Electroneum (ETN) is a user-friendly, mobile-oriented cryptocurrency that:
- can be mined on any smartphone running Android (iOS coming soon),
- allows transactions to be settled instantly via its Instant Payment System, and
- has nearly 2.5 million users around the world!
Anyone can start mining and transacting Electroneum for free by creating an account and installing the app on their phones. The miner runs in the background and consumes virtually no processing power, battery life, or data. Mined coins are paid out regularly and users can spend them immediately from the app at a growing list of online and offline stores that accept ETN as payment.
Enablement Currency
Launched in November 2017, Electroneum is known as an enablement currency, meaning that they aim to provide unbanked citizens of third-world countries with an easy-to-use medium of exchange.
It was designed specifically with mobile users in mind, thereby appealing to a potential market of 2.2 billion smartphones, and especially to those in underdeveloped nations that lack banking facilities. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Electroneum has a user-friendly, beginner-oriented interface that allows users to seamlessly make ETN transactions, transfer coins between one another, check their balances, and mine coins.
Mobile Mining Experience
Electroneum’s unique mobile mining experience allows anyone with a smartphone to earn ETN coins by letting the miner app run in the background.
Being a cryptocurrency, Electroneum is created, held, and spent electronically, and has no physical coins. And since it is guarded by the blockchain, it is not controlled or regulated by any single person, company, or government, but rather by the collective community.
Instead, transactions are processed and validated by a network of thousands of computers around the world (called miners) that must all agree on the account balances of every user. Mathematical functions safeguard every aspect of the process and make sure that no one can game the system or commit fraud.
Traditionally, mining could only be performed on a computer with lots of processing power. However, the Electroneum team has created an algorithm that allows anyone with a mobile phone to mine effectively – thereby making it possible for millions of smartphone users around the world to learn about cryptocurrencies and mine their own coins.
READ ALSO: How to Mine Electroneum with a Mobile Phone
Instant Payments
With the launch of Electroneum’s Instant Payments System in September 2018, users can now make transactions between one another and get instant payment confirmation. No need to wait for blockchain confirmations.
In traditional cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, transactions could take up to an hour to be fully captured in the blockchain. Therefore, they are not suitable for making everyday transactions such as buying groceries at a local store. However, Electroneum acts as a trusted third party between buyer and seller and allows transactions to be confirmed instantly (no waiting time).
Here’s how it works:
When a buyer sends ETN to a seller for goods or services, Electroneum checks to make sure the buyer has the required funds available, reserves the funds so it can’t be spent again, and then gives instant confirmation to both parties that the transaction can be concluded.
Electroneum then gets to work in the background to transfer the funds from the buyer to the seller. The transfers happen on the blockchain itself. If a transaction should fail for whatever reason, Electroneum will try again and again until it succeeds.
A programmable API also allows e-commerce stores and Point of Sale till points to integrate Electroneum payments into their businesses. Checkout is simple, easy, and instant.
READ ALSO: Electroneum Instant Payments: How it Works
Who Created Electroneum?
Electroneum was created and developed in 2017 by a group of developers based in London, UK and led by CEO Richard Ells. It is currently run and developed by a growing team of passionate, talented individuals.
After raising funds through an ICO in September 2017, the Electroneum blockchain (decentralized ledger system) went live on 1 November 2017 and put the coin into circulation. The Electroneum app wallet went live in December 2017, the mobile miner in March 2018, and the instant payments system in September 2018.
Conclusion
Electroneum is a giant leap forward in the cryptocurrency market, making it possible for anyone with a smartphone to participate. This has the potential to create viral growth and mass adoption.
Hi. I’m Saif Meer and I have an offline wallet of Electroneum. But there’s some issue with private view keys. I can’t understand. Please help me. What is the key?
The private view key is printed on your offline paper wallet, clearly labeled “Private View Key”. It is in the form of several letters and numbers that appear random, and the paper wallet also shows a QR code for easy scanning of the code.
Please don’t give this key to anyone. Anyone who has this key will be able to view the balance of your wallet.
Hello
I just starting mining and my pending balance is at 19.17 ETN. I thought it transferred to wallet at 10 ETN. Am I doing something wrong?
