What is NEO?
NEO is a non-profit, blockchain platform which supports the development of smart contracts and digital assets. It was founded in China in 2014 as AntShares by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhan and was later rebranded as “NEO” in 2017.
NEO aims to provide automated management of digital assets with the help of smart contracts. This can help build a distributed, smart contract system.
The digital assets on the blockchain are open, decentralised, traceable, and transparent. It is also free from any intermediaries and costs. Users can buy, sell, or exchange various assets.
You can link physical assets with its digital equivalent in the network, assets registered on the network have a digital identity and are protected.
The digital identity provides verifiable information about participants within the network and smart contracts enable transactions and agreements in the system without any governance.
The NEO network supports two crypto coins, NEO and GAS and has engaged a large community of software developers due to its programming support of all mainstream programming languages.
NEO and regulatory compliance
One of the major focuses of NEO from the outset is to be regulatory compliant in China, making it stand out from other blockchain platforms. Although Ethereum also offers a digital asset and smart contract platform, the “digital identity” functionality and stance on government compliance makes NEO a unique project.
Every individual user or business on the NEO blockchain has a unique digital identity that is verifiable. Participants can make the decision to make a transaction when the other party has confirmed the required identity. The nodes on the network also need to have an identifier to contribute to transaction verification and accounting.
NEO - Onchain
Along with working on NEO, the founders gained the interest of businesses looking for private blockchain solutions. This led to the creation of Onchain in 2014. It is an independent tech company that operates with financial and legal frameworks to provide blockchain solutions for enterprises.
Although NEO works similarly to Bitcoin and Ethereum, Onchain works on the creation of privatised blockchain for the industry.
The major product of Onchain is Distributed Networks Architecture (DNA), which uses various digital asset applications to help companies create their private and public blockchain.
While NEO is funded by the public community, Onchain is backed by China’s largest corporation, Fosun.
