As we previously touched on, nano is designed to be fast. So fast, in fact, that most nano transactions reach absolute finality within less than a second — compared to several minutes or even longer for many other major cryptocurrencies.
This speed makes nano suitable for commercial payments, since merchants and retailers no longer need to worry about transaction delays when accepting payments.
Moreover, nano transactions are completely fee-less. Since representatives do not receive financial compensation for their efforts to secure the network, there is no need for a transaction fee. This makes nano an ideal solution for processing micro-transactions, since users no longer need to worry about fronting a potentially expensive transaction fee when making small payments.
These features are enabled by its unique architecture. Unlike many cryptocurrencies which are built on top of a distributed ledger known as a [blockchain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain), Nano is instead built around a similar ledger technology called a directed acyclic graph (DAG).
This structure is highly reliable, and it can scale to support 1,000 transactions per second (tps) with the right hardware — without requiring an energy-intensive mining network to maintain its integrity, positioning nano as an eco-friendly digital payment option.