NEO is an open blockchain network designed for smart economies. It was founded in 2014 by Erik Zhang and famously called the Chinese Ethereum.
The mainnet took place in 2016 and the network has been running in stable capacity for two years.
The platform utilizes blockchain tech and digital identities to digitize assets and automate the management of digital assets using smart contracts. The primary aim of NEO is to create a smart economy. NEO Smart Economy is an economy and trade platform where trade agreements are written in programming code using a Smart Contract.
To make up its smart economy, NEO has three distinct features. The first one is the digital assets. The underlying structure of the network supports multiple types of digital assets. The platform allows users to register, transfer, and trade assets at their own discretion on the NEO blockchain.
The second feature is the digital certificate which is supposed to build trust in a public chain. The digital certificates provide full legal protection for all assets digitized on the NEO platform. The third important feature is a smart contract. NEO utilizes the Turing-complete smart contract which has a high level of finality. The smart contract supports recurring operation, sharding, and unlimited scalability of the network.
These three features when working, create the NEO smart economy. Despite being a rival of Ethereum, the NEO founder Erik Zhang believes that Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin as the leading crypto due to what it offers to the industry. He is also confident that NEO usage will grow in the futures, despite the coin losing group over the past year and a half.
NEO features
- NEO is a smart contract platform
- The ecosystem has two tokens: NEO and GAS
- NEO tokens total supply is 100 million
- The creation of smart economy comprises of three main features: smart contract, digital assets, and digital identity.
- NEO uses the dBFT Consensus Mechanism
Ethereum
Ethereum and NEO are similar to a large extent. Just like, NEO, Ethereum is a smart contract platform that has become popular as a network that houses tokens and decentralized applications.
Ethereum was founded in 2014 by Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) hosts smart contracts on the network. The smart contracts assist in extending Ethereum by writing custom business functionality into it.
The smart contracts on Ethereum can be executed as part of the transaction and work similar to mining. The EVMs on Ethereum are tasked with providing a runtime that can run code written in smart contracts. The EVMs are considered to be the execution component of the Ethereum network.
It is worthy to note that smart contracts can store data. The data they save can be utilized to record information, fact, associations, balances, and any other data needed to implement contracts in the real world.
Smart contracts work similarly to object-oriented classes. Smart contracts are designed in such a way that they can communicate with each other similar to how an Object-oriented object use objects of another class. As a user, you can develop an example of the contract and summon the functions so as to view and update the contract information.
Ethereum features
- Ethereum is a smart contract platform just like NEO
- Programs can run safely without human intervention.
- It is an open source network
- Unlike NEO, the Ethereum network has only one token, the Ether
- It makes use of the proof of work mechanism
- It also hosts tokens and decentralized applications
- The total coin supply is over 100 million
Dagcoin
Dagcoin is the odd one out amongst the three cryptocurrencies we are reviewing. While NEO and Ethereum are focused on smart contracts and the creation of a smart economy, Dagcoin is seeking to become a cryptocurrency that is used as a currency.
Since the creation of Bitcoin a decade ago, cryptocurrencies have been mostly used as speculative tools. However, Bitcoin was designed to be a decentralized form of currency that would tackle the issue with fiat currencies such as inflation, economic meltdown and many more.
Dagcoin is now looking to fulfil that vision by becoming a cryptocurrency that is used in paying for goods and services in stores and platforms all over the world. The cryptocurrency was created with the concept that cryptos are a better form of money than fiat currencies. Thus, Dagcoin improves the speed of transactions while reducing the cost, giving access to money to more people with lesser restrictions and limitations, giving more freedom to transact.
There have been complaints about Bitcoin and other cryptos being used to launder money and fund terrorism. These allegations have hindered the adoption of cryptos in some parts of the world. Dagcoin has tacked this issue by implementing KYC and AML measures that ensure that fraud and illegal activities are not carried out using the cryptocurrency.
In a nutshell, Dagcoin was developed to become a digital version of money that people all over the world can use to pay for goods and services.
Dagcoin features
- The primary focus of Dagcoin is to serve as a currency.
- It has implemented both KYC and AML measures
- DAG-chain is the technology behind this cryptocurrency.
- It has a minimal transaction fee
- The transaction speed is fast
- The total coin supply is 9 billion
Conclusion
The first two cryptocurrencies reviewed in this article serve the same function; both are smart contract platforms working to build a smart economy. Dubbed as the Chinese Ethereum, NEO has some similar attributes to Ethereum. It has lost some ground over the past year and a half, but it continues to work towards achieving its goals.
Dagcoin meanwhile is a special cryptocurrency that has a different vision for the crypto space. Its sole aim is to become crypto that serves as a digital form of money. It is seeking massive adoption that would see it used as a currency in all parts of the globe.
