Over the last few months, NEO has been making serious steps towards increasing and strengthening its blockchain ecosystem with a constant stream of new ICOs. These developments call to mind the ICO craze on the Ethereum blockchain, which NEO is often compared to. Both are protocol blockchains that allow the development of decentralized applications (dapps) on top of their blockchain. Applications on NEO’s blockchain will be part of the NEP-5, the application protocol of NEO.
Announcements of new (thus far 27 in 2018!) and rapid progression of past ICOs have sparked investor enthusiasm. It allowed NEO to stand strong during the recent bearish market, with a spiking Bitcoin comparative.
Even though the Chinese government has been been openly and firmly delegitimizing cryptocurrencies and their trade, the Chinese-based company behind the NEO blockchain seems to able to continue its business full charge by complying with China’s regulations. This gives rise to the alleged strong ties between NEO and the Chinese government and indicates that ICOs will likely be allowed again in China.
The ICO craze hasn’t cooled down yet, and blockchains on which applications can be built, such as the NEO blockchain, are at least equally popular. With NEO combining the two, it seems to be heading for a green future. Whether this will happen all depends on the quality of their ICOs and if these projects can deliver. Let’s take a look at some of the popular recent and future ICOs on the NEO blockchain.
Past ICOs
Qlink
Qlink is arguably the first decentralized mobile network, made possible by blockchain technology. The project’s first goal is to create a decentralized platform for mobile phone data plans for both businesses and consumers. Moreover, they aspire to directly connect data providers, apps that require data and consumers when it comes to data usage.
Red Pulse
This finished and listed token was issued by a company that conducts research for market intelligence. The platform incentivizes research producers by rewarding them for their work with Red Pulse tokens. Their generated insights are shared and sold to companies that are eager for market intelligence, which are quite a lot. Essentially, the company wants to integrate the entire research process into one decentralized platform.
Trinity
Trinity is the NEO version of the lightning network and will aid NEO in increasing the efficiency of its blockchain ecosystem. Trinity will do this by making real-time payments, low transaction fees, scalability and privacy protection possible on the NEO blockchain. The project will increase the quality of the throughput of NEP-5 tokens.
Deepbrainchain
Deepbrainchain wants to become the first decentralized marketplace for Artificial Intelligence products. AI is expensive to create and maintain, due to their complexity and the enormous amounts of computing power needed to run them. Deepbrainchain wants to make this cheaper by connecting the global AI industry through their blockchain application. They want to offer a vast array of AI-related marketplaces on which models can be built, AI data can be exchanged and computing power can be lent out.
ICOs That Switched From Ethereum to NEO
This is rather unique, but over the last two months two ICOs have decided to switch blockchains from Ethereum to NEO. PikcioChain decided to switch their blockchain after a $3 million investment of the NEO council, and Narrative decided to switch based on their assessment that NEO is on of the most promising and technologically advanced blockchains.
PikcioChain wants to create a blockchain-based exchange for personal data. The platform will allow for the collection, certification and exchange of personal basis. Consumers will be able to monetize on their data by exchanging this with businesses, thus having full control over their data while realizing profits from this data.
Decentralizing social media seems to be on the rise in the blockchain space, and Narrative is entering this crypto subspace. They describe it as a decentralized content economy in which creators and active participants are rewarded for their efforts. Moreover, it allows brands to engage with users on their platform as well. The focus will still be on the users, creating a social media micro-economy in which users of the Narrative platform have full control of the control and distribution of funds.
Current ICOs
The Key
The Key uses blockchain technology to create a secure identification verification network. Besides this, the project focuses on a cheap, reliable, secure and fast commercial use of data. The identifications will be exclusively authorized by government authorities, signalling the close ties NEO is rumored to have with the Chinese government. The company behind The Key works with an already existing product, which contains the personal identity data of 210 million (!) people in 66 cities. Their token is expected to be tradable in March 2018.
NEX
Currently the most anticipated NEO-based ICO, NEX will become NEO’s decentralized exchange. Through NEX, tokens of other NEO applications and most likely other blockchain-based currencies can be traded. The exchange will also provide payment services and will have its own NEP-5 token. It has the same idea as Etherdelta, which is the decentralized exchange for the Ethereum network, with one big difference: the focus will lie on usability. The token sale hasn’t started yet, which is attributed to some final legal processes that still need to be completed.
APEX
Apex states that the consumer data and marketing sector is broken, and they want to fix that. The company wants consumers to regain control over their personal data through the use of the Apex platform. By giving this control back to the consumers, Apex believes that they can create a mutually beneficial ecosystem through which consumers and businesses interact and connect on a fair and transparent basis. Other focus points are data quality, marketing effectiveness and customer loyalty.
ICOs Further Down the Line
NEO Name Service
By becoming a blockchain on which applications can be built, NEO’s network can become a decentralized internet. The NEO Name Service anticipated this and is working on creating the .neo domain. Through this service, all applications on the NEO blockchain can also have a NEO-based webpage.
Moonlight
This application will focus on creating a platform for open-source projects. The projects will be completed by a distributed workforce that matches each project with another one through an algorithm. More to come…
AdEx
AdEx will become a decentralized ad exchange using smart contracts. With this, the company tries to create a platform on which both businesses and consumers can understand and control advertisements. The platform will focus on user privacy on the consumer side and clear, detailed reporting on the business side.
For more upcoming ICOs on the NEO blockchain, click here.
Optimism for the Future
The up and coming and developing applications on NEO’s blockchain seem directed towards creating an all-inclusive ecosystem. The quality of the applications and whether they can actually deliver is yet to be seen, but so far most projects seem promising. With its NEP-5 protocol, NEO is trying to ensure legal compliance of its ICOs, something that is of the utmost importance in China, given its past handling of the crypto situation.
Taking a look at the combined value of the applications built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, the ICOs on NEO can greatly increase the value of the NEO ecosystem, in which the NEO cryptocurrency will play a leading role. Add the list of upcoming ICOs to that, and a bright and green future for NEO isn’t too hard to imagine.
Related: NEO vs Ethereum
