What Is Neo (NEO) How It Works & Where To Buy It?

NEO is a blockchain-based platform that seamlessly enables the creation of independent digital assets and smart contracts. NEO, formerly known as AntShares, was initially founded in 2014 by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang.

The project was founded in China and utilizes a more centralized approach than other blockchain projects. NEO is the 66th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

How Neo (NEO) Works

The Neo blockchain is an innovative, highly-optimized blockchain that has an array of full-stack features.

The project positions itself as a smart economy system and the Neo blockchain platform incorporates the bridging of traditional assets into digital assets, streamlined asset creation, and independence from costly intermediaries.

Neo developers envisioned a project that could facilitate the creation of new digital assets, an independent digital identity for people and companies, and all achieved through the use of smart contracts.

Essentially, the Neo blockchain positions itself as the most adept blockchain for decentralized application development – enabling developers with the option to control asset management through automation and digitization, through smart contracts.

The blockchain infrastructure of Neo is equipped with oracles, decentralized storage, and even caters to Web3 with a unique domain name service.

The NEO network uses a dual-token model to maximize efficiency in all operations. The two tokens are NEO and GAS tokens.

NEO tokens are governance tokens that allow holders access to governance participation. GAS tokens are the tokens used to power the network – paying for transaction fees and all interactions in the network.

Additionally, NEO tokens have a minimum unit (1 NEO) meaning that NEO token holders can only withdraw whole tokens from an exchange – NEO tokens are indivisible. This makes NEO coins, particularly scarce compared to other public blockchains.

The NEO blockchain also supports an array of mainstream coding languages including C#, JavaScript, Kotlin, Python, Java, and GO.

What Is Neo (NEO) Used For?

One of the main uses for NEO is establishing a digital identity for physical assets. Real-world physical assets can be linked to the NEO blockchain with a verifiable digital avatar – proving both unique ownership and protection by law.

The NEO council describes the project as the most innovative and perfectly catered infrastructure that developers require – all elements necessary throughout the development process are right at the fingertips of developers building on the NEO blockchain.

Additionally, the NEO council is tasked with the governance of the protocol and ensuring the sustainability, transparency, and integrity of the project. The NEO council decides on-chain governance proposals, the distribution of GAS tokens, and other critical factors surrounding NEO.

Any person can become register to become part of the NEO council – they’ll need their NEO wallet address to register and become a candidate. Only candidates can be elected to become part of the prestigious NEO council, and every member is carefully vetted and required to set up a reliable node and have extensive knowledge of the project among other things.

The NEO coin is also frequently traded because the NEO price fluctuates daily, which makes it favorable to swing or arbitrage trade NEO. NEO prices are subject to fluctuations, and this stems from many factors including fundamental and technical aspects.

Where To Buy NEO Tokens

NEO tokens are among the most frequently traded cryptocurrencies on the market. The NEO coin can only be traded as a whole, as it is indivisible.

Before purchasing NEO, any user will need to deposit fiat money onto an exchange, sequentially, NEO tokens will be credited to their NEO digital wallet on the exchange.

The crypto exchanges below are the safest place where you can buy, sell and store NEO tokens.

1. Gate.io
2. HTX
3. KuCoin
4. Binance
5. Crypto.com

NEO tokens are governance tokens and are not used to pay for transactions on the NEO network – GAS tokens are used to power transactions on the NEO network.

A comprehensive list of NEO-compatible wallets can be found here.

About Neo (NEO)

How long has Neo (NEO) existed?

NEO cryptocurrency had its initial coin offering (ICO) on September 29th, 2016 The ICO price for the NEO token was 1 NEO = 0.2 USD. The initial coin offering had a total of 40,000,000 tokens for sale (40% of the total supply).

NEO was originally launched in 2014 under the name AntShares, before undergoing a rebrand to NEO in June 2017. NEO was created by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang.

What’s controversial about Neo (NEO)?

There are thousands of new projects entering the crypto space. Most projects bring new solutions to the world but others are just a fad. Unfortunately, the opaque regulation in crypto means that many opportunists try to take advantage of people who aren’t able to see through the elaborate scams of some projects.

