project can regain momentum.
The Nano team looks set to rebuild confidence in their project, with their announcement that they will be sharing weekly developer updates with their community.
The Release of Nano Wallet
In their first developer update, which was released earlier this week, the team shared their plans to launch their desktop and mobile wallets, which are part of Nano’s roadmap. They announced that their desktop and Android wallets will reach users sometime this week, while the iOS wallet is pending Apple approval and will be launched once the app is approved.
Once the wallets are live, they will be open-source, and the community can contribute ideas and feedback on wallet design and functionalities.
On June 22, the official announcement arrived: Nano Wallet is here!
The wallet is available in Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux – which covers the gamut for any user holding NANO.
Developed by the Nano Wallet Company, a separate entity from the Nano Foundation, the wallet has been in the works since late 2017.
On the mobile version, users can send and receive NANO. There’s also a built-in currency converter to help users calculate the amount of Nano in fiat; users can then send their selected fiat amount in Nano, based on the exchange rate. To make it easy for users to transfer NANO, they can text a card to their friends to facilitate the transfer.
Users can have multiple accounts in their desktop Nano Wallet, a feature that will be available on mobile in the near future. To ensure system compatibilities, the desktop version was built on Electron so that all users can make use of the wallet regardless of their operating system.
The team aims to create a “new wallet experience” with this wallet, so this release will be a test of their efforts, and we look forward to seeing how the Nano community reacts to them.
Optimizing the Nano Protocol
In terms of development, the Nano team has been hard at work on Nano Node in the past few months. In April, they released Nano Node v12, and subsequently followed up with new versions in both May and June.
Their current focus is optimizing the protocol, which is evident in their release of Nano Node v14. This version is designed to “improv[e] syncing, bootstrapping and reducing network usage.”
What’s Next for Nano?
Despite the BitGrail fiasco, the Nano team has been quietly working on hitting milestones in their progress. So far, they’ve delivered 2 milestones on schedule: the network upgrade and Ledger support for Nano.
With the release of their Nano Wallet this week, they are 3 for 3 on delivering on their promises. The dedication and commitment of the team is certainly commendable, particularly in a space where many projects miss development milestones on their roadmap.
The team’s announcement that they will regularly share updates is something that will surely reassure their community, and go a long way in better showcasing the progress that the team is making.
It’s still early on, and there are other deliverables on their roadmap, but if you believe in the promise of Nano, the project still has great potential to live up to its goals.
Check out the new Nano Wallet, available for download here.
Are you using the new Nano Wallet? What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
Related: Is the Future Bright for Nano?
