Unlike most other crypocurrencies like Bitcoin that are based on blockchian as the data structure, Nano is one of the first cryptocurrencies to be based on a hybrid of Blockchain and DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) datastructure known as Block lattice in order to benefit from the upside of both. There are many technical differences between a Blockchain and DAG which I will not go into much detail as this is out of scope of this article.

^{Block lattice structure}

                         In a Block Lattice structure each account has it's very own Blockchain which can be updated only by the owner of the account and no one else. To intiate a transaction the owner adds a send block to his own blockchain which basically deducts the amount from his original balance and update the new balance in the new block while at the receiver's end the reciever adds a recieve block to his blockchain which on settlement would add the send balance to the balance of the previous block and update that in the newly added block. From this you can observe that instead of keeping track of amount of individual transactions like most of the crypto currencies do, the block lattice structure keep track of account balance of individual accounts and this is where the strength of Nano lies in.

                         Speaking of the consensus mechanism used, Nano implements a combination of Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. The Proof of Stake is the main consensus mechanism reponsible for validation, while proof of work is used to disincentivize spam in the network. Without getting into much more detail let see the upsides and downsides of Nano.

Upsides 👍

🔹 Near Instant transactions.

🔹 Zero Fees.

🔹 More scalable.

Downsides 👎

🔸 Expensive for exchanges in terms of time and resources to list Nano. That's the reason you will not find Nano in many exchanges.

🔸 Not many wallets available.

🔸 DAG model also come with it's own problems.

                         Ethereum pioneered smart contracts but as of now there are many blockchain projects that claim themselves to be better platforms for smart contracts. Out of those all several platforms, the one that is actually very close to being a competitor to Ethereum itself is NEO. I am not saying that NEO is the only one, what I am saying is that they are very close as compared to other in terms of adoption.

                         Neo formally know as Antshares is a decentralized open sourced cryptocurrency and blockchain platform aiming to utilize blockchain and digital identity to digital assets and automating the task of managing these digital assets using smart contracts. Their vision is to build a smart economy on blockchain.

                         Speaking of how Neo works, it uses a improved version of Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism called Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (DBFT) which makes Neo Hard Fork proof, meaning blocks cannot be split, transactions cannot be revoked or rolled backed once finalized. Apart from the Neo coin, there is one more token in the Neo network called NeoGAS which is the fuel that drives smart contracts in the Neo network. Gas is generated with each block and collected gas is distributed among the holders of Neo coin proportional to their share of the network. Gas generated from the transactional fees are used to incentivize Consensus nodes for keeping the network up and running. An interesting point to note here is that unlike Neo, Gas is divisible up to 8 decimal places.

Upsides 👍

🔹 Hard fork proof and quantum computer resistance.

🔹 Doesn't require any special language for developing smart contracts and DAPPs. Developers can code using mainstream programming languages like C++, Java etc using mainstream IDEs. This lower the entry barriers for developers.

🔹 Backed by a government entity.

Downsides 👎

🔸 Small community as compared to Ethereum.

🔸 Not enough information and documentation available for it's english readers.

🔸 Neo coins are not divisible as of now, but they are working on it and in future, they will be divisible. To get my point try sending 0.5 Neo from one exchange to another exchange.

Thanks for reading 😉

🔶 Disclaimer 🔶

                         Everthing in this article series is what I personally believe and not any sort of investment advice, kindly use your own brain while making decisions as I am not liable for any of your profit or loss following any of the material here on steemit.🙏