On March 1, 2018, holders of the NEO coin will receive free Ontology tokens (ONT). This was announced by the NEO Council, an advisory group comprised of NEO’s founders.
Ontology isn’t the first application on the NEO blockchain. It is, however, the first airdrop. The Ontology team has also announced that they are giving 10% of the total ONT distributed to the NEO Council to signal their willingness to help create a supportive ecosystem on the NEO blockchain.
What is Ontology?
Ontology is a next-generation blockchain network that aims to become a trust-based ecosystem. In this ecosystem, users will utilize the decentralized Ontology platform to interact with each other, without the need of an intermediary. This is the basic principle of blockchain technology, but Ontology tries to makes full use of this principle on their platform.
The Ontology network is run by an impressively large team. Additionally, the development of Ontology has been directed by Onchain, a technology company specialized in blockchain research and development. Onchain’s community decided to create the Ontology platform to further the applications and real-world implementation of blockchain technology.
Ontology has created an integrated protocol system. Through this system, users can easily find a protocol that helps with the transaction or interaction they want to conduct through the Ontology platform. This can be identify verification, data exchange, data collaboration, community building, plus many more user and industry specific applications. Ontology will run on its own mainnet, which is scheduled to launch in Q2 2018.
The Ontology network aims to be used by individuals and businesses alike. The network will allow for cross-chain, cross-system, cross-industry, cross-application, and cross-device interactions. Through this, it will form a network that will support the entire NEO ecosystem.
For full details on all Ontology offers, read their whitepaper.
How Will the ONT Airdrop Work?
The NEO Council will receive 10% of the total ONT tokens. 20 million ONT will be distributed to NEO holders. The amount holders receive will depend on the amount of NEO coins they have. For every 1 NEO, holders will receive 0.2 ONT.
Half of this will be freely tradable after the snapshot. The other half will be unlocked and sent to NEO holders during the snapshot when the Ontology mainnet is released, which is scheduled for Q2 2018.
The snapshot will be taken of the NEO blockchain at block number 1974823. All the addresses holding NEO when that block has been created will be eligible for the ONT airdrop.
How Do I Receive My Ontology Tokens?
All private wallets are able to receive ONT. The best wallet to use for holding NEO (which will also allow you to receive free GAS) can be found here.
Exchanges are never the safest place to store your cryptocurrencies, because you do not really own your coins until you, and only you, have the private keys. However, if you do want to store your NEO on an exchange and still receive ONT, Binance and Kucoin have announced that they will be distributing ONT to NEO holders on their exchanges.
Other exchanges with NEO markets such as Bittrex and Bitfinex have not made any such announcements, therefore you can not be sure that you will receive any ONT for NEO coins stored there.
Concluding Remarks
Holding NEO has already had its advantages as it produces GAS for its holders, and Ontology is another bonus.
By creating its own network that allows for interactions and transactions, Ontology has the potential to become yet another strategic application for the NEO ecosystem. We don’t know what the actual value of ONT will be ion the future, but the Ontology platform has all the ingredients for becoming a valuable asset on the NEO blockchain.
