I would love to start this blog by saying "Recently" regarding the blockchain community, but the thing is blockchain has been in our lives for a long time now. We feel like "social media" has been around our lives like forever, yet most of the popular social media services are not even 10 years old. I feel like blockchain and cryptocurrency has been around our lives forever. I'm also a strong believer in the technology and hope that we will get more blockchain-based applications integrated into our daily lives (And I'm telling this as a victim of Cryptsy and Cointellect).If you are somehow got interested in blockchains, surely you have heard of NEM and their cryptocurrency XEM. As one of the top 20 coins according to Coinmarketcap, NEM has a market cap close to 1.5 billion USD. NEM is world's first smart asset blockchain. NEM's blockchain technology promises a platform for management of almost any kind of assets, such as currencies, supply chains, notarizations, ownership records and more.

NEM’s smart asset system allows customizing how they use the NEM blockchain, with a set of features including domain-like namespaces and full on-blockchain multi-signature control. Any application can access these features through NEM’s API allowing easy integration within mobile apps, existing business infrastructure or contract logic. The NEM public blockchain provides an open and self-scaling platform for developers.As a startup enthusiast, the thing that I love about NEM ecosystem most is their Community Funding DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Basically, The Community Fund DAO was set up to promote the development of the NEM ecosystem by funding NEM startup companies to help jumpstart their businesses. It is open to everyone who meets the minimum requirements, such as having an existing legal bank account, ownership of sufficient XEM reserves in their account etc.When you feel like you have the minimum requirements for your project and feel ready to get funded by the community, you basically present your whitepaper in (or project proposal as it is called in NEM Community). You just go on to NEM forum and create your proposal in detail.After you tell people about your project in detail, the voting process begins. You need a certain percentage of the Proof of Importance (the consensus used in the NEM ecosystem) for each separate funding amounts, and also you need the approval of the NCF (NEM Community Fund) committee for your project to get funded. You can get funding up to 5 million USD (in XEM) for your NEM based startups with The Community Funding.

You can find more detail about The Community Funding DAO here, or if you want to apply for your project, you can visit NEM forums.Here are some projects that got approved by the community;Brifs.co Proposal | Unlocking the $160 Billion Gift Card MarketCHOICE :: A Liberated Payments Protocol - NEM Community Fund ProposalTravelbyBit – Travel the World and pay with XEM!

[UPDATE]

NEM Ventures

Given this situation, it has been decided to form NEM Ventures, a legal entity that will aim to formalise all projects and also to create a vehicle for investing in projects that will ensure funds are replenished and managed well for the NEM community and its projects. Indeed, it is an essential addition to the NEM Ecosystem, so that it remains competitive with all other platforms — having a clear, transparent and secure governance to enable expansion of its scope of initiatives.Currently, there is a proposal pending for a success vote in order to officially transition to a more traditional style VC fund. As soon as it passes, initial implementation will be the processing of all pending applications. However, this transition may, in short term, cause a little delay for those early in the queue but will overall improve the process, providing a more expedient and efficient experience for the proposals.At this given time, it is highly advisable for all to review the NEM Ventures proposal in full so that everyone understands how the new system will work. Should there be a possible amendment that is requested, the NEM Ventures team will closely communicate with the involved team, to ensure an efficient and effective changeover.You can read the full statement by NEM team here.