NEM has been in the top five for quite some time, but unlike the other top five, with the likes of headline giants ethereum, bitcoin, litecoin, and ripple, NEM has quietly gone along, unnoticed, plugging away. 

You’ve probably heard people say, “And what’s that NEM who’s way up there on Coin Market Cap? Some scam?” Nope. 

But what is NEM? NEM is a base line fat protocol like ethereum. The catch, and why I believe it hasn’t gotten any hype is that it is, without further ado, “The Ethereum of Japan.” 

Geographically, the big players are staking their countries, or better yet, the big counties are staking their blockchains of choice. 

Qtum and Antshares, now NEO, are taking root in China. Bitcoin is everywhere, Korea, US, and China especially. Ethereum and Monero are mined heavily in Russia and the US. And Japan, quiet cultured Japan, is backing NEM. 

Why is NEM covert?

Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by total market cap, NEM and Monero are the least hyped. Monero, probably because they are very nerdy, core developers. They turn away from the hype. Spagni announced The Monero Enterprise Alliance, to not only hush everyone’s bubble mania, but to say that we’re not involved in the world of fluff. 

Culturally, Japan is reserved. Quiet. Confident. Behind the scenes. This is evident with NEM. It’s county’s colors are shining through. 

Why is NEM cool?

Mosaic
NEM Faucet allows you to play a game every four hours where you can win NEM. It also allows you to participate in the early stages of the Mosaic blockchain. 

Proof of Importance
Proof of work transitioning to proof of stake may only be a short term answer. Proof of importance may quite be the next step and NEM is in the process of implementing POI. 

But really, why NEM is cool can be found in the following translation of it’s game from Japanese to English:

WHAT is NEM Mainnet Faucet ?
You can get Mainnet XEM for FREE. You can get a small amount XEM by twisting Faucet once four hour. Faucet need you ONLY for a NEM Address! "Oh my shit! I don't have...", Never Give UP! You can get an Address from nanoWallet. It is useful because it outputs three parameters (Pubkey,Prikey,Address). Do not forget to record!

(To cover myself, this is not investment advice. I do own NEM, but it only represents less than 2% of my blockchain portfolio.)