Bitcoin’s price point of $9,600 isn’t really bothering me too much anymore. I really don’t think we are going to be heading down to the $7,000s again, as we have opened so much access since then. Robinhood Exchange is now live in a handful of states. E-Trade is thinking of doing 24/7 trading to compete for cryptocurrency trader volume.
I don’t even think the world is ready to learn more than one cryptocurrency right now. All the pundits talk about is bitcoin, and many are predicting its eventual fall to zero. Our cohesive investment effort has annoyed the right people, and I just can’t imagine we will be waiting much longer to re-test some higher levels. One man’s opinion. I don’t own bitcoin, but I root like hell for it. You should too.
After doing my research, I am going to make a very rare statement and say that NEO is my favorite coin. If you followed me on Twitter for longer than 2 minutes you’d know Ethereum is the coin bundle of joy for me. But being a user of NEO is an experience. You earn dividends in GAS, NEON Wallet is a juggernaut, and their smart contracts contain everyone’s cozy coding languages so they don’t have to bother with learning new languages to do things. Let’s see what you think.
Background
NEO was founded originally as AntShares in 2014, roughly around the same time Ethereum was coming out with its crowd sale (Summer 2014). That’s important to note. This is an extremely mature team. Their purpose was to create an Ethereum-like network that was built for public and corporate commerce and consumption.
The platform has quality DAPPs, smart contract functionality, and is much easier to work in, as all development languages are supported. The network fees are charged in GAS, a coin that is used as the base currency for doing business on the network. The NEO coin acts as voting shares within the network, where users also get paid an approx. 7.42% yield on each coin they own (payments are made in GAS).
The technology works on one blockchain, and operates using “Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dbFT)”, which is a way to rapidly verify transactions. This type of network system can support 10,000 transactions per second. I think we can call that scaled, right?
Leadership
Da Hongfei: This name should give you goosebumps in five years. He is the founder and CEO of NEO, and a blockchain integration company in China called OnChain. OnChain was the blockchain pioneer in China, and it was Da Hongfei who brought it to Chinese business’ attention. He is now one of the most respected experts in blockchain adoption in China, a country of 1.37 billion that is trying to compete with the United States in everything from Iron Ore to Racquetball.
Notable Tech Highlights
GAS: The easiest way on the internet to stake. All you have to do is get the NEON Wallet application on your computer, store your coins on the wallet (get a Ledger Wallet to store it when you’re offline), and the GAS yield is automatically tracked and awarded. GAS has risen above $50, so both coins are extremely valuable.
NEON Wallet: This is my favorite wallet. It has a very sleek design, easily understandable, and you can participate in NEO-based ICOs directly on the wallet. MyEtherWallet is not close in terms of usability for a non-coding person like myself. They are trying to appeal to people like me, which is a great sign. Please download it for yourself and try to poke around, I think you’ll agree.
NeoFS: This is a storage system on NEO. Because AntShares/NEO was designed by OnChain, I believe this will be a true value add for someone who wants a one-stop-shop for blockchain, and not having to go to three different blockchains for their different types of uses. If you remember Stratis’ work with Microsoft on storage, we can now classify NEO as both Ethereum-like in network function, and Stratis-like in capability of high level storage.
NeoX: This is the integration mechanism to execute across all blockchains. This will grant the ability for companies that OnChain partners with to connect to public blockchains for sharing, but also making it one sided to protect the private chain information that it doesn’t want getting out. Are you seeing this? He is trying to create an entire blockchain ecosystem for the Chinese economy.
Partnerships
Government (tentative, of course)
The Kingdom of Thailand is going to have different needs than the People’s Republic of China. One very key difference is centralization. NEO is all on one chain, easily fork-able, and all transactions are recorded. They have said they want to be the ones to test identity verification, as their blockchain was designed for it. This is beginning to sound very government friendly. The Chinese government recently announced in its five-year plan that “integrating blockchain will become a priority.” Da Hongfei has already been working with government officials through the cryptocurrency ban to make sure that he has a seat at the table when they begin to slowly open the doors again. China will be much quicker to adopt blockchain if they can control it, and I think NEO has the capability to give them that type of control.
ICOs
Because of the usability of NEON Wallet, I think there will be more ICOs launched on NEO. It is much easier for me as an investor to invest in an ICO directly from my wallet, with no mess in-between. I don’t invest in ICOs, but I know that this is sorely needed compared to the process people go through now. There are also compliance procedures. If there was a fraud coin, I am more confident that NEO’s team would step in before Ethereum’s (as we saw with the DAO). If all the offerings need to be bought in NEO or GAS, we now have a large buyer ecosystem.
Microsoft
I don’t think this is a full fledged partnership, but Microsoft Azure’s Song Qingjian spoke at NEO conference about their “Coco Framework,” which is using the same Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dbFT) that NEO uses within its blockchain framework. Stratis has worked with Microsoft Azure on its file cabinets, but not on its network. This could be a very interesting relationship when both networks have had some time to grow.
OnChain
If you read my prior article on OMG, this is the exact same structure that I am beginning to love. It is my opinion that AntShares was created out of necessity to scale their blockchain solutions for OnChain’s customers. Just like Omise, I am relying on the parent company to do all of the selling for NEO.
OnChain has a product called DNA (Distributed Networks Architecture), which is for business system integration into blockchain. In other words, this is a simpler way to store information, automate processes through smart contracts, and of course, comply with government regulations in a much more transparent way.
OnChain is the reason why NEO is my favorite coin. They will be the ones designing and implementing Chinese commerce on blockchain. Unless another platform such as this comes along with even more oversight transparency, the government is going to be choosing this one. Yes, I believe China will choose. OnChain’s designers knew who would be buying this product, and who would want to be watching. I can’t see any other mover taking this position.
Conclusion
I am buying more. Just like people who bought Alibaba or Tencent when it was dirt cheap, I wish I could buy OnChain stock. Da Hongfei is the guy people are listening to on the great migration of information onto the blockchain. It won’t be the kid on Twitter announcing announcements, I can promise you that.
I think I will be proven right on my assessment of this company very soon. They are already are very highly valued, but this network could be the technological veins that run through China as soon as they are comfortable enough to agree with it. This large-scale ban on cryptocurrencies is not like a Facebook ban. They are trying to figure out what the hell it is first. Da clearly is working hard at educating, and I think there will be some sneaky high NEO volume coming up in trading ahead of any bigger news of China’s fledgling interest in blockchain.
Well…It’s tough to say this isn’t a recommendation to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, but it isn’t! Do your own research. We have seen moves that have lost people a ton of money, even in the coins that I mentioned. Be careful.
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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