NEO is a chinese cryptocurrency which uses smart contracts and an open-source blockchain to decentralize transactions; It aims to become a smart economy.
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Our Take
Previously known as Antshares, the NEO coin was the first cryptocurrency to be introduced and traded in China. It was introduced in early 2014, bringing the first chinese decentralized trading system with it. Premined during the introduction of the genesis block, this coin is truly new in its concept. Having hiked to about about 4 times its value in 2017, it has given evidence of being a good investment.
Apart from being the first chinese cryptocurrency, NEO is also the first decentralized trading medium to be introduced in china. It aims to become the first exchange through which people can buy houses to cars to daily essentials like groceries and even clothing. NEO has set out to become a smart economy by itself.
Da Hongfei, the founder of NEO has headed the development project of Onchain, the first open source blockchain to be initiated in China. Da plans to interlink NEO and Onchain in the longer run. This will take operations at a level which can be compared to the operations co-managed by Ethereum and Ethereum enterprise.
NEO offers support to a vast array of programming languages, like Java, Python and even C. Offering all these different languages to program into NEO will be revolutionary, as people who want to initiate smart contracts will not have to learn a new programming languages to do so. Being backed up by the Chinese government- an entity that had long resisted this new world of ICOs, smart contracts and open-source blockchains; NEO inspires confidence among potential investors. NEO is appropriately called “Chinese Ethereum” by people who compare it to the Ethereum platform due to its decentralisation friendly ideologies.
History and Development of NEO
Da Hongfei, the founder of NEO had introduced this cryptocurrency as Antshares back in early 2014. The concept was to mobilize payments and transactions on a decentralized platform using smart contracts and a blockchain that was open-source. The concept resonated much with Ethereum and its blockchain technology. On several instances, NEO has been called ‘the Ethereum of China’. The founder of NEO has had a very good relationship with the chinese government in the past. The resistance toward cryptocurrencies and ICOs by the chinese government in the past have been well publicized. The chinese government wanted to take a step back when it came to this fast developing world of decentralized currencies over which they would possess no control. However, NEO’s founder has been a voice of reason to them through the development of OnChain- The first open-source blockchain to be developed in China.
Da has been a voice of reason to the Chinese government before and after the notorious ban was put on trading of cryptocurrencies in China. He was able to convince the chinese government that this is a business opportunity that cannot be missed out on; with the world quickly replacing existing currencies with the trading of virtual currencies. With the ongoing development of OnChain in Shanghai, Erik Zhang comes onto the board, and helps Hongfei initiate the blockchain in mid 2014.
Since Antshares (now called NEO) and it peaked in value within months because of its mission of integrating a smart economy within its infrastructure. Antshares was first traded in 2016 along with Antcoins (Now known as GAS).
So, the way it works is that there are a total amount of 100 million NEO tokens in its architecture. One half of those tokens was traded around the fourth quarter of 2016 during their Initial Coin Offering (ICO). These 100 million tokens are NEO tokens that influence the working, maintenance and upkeep of the organization and holdings of the investors. The other 100 million GAS tokens influence the smart contracts, the operation on the blockchain and decision making in the longer run. So, think of the NEO tokens which get you rights to decision making in the future, GAS tokens are for the tech and development of NEO. The reserved tokens assure future stability when people need to liquidize in the longer run. So for every block that is created for NEO, a GAS token is reserved for the future. Down the line in about 22 years, GAS will bring in all its 100 million tokens.
Since such securities down the lane have been thought out, people can benefit from investing in such a promising coin. China has been known to be open to ideas that only benefit their economy in long run time periods. After a long resistance period, they have finally become open to the idea of trading cryptocurrencies, making NEO a good investment – strategically speaking.
How does NEO work?
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NEO works with its own proprietor managed blockchain using two tokens assigned very strategically divided into several wallets and exchanges. The company behind creating the NEO architecture is Onchain. Onchain is also responsible for initiating the blockchain that NEO currently runs on. Being a diversified cryptocurrency makes it a very good coin to invest in 2018. As markets start to be taken over by virtual currency, people would want to make less volatile investments. Sure Bitcoin has held position as the most valuable cryptocurrency, and Ethereum has held the second position for a long time. But in the longer run, it is hard to predict how the market works out as newer currencies gain pace. This happens because newer cryptocurrencies tend to have an attached venture to solve modern day trading and exchanges. NEO follows this pattern and offers to be the first open source blockchain reliant cryptocurrency. Opening up a whole new smart economy.
If you do not know what a smart economy is, it is a blockchain based trading architecture that supports trading of goods, currencies, and just about any purchasable asset in the world. But it does it through holding smart tokens which exchange value over smart contracts. Everything that is sold here is exchanged for decentralized currency as a standard exchange medium.
