NEO, the popular cryptocurrency project touted as being the “Chinese Ethereum” was once a top 10 cryptocurrency with unstoppable potential. The cryptocurrency surged in 2017 and the beginning of 2018, when it was touted as being faster, better, and more capable than any of its competing networks.
However, like most cryptocurrency projects, the hype and price have since faded throughout the year-long bear market that was 2018. NEO once had a market cap of over $10 billion and now it’s half that amount, sitting in the 17th spot on CoinMarketCap.
To catch up on what’s really going on with NEO, CCN recently published an exclusive interview with NEO’s co-founder, Erik Zhang, where he provided perspective and insights on NEO and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
Here’s what Zhang had to say…
Why Has NEO Fallen?
It’s no question that NEO has dropped considerably, losing 96% of its value from the all-time high. To this, Zhang addresses their position in CoinMarketCap stating:
“What’s the difference between the top 10 and the 18th? We are developing a blockchain project instead of playing a capital game. I just want to make this project even better.”
Zhang is completely disinterested in NEO’s price, as he is a core developer of NEO and focused on building out the platform and strengthening the community.
Is NEO the Chinese Ethereum?
While NEO is often compared to Ethereum as its Chinese counterpart, Zhang completely disagrees with this:
“The labeling is a hype. We never introduced NEO this way, and I’m personally against this labeling.”
Further explaining that while NEO was initially conceived in China, Zhang states that the project is now global with contributions from developers all around the world. He also stated that Ethereum and NEO are 2 very different blockchain projects.
What Are the Key Differences Between NEO and Ethereum?
Zhang quickly explained that the 2 blockchains are completely different, with only a few similarities: they both have their own tokens, and they can both run Turing-complete smart contracts.
As for the differences, Zhang first noted that they follow different consensus mechanisms, with Ethereum using a PoW algorithm, and NEO using the dBFT algorithm.
The next big difference is in their smart contract development languages, with Ethereum using a domain-specific language called Solidity and NEO using general-purpose languages such as C#, Python, Java, Golang, JavaScript, etc.
Also, the 2 projects even provide very different smart contract features, Zhang explained:
“The interfaces provided by Ethereum for smart contracts are relatively simple, and they are usually provided through the EVM instruction set. NEO provides a large number of powerful APIs for smart contracts, and they are provided in a way similar to virtual devices.”
To end off this question, Zhang also stated both Ethereum’s and NEO’s vision:
“Ethereum wants to be a world computer that cannot be stopped while NEO wants to serve the smart economy.”
Should Financial Institutions Fear Cryptocurrency?
Towards the end of the interview, Zhang was asked the interesting question above, to which he replied:
“As far as I know, many financial institutions are exploring the application of blockchain technology in financial scenarios. But I don’t think traditional financial institutions can make any real achievements in the blockchain field.”
Further explaining, Zhang said:
“The nature of the blockchain is to reduce the cost of trust transfer through decentralization, and the nature of traditional financial institutions is to create trust through a centralized authority. These two ideas are contrary to each other and difficult to unify.”
If you didn’t already before, do you now see NEO and Ethereum as 2 very different blockchain projects? Do you think NEO will forever be in Ethereum’s shadow, or will people come to realize the project’s differences? Let us know in the comment section below.