Before investing, doing research is fundamental. Look into the project’s founders, the tokenomics (whether it’s inflationary/deflationary, etc.), various partnerships, the whitepaper, and all other important factors surrounding the project.

Let’s take a look at the top two controversies surrounding NEO:

• China Ban Impact – Neo is a Chinese blockchain project but claims that the China ban has had little to no impact on the project. The smart economy project says that regulatory bans imposed by the Chinese government don’t affect the future of Neo – but many individuals beg to differ.

  The China FUD (banning crypto and mining) has had tremendous effects on the crypto market and has been the catalyst of many market crashes. For this reason, many individuals refrain from investing in projects that are Chinese-based. The risk of the project being forced to halt due to regulation in China is too high for most people.

• User Adoption – The smart contract platform has seen a surge in retail investor accounts with recent advancements in its blockchain technology but NEO is still not at the levels of user adoption it needs to be. For Neo to be competitive and ensure its success in the future, the project needs to bolster user adoption.

  Currently, the Neo ecosystem only has a total value-locked of $63 million. This figure is tiny compared to Ethereum, which has billions of dollars in TVL.

How many NEO Tokens tokens are there?

At the time of writing, NEO has a circulating supply of 70,538,831.00 NEO (71% of the total supply)

The total supply of NEO is 100,000,000

The max supply of NEO is 100,000,000

Can NEO be mined?

NEO is not a mineable cryptocurrency. NEO uses a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm which makes it an unmineable currency.

In the traditional sense, mining NEO is not possible but NEO holders can earn GAS tokens – simply have NEO tokens in a NEO wallet and claim the GAS tokens. Some exchanges distribute GAS tokens to NEO holders while others do not.

Some centralized exchanges also offer staking rewards for NEO holders that stake their tokens for a certain duration.

What is the market cap of NEO?

The market cap of NEO is:

NEO market cap = total amount of coins in circulation x current market price of NEO.

NEO Market Cap = 70,538,831.00 NEO x $10,66 = $751 million (66th largest market cap),

NEO is currently one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization – the NEO price is currently trading at more than 18x below its January 2018 all-time high of $187.

The market cap fluctuates according to circulating supply and market price.

Biggest Competitors Of Neo (NEO)

NEO has positioned itself as a credible and budding blockchain project with immense potential. Its smart economy is designed to streamline processes for developers, individuals, and companies alike – however, it is not the only project providing these solutions.

NEO’s biggest competitors are:

• Tezos
• Algorand
• Waves
• Ethereum

What are the future plans for Neo and NEO token

Neo is undergoing its transition to N3, which it calls the biggest upgrade the blockchain has seen. The upgrade will improve the architecture of the blockchain, giving protocol users enhanced security and additional beneficial features.

The N3 upgrade also includes a host of new features that will likely attract a lot of attention – some of these features include decentralized storage, diverse identity tools, real-time data oracles, and enhanced interoperability.

Pros And Cons Of NEO

Pros:

• Blockchain interoperability – NEO 3.0 (N3) is making strides toward blockchain interoperability and multi-chain functionality, specifically through Flamingo Finance and the Poly Network.
• Low Supply – The total supply of NEO is only 100 million – this is significantly lower than most other cryptocurrency projects.
• Smart Economy – The NEO blockchain positions itself as a smart economy. It provides smart contract solutions, and digital identities and can facilitate the vast majority of technical processes required by any number of companies.
• Dual-token System – The Neo blockchain relies on the use of two tokens to achieve optimization. The NEO token is the governance token of the protocol and the GAS token is the token that powers transactions on the Neo network – similar to how ETH powers transactions on the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Energy-efficient – The Neo blockchain is much more energy-efficient than traditional blockchains like Bitcoin which use a proof-of-work consensus mechanism. The Neo blockchain uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

Cons:

• Chinese Government Regulations – One of the biggest concerns surrounding the Neo project is the fact that it is a Chinese-based blockchain project. The Chinese government is notorious for its negative stance on cryptocurrencies and the mining of crypto – China’s regulatory bans have had severe effects on the crypto market and multiple projects. Many fear that investing in Neo is too risky because the Chinese government could impose restrictions that would affect the future of NEO.