With both cryptocurrencies sharing so much, I believe it will take something other than smart contracts and partnerships to set them apart.

NEO (NEO) and Qtum (QTUM) are both Chinese-based smart contracts platforms that aim to supplant Ethereum as the best. While the former enjoys quite a following in the West, the later is just beginning to catch on.

A comparison of these two usually tends to lean towards a zero-sum game analysis. It would make sense to believe that what one of these cryptocurrencies loses becomes a gain to the other.

NEO vs. Qtum: New Developments

The question of who stands a better chance of faster traction and mass adoption isn’t one you can breeze through. However, everything considered, there seems to be still quite some time before we get to know who the defacto “Chinese Ethereum” will be.

NEO

At the moment, NEO seems to be in gear two, as opposed to its competitor. Top for it this week involves the token swap of the Trinity token (TNC) through the NEP-5 / ERC-20 TNC cross-chain converter. The NEP-5 is the main token on the NEO network.

The Trinity Protocol, apart from enabling the swap, will also look to develop payment channels on the NEO network. Payment channels are similar to what Lightning Network will do for Bitcoin.

This is where it gets interesting for NEO’s smart economy platform. Payment channels will improve scalability, security, and transaction speed.

The result is a network that can handle an increased off-chain transaction. Much like Bitcoin’s aim, the NEO payment channels are meant to increase usability.

If Da Hongfei manages to steer his team towards more tokens on the platform, I see NEO putting up a good show in the market. Its standing with the Chinese government is also a plus for it.

Qtum

There isn’t a lot going for Qtum at the moment. However, it doesn’t mean that the team behind this ambitious blockchain project is off the grid. We indicated last week that the various endorsements and partnerships it had were a signal that this was a serious cryptocurrency.

Yet, the biggest card in its favor may be the implementation of the Lightning Network. We know what this means in terms of improving scalability and long-term adoption capacity.

While responding to a concerned supporter of Reddit, a team member confirmed that LN will be on the Qtum blockchain soon. He said that the team was considering an implementation of Lightning Network.

In fact, he confirmed the availability of a prototype that was ready for testing. However, they are holding that close to their chest at the moment.

In any case, the Qtum network doesn’t face any imminent scalability issues as it uses a 2MB block. If network slowdown occurs, they can utilize the Decentralized Governance Protocol to adjust it to 4MB. With such mechanisms in place, I believe this project will be able to slug it out with NEO.

Qtum vs. NEO: Price movements

Not much separates NEO and Qtum in terms of price movements today. Both coins are in the red, just as the rest of the market. The bears are in control as NEO sheds -8.83% on the 24h charts and QTUM likewise drops -9.86% within the same period.

Looking at the hour-to-hour charts reveal a similar scenario. NEO ranked 9th on coinmarketcap drops -3.66% against the US dollar to firmly anchor itself in the red on the 7-day charts with -12.75%.

And as the expected upturn over the weekend failed to materialize, allowing the bearish trend to continue, QTUM too has shed over 4.40% against the US dollar to undo the impressive double-digit gains of the previous week.

The bearish trend that began over the previous week continued throughout the weekend for both coins. Especially hit is Qtum that only a couple of days ago was trading in double digits in the green zone.

Heavy pressure to avoid a total pullback weighed on major coins across the market. And these two were no exceptions.

By the time of going to press, QTUM (QTUM) was trading at $16.28 and just 2.79% in the green. NEO (NEO) was doing quite poorly, dropping to $58.33 against USD and a worrying -12.75 % in the red for the week.

While these prices are not indicative of what the future outlook will be like, I believe it has a bearing on investor sentiment at the moment. What do you think of the two projects? Let us know your views.