What is the current platform?

As far as I am concerned, and as far as the numbers are concerned, Ethereum is winning the Platform race within the blockchain world. The first few weeks of ‘The Year of the Token’ have alluded to the real potential of the blockchain, going beyond just a digital currency. Companies are creating Tokens on the current blockchain platforms and gaining tremendous attention in terms of insane returns (up to 1000%) and massive market caps (billions of USD).

As it stands currently, looking at the top 100 tokens on coinmarketcap, there are 5 platforms upon which these tokens are being built.

Ethereum (93/100) NEO (3/100) Omni (2/100) Nxt (1/100) Counterparty (1/100)

Not to discredit the latter 3 platforms, but for the matter of this article, I will just examine the first two, Ethereum and NEO. These are blockchain platforms that allow for tokens to be built on top of them. Each platform has a token standard, which is just a set of rules that the token must conform to in order to live on that blockchain. Ethereum has the ERC20 protocol, and NEO has the NEP5 protocol. As long as these rules are followed, any developer can create a token for the respective blockchains.

Ethereum in the West, and rest of the World

As it currently stands, Ethereum is dominating the world in terms of the blockchain token market. Nearly every major token is built on the Ethereum blockchain and the media is shifting it’s attention away from Bitcoin and into this direction. Starting off the new year, tokens and ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) have become the craze again.

H old on, Remember when the Chinese government banned ICOs last year?

Lets not forget about what happened just last year. In Q2 2017 the ICO market was booming and surpassed VC funding in a massive way.

As you may expect, things got out of control and people were just throwing money into the market. Companies that had nothing other than a 5 page white paper were raising millions of dollars, and sure enough, some just disappeared off the radar.

It got to a point where, on Sept 5, 2017, the Chinese government decided to all around ban ICOs. Given the nature of the Chinese government and the massive, hard-to-control, Chinese financial market, this action did not come as that much of a surprise.

By no means was the Chinese Government going to step away from blockchain technology, but rather just step back, enforce the appropriate regulations and find out how they can get a grip on the fast moving industry. In terms of global dominance, I would consider the technological race in the 21st century to be equivalent to the space race in the 20th century. (or perhaps the race to possess nuclear weapons) What I am saying is that in the modern world, who is leading in terms of technology says a lot about a country on the global scale. There is no way China is stepping away from this race.

NEO in the East

Before the Chinese government does anything, there is a possibility that developers flood to NEO and the market becomes filled with ICOs for blockchain solutions built using the NEP5 protocol. NEO could start scooping up market share and it could become a battle between Ethereum and NEO to be the global go-to platform for blockchain development. Possible, but unlikely. Just look how long it took for Ethereum to capture half of the market share of Bitcoin. The tech was far superior, but unfortunately irrational markets don’t care about what product has better tech. For this to happen naturally, I think it would be a long uphill battle for NEO.

A more likely scenario that I see happening, rather than competing with Ethereum directly, NEO dominates the smart economy of the Eastern world, then uses that momentum to further their growth and expansion. This scenario is contingent on the Chinese government lifting the ban on ICOs and re-asserting their position in the blockchain space. There are over 1.4 billion people in China who have been unable to participate in the ICOs happening throughout the world since the government ban. Yes, ICOs are still banned in China, however the NEO team places a strong focus on regulatory compliance, and ensuring that their platform has the pieces that the Chinese Government would require. These requirements are outlined beautifully, and in detail, in this article. In addition, this article goes into deep detail about the features that NEO has that make it arguably better than Ethereum.

What I am predicting is that in 2018 the Chinese government decides to lift the ban on ICOs and let their people re-enter the blockchain space. I would say that without a doubt, this is done in a way that allows the government to still keep a watchful eye on its citizens and what they are up to.

What I am hoping is that the Chinese government decides to work alongside NEO to create a smart economy that is aligned with the regulations put in place, but still open for investment from the rest of the world. China’s political structure means that development can happen fast, and as mentioned above, they will not want to fall behind in the technological race. China has acknowledged how disruptive blockchain technology is, hence why the ICO ban took place. Things were happening that they couldn’t control, and they wanted that control.

Under the assumption that China re-enters the blockchain space, and picks NEO to be the frontrunner, without question they will soon become industry leaders. That said, Ethereum still has a strong grip on market share, and will continue to close that gap as 2018 continues without a major presence from NEO or China’s blockchain involvement.

NEO’s true value is in its dedication towards fitting the mold for a regulatory compliant smart economy platform. — Noam Levenson

I love the direction that the world is moving in terms of decentralization, smart economies and the shift towards Web 3.0. I think that NEO is an incredibly undervalued and under utilized platform, but I don’t think it will stay this way for long.

Here are some unlisted, pre-ICO tokens coming to the NEO platform in 2018. I would be bullish on at least one or two of these, if not all. Please excuse the lengthy/complicated descriptions that I took directly from the respective websites.

THEKEY — THEKEY Project Team is now developing an identification verification (IDV) tool with blockchain based dynamic multi-dimension identification (BDMI) by using Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which is exclusively authorized by government authorities.

Ontology Network — Ontology Network is a blockchain/distributed ledger network which combines distributed identity verification, data exchange, data collaboration, procedure protocols, communities, attestation, and various industry-specific modules. Together this builds the infrastructure for a peer-to-peer trust network which is cross-chain, cross-system, cross-industry, cross-application, and cross-device.

NEX — NEX combines the NEO blockchain with an off-chain matching engine to enable much faster and more complex trades than existing decentralized exchanges

APEX — A blockchain-powered data and interactions exchange that passes value and data ownership back to the consumer, as well as increasing marketing effectiveness, data quality, and customer loyalty for the enterprise.

As far as I’m concerned, Ethereum will remain the dominant platform and NEO will begin to slowly take some market share. Though NEO may have better tech, it is very difficult to educate the masses on new options, especially in a space as complicated as this. Working in cooperation with the Chinese government would give NEO the media attention it deserves and propel it forward in the platform race. Blockchain technology is incredibly disruptive to almost every major industry. There is room for both platforms to exist, and there is a likely chance that both platforms will co-exist and better yet, thrive.

Just my thoughts

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Andrew