When a group of high-powered developers from around the world came together to start a project that would become known as the NEM Foundation, they weren’t compelled by the intention of targeting particular markets or rising quickly to notoriety. Instead, they were compelled by their own interest, and by the potential to benefit people. “We’re going about things a little bit differently. Rather than focusing on our coin price and marketing ourselves up front, we’re laying the groundwork so that as these waves of blockchain deployment come out, we’re hoping to be right on the leading edge as they go because of the way we’ve designed things,” says Matthew Hine, Head of Operations of the North American branch of the NEM Foundation. Since the beginning, the NEM Foundation has remained development-driven, which is just one characteristic that sets NEM apart from the rest. The majority of NEM blockchain apps are for the purpose of managing assets, and are uniquely built around a smart asset system which allows users to customize how they use the blockchain. Hit play to hear Hine discuss more on this topic.
Hine also discusses:

* The completely functional and fundamental value of NEM’s cryptocurrency, XEM
* NEM’s use of a modified version of proof of stake, referred to as proof of importance
* The role and benefit of fixed assets called Mosaics
* Catapult- the upcoming new platform that is a complete core rewrite of the NEM software in C++, offering increased performance and additional features