What is NEO?

The NEO network is a part of Schneider Electric and is working toward introducing renewable energy and sustainability practices to the European market. The demand came from European companies striving to integrate more renewable energy practices into their corporate processes. According to John Hoekstra, VP of Sustainability & Cleantech Services at Schneider Electric, “More and more corporations have global ambitions for renewables and other clean technology applications. We recognized that a gap existed in the market: There were few means for companies to access the information they needed to make decisions on renewable energy purchasing.”

NEO is very popular in Asia and often referred to as the Ethereum of China. The NEO network was known as Antshares until they rebranded their name on August 10, 2017. The NEO team did a fantastic job rebranding, changing to a more professional website and had a huge PR campaign predominantly in the Asian market.

Like Ethereum, people can build decentralized applications and smart contracts on top of the NEO blockchain. The smart contracts live permanently on the NEO blockchain and can be written in multiple coding languages which is the main advantage of NEO that Ethereum lacks.

Many people do not understand that the NEO network represents shares on the blockchain while GAS is the actual coin on the blockchain that is used to fund ICOs and smart contracts. In addition, holders of NEO also get paid GAS on a daily basis which acts as a dividend.

What is GAS?

GAS is a cryptocurrency by NEO that is generated with each new block on the network. GAS is to be used to pay for using the platform (right now a lot of things are free but they won’t be going forward). Contracts, instructions, asset registrations and changes all require GAS. NEO essentially has a 100% pre-mine and a proof of stake model, which allows users to derive additional coins by holding them in a NEON wallet.

When GAS is used, it is not destroyed. Instead, it gets recycled once it is used to pay for services and redistributed to NEO holders. In turn, NEO holders then sell it to people to pay for transactions, over and over again. Think of NEO coin holders receiving GAS like a dividend for holding a stock.

The dividend amount is a slightly complex formula that basically decreases about 10% ish each year. GAS has also been discussed among the crypto community as being a scarce resource especially once the network starts to accumulate more dapps that go live.

NEO Pros

The NEO network is significantly easier to use because developers can write code in javascript and other existing languages. One main disadvantage of Ethereum is that they created their own coding language to write applications on top of its blockchain. Basically, people have to learn a new code to utilize Ethereum which makes the entry barrier for using Ethereum pretty high.

The huge team behind NEO full of developers and a big community

Laid out timeline and roadmap on their website.

China has 1.3 billion people in the world, which means it has one of the biggest economies in the world. The Chinese love their own alternative of western software; Alibaba, Baidu, etc. NEO could possibly cover all of the Chinese blockchain software developments. This in turn would make NEO the main competitor to Ethereum in the future.

One of the Chinese cryptocurrencies may end up being part of the government blockchain. While this is a rumor, NEO could become that crypto because of their idea of electronic contract and global assets where you use these to begin validating identify protected by the law. Their main focus is on validation of digital identity.

Membership is curated by Schneider Electric and the NEO team, so each member receives a unique experience based on their individual needs.

Delegated Byzantine fault tolerance is compliant with the rules of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

NEO has 100 million tokens. They distribute these tokens by unlocking the tokens on a yearly basis.

NEO Wallet is easy to download and has a light, simple new user interface.

NEO Cons

NEO is still new compared to Ethereum. Ethereum has plenty of startups and use cases. In addition, Cardano is quickly establishing itself in the market.

If NEO’s platform does increase in due to developers creating assets, it will create a huge demand for GAS and it would become extremely expensive because there will only ever be a finite amount of gas produced. That being said, NEO can tweak GAS production as they please which can be a concern.

Where to buy NEO and GAS

You can buy the NEO coin and GAS on Binance. I recommend that exchange because I personally use them. If you need additional help with this, check out my guide on how to buy ALT coins.

*NOTE* If you are looking for a cryptocurrency exchange providing the best crypto-to-crypto rates on the market, check out Changelly. Note that exchange times may vary depending on network congestion. If you’re more of a beginner, then we encourage you to check out Coinbase to get started.

Conclusion

NEO looks to be in a good position for the future. It has a very big advantage over Ethereum that makes it a prospect for developers to use. It remains a dominant force in the Asian market currently but could catch on in other parts of the world.

Another advantage is that if the government does decide to adopt a cryptocurrency, NEO is well suited to meet the criteria. They have a very low supply of 100 million and also give out dividends in GAS. NEO looks to be a good prospect for continued future growth. NEO is also a frontrunner in introducing more renewable energy practices and new energy opportunities to corporations.