The NEO is China’s first open source Blockchain cryptocurrency. The digital currency tags itself as a dispersed network for the smart economy. It also has a goal of being the forerunner in the effort of building a smart economy made up of smart contracts, digital identities, and digital assets.
The NEO is strikingly similar to Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency after bitcoin which has decentralized app support, initial coin offerings and smart contracts.it has even been nicknamed the Chinese Ethereum.
The currency has continues to flourish despite China’s ban on cryptocurrencies. NEO continues to thrive even beyond China borders. The currency has a market cap of $3.9bn with a ranking of 11 and has more than 65 million of its coin in distribution.
A Brief History Of NEO
The NEO currency was founded in 2014 by Da Hongfei and Erick Zhang. It means young and new in Greek. The currency was formerly known as Antshares (ANS) and NEO cryptocurrency but later changed to just NEO.
NEO is a non-profit and community-based project that has raised over $4.5 million in its first initial coin offering. In the Chinese market, Antshare, as it was previously known gained immediate popularity as a competitor to Ethereum.
After the development of Antshare, developers Hongfei and Zhang started Onchain in 2014 and a technology is known as DNA, (Decentralized Network Architecture) that has both private and public Blockchain.
The Onchain network is a private Blockchain network collaborating with large enterprises and the Chinese authority while NEO is a community based platform with different community groups leading the public project.
Growth And Development
When the network was launched, it suggested a diverse idea from the single token models with its bilateral system of NEO and GAS. The two tokens of the NEO serve different purposes.
NEO tokens can be used to create blocks, manage the network and for governance, they also represent ownership in the NEO Blockchain. When users hold the token in their wallet, they get rewarded with the GAS tokens. What the GAS token do is give users the right to use NEO Blockchain. Just like the Ether is to the Ethereum network, GAS fuels and powers transactions in the NEO system.
NEO and GAS both have a maximum supply of 100 million tokens. Gas is produced at a rate of 8 GAS per block and lowers one GAS per block after two million blocks. When one gas is collected, it can be converted back to NEO for more GAS or to other tokens such as Litecoin or bitcoin.
Smart Contracts Economy
Smart contracts are an important aspect in the NEO platform. It is the digital equivalent of holding money in escrow with a third party with the intention of releasing them in future. A perfect example is paying rent via a smart contract that gets triggered automatically once a month instead of the traditional bank payment method.
Another instance where smart contracts can come into effect is to track the validity of wine when it’s being shipped to prevent fraudulent activity. The network verifies the type of wine, price age and location through a microchip when the bottle is opened and give it a timestamp.
There is an emphasis on digital identity in order to maintain a trusted link between physical and digital entities.