The blockchain is currently flooded with lots of transactions, and there are some other problems that prevent the system from self-regulating itself to allow more transactions per second. The team is currently working on a fix for the problem, and in the meantime has stopped payouts (it seems).
But your pending balance will keep rising. They will pay out the ETN in your pending balance to your wallet once the blockchain problem is fixed.
Sweet website! Go Electroneum!
Lovit!
Hello,
I am very new to Electroneum.
One minor question. Who is Benjamin of “Benjamin says”?
That’s me, the creator of Electroneum101 and sole contributor to this blog. That reminds me, I should get an About page up and running…
Take note that this is a private project, and I’m not in any way affiliated with the Electroneum team. I’m just writing and teaching what I know, and it seems to be helping a lot of people.
In what way is Electroneum different from Bitcoin?
There are various differences between the two.
1. The most important is that Electroneum will be mineable with a mobile phone. The team has divided the total number of mineable coins in two, and assigned half to traditional computer mining and the other half to mobile mining. Bitcoin can also theoretically be mined on a mobile phone, but a phone has way too little CPU power to compare with fast computers and GPUs. Electroneum is bridging that gap and creating an environment where mobile phones don’t compete with computers.
2. Given the mobile mining aspect, it is expected that Electroneum will grow exponentially faster than Bitcoin, since the target audience (mobile phone owners) is very large (2.2 billion at this point).
3. They run on different algorithms. Bitcoin runs on SHA256 while Electroneum runs on the Monero-based Cryptonight algorithm which is much more private than SHA256.
4. Bitcoin has 8 decimal digits, making small amounts of Bitcoin difficult to read quickly. Electroneum only has 2 decimal digits, making it much more like traditional currencies we know, like the dollar.
5. Electroneum has a total of 21 billion coins against Bitcoin’s 21 million coins.
You’ve given me a great idea for a post, going into more detail on this. I’ll write it soon…
Electroneum needs to be on more than one exchange. I sent 10 ETN to Cryptopia on the 9, January and it still hasn’t shown. I contacted their support with all the proper transaction lines, and still no answer. I’ve counted it as a loss, so I’m just banking what I mine… Don’t trust that exchange.
I want to buy Electroneum using BTC. How do I do that?
Here’s a great article I wrote that explains it all.
What a laggy exchange! Will I ever see my money again? Best way to lose money is Cryptopia! It’s 01:13 and I have given up. Bye-bye money.
Keep on trying. They get it right eventually. They’re certainly not the best exchange out there, but it’s the only one that currently lists Electroneum.
I just transferred a small amount of bitcoin to Cryptopia and cost me $27 for a transfer fee. I just lost 1/3 of my money. I thought I am investing to make more.
I truly believe the whole concept of cryptocurrency has been hijacked by a bunch of rich people, and now they are becoming like banks. I hope this will not take place in future.
Luckily Bitcoin is one of the few currencies NOT controlled by any rich guy or institution. You can be sure that Bitcoin won’t ever fall into the hands of a single entity.
The reason you are paying so much is due to the large strains on the Bitcoin network. The creator did not foresee this happening, and I think he probably didn’t plant this far. However, some other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin has stepped in to solve this problem. They work nearly identical to bitcoin but with lower fees and shorter processing times.
Hi, I need to buy ETN with BTC through Luno. How do I do this?
Check out this tutorial.
Sir, I am not able to log into my Electroneum app. Whenever I log in it says “The username and password are incorrect” and the password reset link is also not working… What to do? Please help.
Just give it some time. The team are busy sorting out security issues at the moment and have locked down all the systems. Things will not function as they should. I guess we’ll need to wait another day or two. Just be patient.
Great info about Electroneum at last! Thanks for putting this together, Benjamin!
If I pay for goods or services using electroneum and those goods don’t get delivered how does a situation like this get resolved?
Hi James. I guess the scenario would be very similar to when you buy goods/services with fiat money (USD, etc.) that doesn’t get delivered. The risks are the same… You need to decide which websites/vendors you can trust. Don’t buy from scammy looking websites. Buy in person if at all possible where you can see the product before you transfer the coins.
Once Electroneum leaves your wallet, there is no way of getting it back unless the receiver returns it himself. There’s no central banking system that can reverse the payment. But if you do your due diligence and only buy from reputable sellers, you won’t have to face that problem!