Howdy Bitcointalk - it's been FAR too long since I last visited!
I've recently spent some time looking through a number of threads and felt the need to chime in on Symbol (XYM)
https://symbolplatform.com/xym/ - NEM's long promised Catapult project . Catapult was initially intended as a monumental upgrade to the NEM blockchain, but the NEM Foundation opted (or needed) to implement it as a fork of NEM - creating Symbol. Anyone who held NEM at the fork is able to redeem XYM at a 1:1 ratio and effectively migrate to the new chain (without losing any NEM of course). NEM continues to exist and remains supported by the NEM Foundation, but with years of additional development behind it, XYM is pretty clearly the way forward..
Surprisingly, NEM remains priced above XYM - I believe largely due to NEM's name recognition and a broad lack of awareness of this transition.. I'm a longtime crypto enthusiast and fully understand just how easy it is to lose track of the myriad of projects out there; it seems to me that many NEM holders and buyers may still expect that Catapult will someday launch NEM to the moon, completely unaware that it launched a few months ago. NEM has long been referred to as the 'Sleeping Dragon', and it seems the lack of big news for Symbol since it's launch has largely kept it under the radar for now.. Once news of partnerships and business adoption begins to trickle in, I suspect more and more people will start connecting the dots and realize that XYM is in fact NEM 2.0, and wildly underpriced as such.
What's more - NEM's fee-based harvesting (staking) reward system was never particularly lucrative. I harvested NEM for years and the rewards have always been laughable. Symbol completely changed this with a hefty block reward system. I might have received up to 6-8 NEM in transaction fees on a LUCKY block, with most blocks netting little or no rewards; harvesting Symbol presently nets a consistent 128 XYM PER BLOCK plus transaction fees.. Four months of harvesting has netted a 2+% return on my delegated (staked) balance!
I must admit that I am a long time fan and supporter of NEM (among other green cryptocurrencies), and my opinions here are undoubtedly influenced by this.. Biases aside, there is no arguing that XYM is NEM 2.0, is priced below NEM, remains largely unknown, provides much better block rewards than NEM (more incentive to hold), and has the potential to grow considerably as adoption and recognition of its place as NEM's successor grows.
