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What is NEO?
NEO is an open-source decentralized blockchain platform. It was previously known as Antshare.
Who are the founders of NEO?
Neo was founded in the year 2014 by Da HongFei and Erik Zhang. It was renamed NEo in 2017. The creation of NEO was aimed at exploiting blockchain technology and using it in building smart economies and smart networks. Smart contracts are used in NEO to facilitate the transactions of digitized assets. It was previously coded as ANS and the code was changed to
How does NEO work?
NEO is a highly specialized and high traffic handling compliant blockchain which can handle 10,000 transactions per second. It is based on the Byzantine fault-tolerant/ dBFT mechanism, which works on the fundamental “Proof of stake” principle. The Byzantine fault-tolerant works on the consensus mechanism between numerous individuals/nodes/ computers. The base asset of NEO tokens is non-divisible tokens called GAS tokens. These GAS tokens can be divisible up to the 0.00000001 level.
These GAS tokens can be used for paying transaction fees. The rate of inflation of GAS tokens is controlled by a decaying half-life algorithm that looks after the inflation rate of GAS tokens. This algorithm generated 100 million GAS tokens in 22 years to counter inflation. A total of 50 million NEO tokens were offered in ICO / Initial Coin offering which is 4.5 million US dollars and other 50 million NEO tokens of the 100 total NEO tokens were retained with the company, every year a total of 15 million NEO tokens are used by the NEO tokens by unlocking them towards achieving the long term goals of the company.
As NEO is an open-source coded platform, individual developers can contribute to the development or maintenance of NEO by using Smart contracts. NEO also makes the most out of the networks, oracles and decentralized storage.
NEO aims at exploiting blockchain technology in creating a much-awaited smart economy, where transparency and discrepancy-free transactions are completely assured. The smart contracts are given by individual users/developers coordinating between the nodes and decentralizing the entire processes of development, maintenance and enhancement of the NEO platform. The original/ precursor to NEO, the Antshares was founded in 2014, it was open-source code on Github. Then it was rebranded to NEO, as an idea of combining past and future. The name NEO was based on the Greek word Neo, which means new.
NEO 3.0 update
Neo 3.0 or N3 is an updated version of the original NEO. The new updated version deploys a highly modulated framework and thus the n3 or Neo 3.0 can handle a higher number of operations and transactions than the preliminary version or NEO. The updated version was developed by Erik Zhang in 2018.
How to use NEO?
According to the original website NEO.org, NEO has two main uses:
To cast a vote in choosing the council members of NEO.
To get GAS tokens that have utility in various segments.
The NEO committee holds control over the blockchain and decentralized network of nodes. The committee members in turn have control over nodes scattered across the world. The committee members are elected by the NEO holders and the minimum unit to cast a vote to elect committee members is 1 NEO at least. The committee thus elected, holds power over certain services like maintaining the functionality of the blockchain and deciding on certain critical parameters which can potentially affect the functionality of the blockchain.
GAS tokens can be used in redeeming the services of the NEO network. GAS tokens can be used for smart contracts, storage and maintenance of the integrity of nodes. For every block in the chain, 5 GAS tokens are minted, thus created GAS tokens could be used for availing NEO network services. The lowest unit of a GAS token is 0.00000001 GAS token and cannot be divided further. Most of the NEO wallets available in the market allow users to redeem the GAS tokens with the mere click of a button. But users must also be aware of the fact that some of the wallets distribute the tokens to NEO users proportionally.
What makes NEO unique?
Most of the blockchains available in today’s world are based on the omnipresent technology ETHEREUM or at least depend on EVM for proper functioning, NEO is a total disruptor in the Blockchain industry, completing the independence of blockchains on the ethereum platform.
The N3 version or the latest version of NEO proved that blockchains can even work in the absence of a supporting ETHEREUM framework and are not overly dependent on oracles for the sake of smooth operations. N3 ensures better governance, smart economies, interconnected nodes in the decentralized network and total transparency. With its path-breaking consensus mechanism, NEO has transformed the way traditional blockchains used to work.
Multi-language programmable structure and original codebase have helped the programmers community across the world to develop the blockchain NEO very quickly, efficiently and securely. Decentralized storage, identity tools, data oracles, interoperability, and a domain name service are just some of the distinguishing features of NEO, which make it stand out from the heap of traditional blockchains.
In the fraternity of developers, it is commonly said that smart contracts are not that smart and interoperability is an issue to emphasize. To decrease the dependence on smart contracts for the efficient functionality of the blockchain and to facilitate all the programmers by breaking the barrier of coding language, NEO not just tried to get into a niche like any other blockchain but carved its way out of a mountain of obstacles to become one of the most secure, diverse, easy to use, easy to develop, diverse, efficient and unique blockchain in the FinTech world.
How many NEO coins are in circulation?
It is estimated that there are 70.5 million NEO tokens in circulation as of now, with the maximum supply being 100 million NEO tokens.
Conclusion
NEO – An opportunity
As millions of programmes spread across this vast world complain about the lack of infrastructure to contribute to the development of a decentralized and most secure blockchain, even though they are highly skilled, NEO became the ray of hope for them by enabling them to construct the tiny chunks to the code of the blockchain by any programming language and very little infrastructure.
This brought a change and forever transformed the way a blockchain can work. To read more articles about cryptocurrency, head to Zeen blog.