If you own a fiat currency, you cannot purchase NEO coins. However, if you are a holder of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), LiteCoin (LTC) or any other Altcoin currency, you can purchase NEO coin. It is available in trading pairs in several exchanges. But it is completely distinctive in its operations compared to any cryptocurrency that exists and is trading in the market currently.
What you need to understand however, is the coexisting ecosystem of the NEO tokens and GAS tokens (Previously known as Antshares and Antcoins). With the rebranding done in 2016, NEO hoped to achieve an operation that distributes tokens and performs long run trading autonomously for their investors. The way this works is, out of the 100 million tokens of NEO, 50 million are reserved by the board for securing the stakes, maintenance and performance of the coin in the future. For every NEO coin that trades on a block, a GAS token is reserved for the distant future. So for long term investors, 12 years down the line can double up their profits and investments when GAS becomes as successful as NEO is at that point. The founders want GAS to be a sister currency and trading medium down the lane.
What this ensures is security for investors who are in it for the long run. As long as trending business ventures go, China is known to have been sensible and extremely evaluative about how they trade in their economy. A coin which has bypassed their BAN before and after in its concept and actual existence, can easily succeed in their economy. The success of this coin is much probable because potential investors world over is sure to notice China’s affinity towards the NEO coin and how it is designed to further their economy into the ‘crypto-age’. With mechanism, initiatives and tech being very similar to Ethereum, the chances for this crypto to boom are very high this year. It might be the year for NEO coin, which has been part of the top 5 performing cryptocurrencies at one point of time. It remains within the top 10 performing cryptocurrencies being traded in several exchanges right now. It is available in coin pairs with XMR, LTC and other cryptocurrencies.
NEO can only be owned in 1 unit. It cannot be divisible in asset units. Da Hongfei has seen to the project assuring whole unit trading to ensure holders remain on board a few years down the line. If China, a country that has long resisted cryptocurrencies popularizes a smart economy run on a blockchain; that would have truly marked revolution in this industry.
However, the fact that it supports so many different programming languages truly changes the face of the blockchain development and tech industry. Programmers would not need to learn a different programming language every time they want to start a new blockchain development project. Programming on OnChain and NEO can be done in almost any language; including Python, Java and C++.
Should you should invest in NEO?
Many factors surrounding the trading, development and technology of this cryptocurrency are confidence inspiring. Yes, the NEO coin looks good in the longer run. Let’s look at some facts that assure a rise in its value down the lane.
#1 Reputed partners
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NEO coin has partnered up with Microsoft Azure in china to develop technology and explore applications which can be initiated. Partnering up with reputable organisations assure investor confidence. There is also a certain amount of security in the fact that a company like Microsoft is partnering up with a cryptocurrency. Technology giants have shown resistance in entering this market platform but Microsoft taking this step can be of much assurance to hesitant investors.
#2 A calculated move
China has been known to be very calculative surrounding its economy. This country does not blatantly make decisions or issue verdicts regarding controversies surrounding this financial revolution. China was very strict on their ban of trading cryptocurrencies. But through the confidence of Da Hongfei (The founder of NEO), the government decided to lift the ban. NEO, before and after its rebranding in late 2016, has seen several price hikes. It has fluctuated multiple times during the trading ban in China. However, due to the cooperation of the chinese government, Da was able to initiate both NEO and OnChain with full force. OnChain has taken pace when it comes to open-source blockchain. Operating independently on smart blocks, it will soon become a very similar architecture to Ethereum. Both coins show fluctuation in value but stabilize in the longer run.
#3 Open platform
NEO does not require a specific language to be programmed on and shifted from its blocks. A blockchain developer can make exchanges over the NEO network in any language they are familiar with. Support for an even broader array of programming languages is being added to the trading medium at the moment. NEO is constantly evolving, and growing, and shrinking due to the millions of transactions it faces per minute. This is possible only because there are very few regulations to prevent programmers from interacting with this architecture. An open-platform language directory only means that there is more activity per second. Which translates to more transactions per second, making trading on NEO very efficient.
#4 Transaction Guarantee
Blockchains are usually close-ended; in a sense that they need the two parties trading assets to hold up their ends of the bargain. Shift in values momentarily are unavoidable and are caused due to secondary market activity. Trading on NEO eradicates the need of trading parties to fulfill promises. 3 blocks is initiated on the blockchain to ping the other end of the trade. 2 out of those blocks are fixed to determine the other party’s end of the bargain. Even if one of the values does not add up, the other two confirm both ends of the bargain and perform the exchange on the behalf of both parties. Autonomous transactions are made over smart contracts so that it eliminates the chances of losing assets due to secondary activity.
