If you mentioned cryptocurrency in a conversation with someone in passing last year, most people just assumed you were talking about Bitcoin (available on Coinbase), but now it seems those times have changed. ALTCoins have sTron (available on Binance)gly emerged in the mainstream light after Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) futures contracts began trading on major exchanges in mid-December. The price of Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) has now almost come to a halt and many are now searching for the “new” coin that will shoot up over 1,000%. Many of the highly promising aLTCoins at the end of 2017 have begun to crack under pressure, mostly with the South Korean news and exchange issues and many new coins and projects have begun to transpire.
NEO (NEO) has become the new emerging aLTCoin that has made a demanding presence within the last few days.
Source: CoinMarketCap
NEO, often referred to as the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) of China, has grown 275% in just 30 days. At press-time, it is trading at $178.52 a coin, up 18.97%, and has a trade volume of $1.2 billion, all in just 24 hours. The current price of the cryptocurrency is its record high and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
NEO VS Ethereum (available on Coinbase)
I’m sure you’re wondering what makes NEO that much different than Ethereum (available on Coinbase) and that’s a great question.
While both Ethereum (available on Coinbase) and NEO have produced generalized blockchains that provide a sort of tool-box for developers, their overall objectives are quite different. Both blockchains are designed to host smart contracts, ICOS, and Decentralized Applications in a decentralized manner and are fueled by crypto assets (ETHer in Ethereum (available on Coinbase) and GAS in NEO). However, there are many foundational differences between the two aLTCoins.
NEO has become China’s first open-source public blockchain project and is backed by the Chinese government. Ethereum (available on Coinbase) is backed by the EEA (Enterprise Ethereum (available on Coinbase) Alliance), which is why it is so popular and has the massive potential on the global stage that it does. NEO utilizes a deleGated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism named Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT), which is far more efficient than the current proof-of-work mechanism used by Ethereum (available on Coinbase). Eventually, Ethereum (available on Coinbase) plans to move to an efficient proof-of-stake mechanism as the project expands.
Ethereum (available on Coinbase) has the leg up on Divisibility, however. Currently, NEO only exists in whole numbers, whereas Ethereum (available on Coinbase) can be divided.
The DApps and smart contracts that can be written on the NEO network are compiled in Java and C# and in the future, developers will be able to write contracts in Go and Python. If you want to write smart contracts or DApps on the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) network, you have to learn a new programming language called Solidity and not many developers are familiar with this language.
Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s goal is to eventually become the world’s only supercomputer based on the blockchain, sort of like an Internet 3.0 but NEO’s focus is more on a smart economy.
Lastly, what makes these two stand apart is the transaction speeds. Currently, NEO can handle 10,000 transactions a second, whereas Ethereum (available on Coinbase) can only currently hold 15. Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s developers have made scalability their top priority but there is no news on the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) 2.0 project or the Casper proof-of-stake consensus testnet.
NEO Initial Coin Offers (ICOs)
Most ICOs that were launched last year were built on the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) blockchain, but there are now 27 new upcoming ICOs that are getting set to launch on or have already launched on NEO’s blockchain. RedPulse (RPX) had a slow start after concluding in early October of last year but has since grown 583% in 90 days. The coin that fuels the NEO network, GAS, launched back in early July and has since grown 4572%, selling at press time at $83.17 a coin.
With the new ICOs on the horizon and a developer conference set for January in San Francisco, many signs point to NEO continuing to grow. Additionally, NEO’s fuel, the GAS coin, has high scarcity and its potential payout for NEO holders is another factor that could drive the price of NEO higher in the coming months.
Featured Image: twitter