NEO, the cryptocurrency project dubbed the “Chinese Ethereum,” will be undergoing a complete overhaul as it relaunches on a new blockchain network called NEO 3.0, according to their updated NEO 3.0 development roadmap published April 29.
Per the roadmap, NEO token holders will be required to swap tokens to activate new ones on NEO 3.0.
However, it is still too early for a comprehensive migration plan, as the new chain is only scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2020. The testnet, on the other hand, is just around the corner and is set to launch in June 2019.
Why the New Blockchain?
According to Eric Zhang, co-founder and core developer of NEO, the new chain is necessary to improve the scalability, performance, and stability of the network.
Explaining more, he said these upgrades must come from a new genesis block because several of the architectural improvements are not compatible with NEO’s current blockchain.
However, though the new architectural improvements are not compatible, Zhang assured NEO’s userbase that all data and transaction records will migrate to NEO 3.0, as well as concurrent decentralized applications (dapps) because most new features are backward compatible.
Therefore, developers can continue to build new dapps and build out the NEO ecosystem with more advanced features available to them down the line. Also, prior to NEO 3.0’s launch, existing development branches will be in place before the mainnet release so that the transition is smooth and seamless.
Will NEO 3.0 Be a Game Changer?
It’s clear that the new NEO 3.0 blockchain is poised to deliver significant changes and improvements to NEO, but to what extent?
According to a report from Cointelegraph, Zhang purportedly said that this upgrade will increase NEO’s speed and stability by orders of magnitude, and will make it suitable for large-scale commercial use.
Explaining just how big a deal this NEO 3.0 upgrade is, Zhang said:
“When we talk about Neo 3.0 being ready for large-scale commercial use, we mean it provides the possibility to run large-scale applications with blockchain technology. In the future, we’d like to see applications such as YouTube, Alipay, and gaming giants like Tencent and Blizzard run on blockchain, and Neo 3.0 will allow these big organizations to do that.”
With NEO 3.0 set to be completed by the second quarter of 2020 and Ethereum 2.0 set to be completed by 2021, these highly advanced blockchain protocols are expected to be in deep competition once again.
Do you think that the NEO 3.0 blockchain will perform better than Ethereum (ETH) and other competitors? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