#5 Constant hike in value
From December 2017 to April 2018, NEO has fluctuated indefinitely. But having achieved more than 100% value in about 5 months speaks greatly about the coin. It holds position in the top 10 cryptocurrencies being traded at the moment. However, in terms of sheer investment potential in 2018, NEO has to be one of the top three. As of April 27th 2018, NEO’s value is roughly 76$. The value of NEO in December 2017 was roughly around the 35$ mark (source: coincentral.com).
This makes NEO a volatile investment, but in a correctly timed market, it could be a boon of an investment. It is very confidence aspiring to see a coin being introduced and reaching the value of 15$ after a few months of being on exchanges. The same coin growing by 400% over a period of 2 years is a promising factor. A major portion of the very first investors of NEO coin still possess their assets, because of its promising future.
#6 The future
Mike Cagney, the CEO of SoFi is also an investor of NEO (according to commodity.com). SoFi is a financial institution that offers mortgages, loans and other such financial services to students and young workers. The founder of such a secure investment platform is also confident about the future of NEO. With the neoGAS tokens in reserve for the future, a board that possesses 50% of the original NEO tokens; this coin holds future in its vision. It is sure to rise up in value gradually by 10-12 years. A secure investment for when you really want to liquidize those single unit tokens. And do not forget, the 100 million GAS tokens will be fully mobilized to the market by then. If the coordination between these two coins works out down the predicted timeline of 20-22 years, it will be a goldmine for investors who never liquidized.
Things to keep in mind
1. Use a wallet to store tokens – Storing tokens of volatile cryptocurrencies in exchanges can subject them to various depreciations. And since NEO is such a volatile cryptocurrency, your assets could lose a lot of their original token value. Storing your tokens in an eWallet like ‘the Bitcoin wallet’ or even ‘My Ether wallet’ can protect your assets from secondary activity.
2. Storing the keys – To purchase tokens and then misplace the keys is not cool! Hold on to your assets. Protect the keys of the bought out tokens. You want your tokens secure in a wallet, but you do not want it to be inaccessible.
3. Hold assets long-term- Mid-2017 brought about a temporary plummet in the value of NEO. Many investors liquidized their assets due to a 20$ drop in its price, but NEO recovered from the price drop overnight and continued a growth trend for the following week. Investors need to be very calculative to reap maximum benefits from such a volatile fund. The value today, after 10 months of the price plummet is close to 76$, which shows a 400% the value after the plummet (source: coincentral.com).
The Competition
1. Ethereum (ETH) – Ethereum is going strong, as it has holds the 2nd position as the highest trading cryptocurrency in the world right now. It has held onto the 2nd position for a long time now. But the fact that brings Ethereum and its blockchain into competition with NEO is that how similar they are. NEO has been called ‘the Ethereum of China’ time and again. That comparison is due to NEO being the first decentralized trading medium in China. Ethereum was the first decentralized trading medium in the world to be traded on an open-source blockchain. NEO takes it to the next level with an no-limits approach towards programming languages.
Ethereum as of April 28th, 2018 trades at roughly $ 625 per unit (source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/). It still remains the second most valuable cryptocurrency and edges out NEO on the basis that it is a world class, widely approved cryptocurrency which is traded with confidence all over the world.
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2. Cardano – Cardano is an emerging cryptocurrency which offers a platform for decentralized trading. The Daedalus wallet introduced with it offers multiple token holding capabilities. The wallet introduced with the coin supports online purchases of all sorts. The wallet will soon be integrated into the blockchain where all transactions can be monitored. All transactions will be autonomous to ensure complete transparency between traders. Since this coin has not distributed all its tokens yet, its value is not comparable to that of NEO. Market cap is considerably smaller due to being a new coin on exchanges. But the technology and development surrounding Cardano operate very similar to NEO and Ethereum. Having a commodity friendly ewallet places bets even higher on this particular coin, as it hopes to achieve a smart trading system without utilizing fiat currencies.
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3. Quantum (QTUM) – QTUM is a rising cryptocurrency trading medium and coin. It is unique in its concept. It has combined the infrastructure of BitCoin with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and its vast array of blockchain applications. This is the next step for decentralized exchanges. Combining the world’s best trading infrastructure with the most widely used open-source blockchain platform, QTUM has taken investor confidence to another level. With more and more cryptos agreeing along the lines of total decentralization, investing in newer coins might not be such a risky investment. The ways of financing, trading and transacting are revolutionizing every minute, with new concepts, blockchains and trading networks attached to several of these newer cryptocurrencies. QTUM is a prominent competitor for NEO in 2018, due to its groundbreaking platform. However, NEO is sure to put up fierce competition. Its price hikes and trading medium develop constantly, due to which it has been beneficial for previous investors. The wait is to see how all these promising coins play out with each other in the market this year. 2018 will surely be an interesting year for newer cryptocurrencies that promote decentralization and private trading systems.