Symbol (XYM)
Symbol is a next generation, open source decentralized blockchain platform from NEM that connects businesses to blockchain, helps them to reduce cost and complexity, and finds new ways to create value. It has increased speed, usability, security and flexibility – making Symbol the smart, pragmatic choice for both enterprise and developers.
Symbol Videos
What makes Symbol special?
Get started with Symbol
Symbol (XYM)
Symbol is a next generation, open source decentralized blockchain platform from NEM that powers unlimited possibilities.
Website
Whitepaper
Source code
Explorer
Consensus: PoS+
Hash algorithm: Ed25519 + SHA-512
Block time: 15 seconds
Max Supply: 8999 Million
Circ. supply: ≈7832 Million
Block reward: Inflation
Mainnet: expected in 2020
Critical upgrade: NEM 1 > Symbol
Main use case:
Enterprise, dApps, Cryptocurrency
Community & Communication:
Contact NEM Foundation Blog
Telegram Dev Chat Forum
Twitter
Wallets
The story of Symbol
The original NEM project was started by UtopianFuture who assembled a great team in 2014. NEM developers were inspired by Nxt but built a public chain from scratch and launched a private chain in cooperation with Tech Bureau Japan. In 2016 and 2017, NEM Foundation was established, the project expanded globally and the core developers started to work on NEM 2.0. Symbol is a platform built on revolutionary blockchain technology, reimagining from scratch the ideal blockchain and improving on NEM’s performance and feature set. Symbol does not only allow for standard peer-to-peer value transfer transactions but facilitates complex blockchain development and enables seamless integrations between public chain, private chains and legacy systems.
Non-technical Symbol onboarding resources
These resources help you to get to know Symbol, to understand how Symbol works and how it can be applied for enterprises and projects.
Get started with Symbol
Become a Symbol expert
How can you join and contribute
- Join the forum and introduce yourself.
- Translate contents from Symbol Developer Documentation.
- Write about Symbol and share it with your friends and followers.
- Speak about Symbol at conferences and local events.
- Run a testnet node.
- Integrate Symbol with your project.
Symbol Onboarding Resources for technical people
These resources help you to get to know Symbol on a technical level and to start working with it. After going through these resources you are able to determine when it makes sense to use Symbol, how to set up and run a node, network or application.
Get started with Symbol
Become a Symbol developer
- Restrict mosaic transfers
- Delegate mosaic transactions to a third party
- Prevent spam attacks with account restrictions
- Start an atomic cross-chain swap between public and private chain
- Create a private testnet
- Integrate Symbol with serverless functions
- Extending Symbol core
More resources available at nemtech.github.io
Available Tooling
- Symbol SDK: Symbol SDK is the primary software development tool to create Symbol components, such as additional tools, libraries, or applications. Languages supported: JavaScript, TypeScript and Java.
- Symbol Desktop Wallet: Cross-platform client for Symbol to manage accounts, mosaics, namespaces, and issue transactions. Symbol Desktop Wallet is available for Mac, Windows, and as a web application.
- Symbol CLI: Symbol CLI is an open-source command-line interface to interact with the blockchain.
- Symbol Explorer: Symbol Explorer is a read-only web application to browse the content of the blockchain. The explorer supports searching for transactions, accounts, namespaces, mosaics, and blocks information on a given network.
- Symbol Service Bootstrap: The package Service Bootstrap contains the necessary setup scripts to deploy a network for testing and development purposes with just one command.
See additional tools and libraries here
How can you join and contribute
- Join the NEM community on Slack and introduce yourself.
- Run a testnet node.
- Integrate Symbol with your project.
- Write about Symbol and share it with your friends and followers
- Speak about Symbol at hackathons, conferences, workshops and local events.
- Participate in the bug bounty program on HackerOne
- Comment and open new issues in GitHub projects
- Contribute to the NEM Improvement Proposals
Check out this guide and meet the community.
Tokenomics in Symbol
XYM are used as peer-to-peer cash and for transactions in the network. Node owners & stakers may receive transaction fees, block rewards and an additional reward from a supernode program to kickstart the network. The recommended approach for Symbol tokenomics was compiled by the Tokenomics Working group, reviewed by Migration Committee, Core Team & Super Node Holders.
A 2-page summary can be found here, the full outline here and discussion here.
Governance in Symbol
NEM & Symbol’s governance model is constantly evolving. Long-standing community members, core developers and NEM Foundation take the most active role in Symbol’s governance process. The governance process looked like this but recently entities were integrated in NEM Group to push for Symbol mainnet launch. Ultimately, a similar model to Bitcoin’s governance model and community contributions shall be enabled.
Check out NEM improvement proposals.
The ecosystem
The Symbol/NEM ecosystem is distributed around the globe. There had been multiple NEM entities such as core developers, NEM Foundation, NEM Ventures and NEM Tech but they were all integrated in NEM Group LTD to push for mainnet launch. Besides NEM Group, there are strong local communities (e.g. in Japan) and various projects around the globe.
Roadmap
Tech Bureau financed the private chain development of Symbol. After 2.5 years of development, NEM core developers announced a private beta launch of this private chain on March 25th 2018. The software has since then been tested by NEM developers and companies. On June 12th 2019, Tech Bureau started offering enterprise licenses for the private chain of Symbol. Core developers have further developed Symbol public chain ever since. Public chain launch is now expected in 2020 but was previously anticipated much earlier.
A broad roadmap can be found here and a detailled one for launch here.