NEO Overview

NEO is an open-source, community-driven blockchain platform founded in 2014 (originally as Antshares) and rebranded to NEO in 2017. Often dubbed the “Ethereum of China,” NEO focuses on building a scalable, developer-friendly smart contract ecosystem for the smart economy: digital assets, digital identity, and decentralized applications.

NEO is powered by two native tokens: NEO (governance) and GAS (utility).

Core Principles

• Create a smart economy by integrating:
  • Digital assets
  • Decentralized identity
  • Smart contracts
• Prioritize regulatory readiness and compliance
• Encourage multilingual development (C#, Java, Python, Go)

“NEO envisions a world where assets, identities, and logic are digitized and automated.”

“Not just decentralized, but interconnected.”

Architecture & Consensus

Dual-Token Model

1. NEO

   • Used for governance and staking
   • Holders can vote on block producers and protocol upgrades

2. GAS

   • Used to pay for network transactions and smart contract operations
   • Generated by holding NEO in a wallet

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)

• NEO uses dBFT, a fast and final consensus mechanism designed for enterprise use cases
• Key traits:
  • Low energy usage
  • Instant transaction finality
  • Fault tolerance even with some malicious nodes

“Unlike Proof of Work, dBFT doesn’t require mining. It relies on professional node validators.”

Consensus

Dual-Token Model

1. NEO

   • Used for governance and staking
   • Holders can vote on block producers and protocol upgrades

2. GAS

   • Used to pay for network transactions and smart contract operations
   • Generated by holding NEO in a wallet

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)

• NEO uses dBFT, a fast and final consensus mechanism designed for enterprise use cases
• Key traits:
  • Low energy usage
  • Instant transaction finality
  • Fault tolerance even with some malicious nodes

“Unlike Proof of Work, dBFT doesn’t require mining. It relies on professional node validators.”

Developer Ecosystem

• Supports multiple languages:
  • C#
  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • Go
• SDKs and toolkits for easy onboarding
• Integration with popular IDEs like VS Code

Interoperability & Features

• NeoFS: A decentralized file storage network
• NeoID: A digital identity standard compatible with government ID systems
• Oracle support: Native oracle for off-chain data
• Cross-chain bridge: Neo’s Poly Network enables asset and data transfers across blockchains

Use Cases

1. Asset Tokenization

   • On-chain issuance of securities, commodities, real estate
   • Compliance-friendly with built-in identity layer

2. Decentralized Applications

   • DeFi platforms
   • Gaming dApps
   • Loyalty and reward systems

3. Digital Identity

   • Government-verified digital ID issuance
   • KYC-compliant applications
   • Self-sovereign identity solutions

“NEO is not just a blockchain — it’s an infrastructure layer for the future digital economy.”

Combined Example Workflow

1. A company issues a tokenized real estate asset on NEO
2. Buyers interact via a dApp built in Python
3. KYC is performed using NeoID
4. All transactions are powered by GAS
5. Voting on real estate policies is conducted using NEO token governance

“This is what a smart economy looks like.”

“Legible. Auditable. Scalable.”

Future Roadmap

• Neo N3 mainnet optimizations
• Expansion of Neo EcoBoost program
• More real-world adoption in digital identity and legal assets
• Partnerships across APAC and Europe
• Enhanced support for EVM compatibility and Layer 2 scaling