What is Neo?
Neo is a community-run open source blockchain project. It uses blockchain technology to digitise assets and smart contracts and automate the management of these assets. It aims to create a “Smart Economy” for the digital world by combining a scalable distributed network with digital contracts. The source code of the project, which was developed under the name Antshares in 2014, was published on GitHub in June 2015. Antshares, whose blockchain was opened to transactions in October 2016, was renamed Neo in 2017 with its updated Smart Economy vision.
The Neo platform is a combination of digital assets, digital identity and smart contracts. Digital assets created on the Neo platform are verified with digital certificates — this way, all Neo assets are legally secured. These assets are transferred from user to user on the Neo network without the need for intermediaries. Neo smart contracts support multiple software languages and have extensive capabilities — they can handle multiple transactions at once (far more than Bitcoin’s seven transactions per second, for example) and scale to demand flexibly.
How does Neo work?
The currency of the Neo platform is also called NEO. NEO tokens are indivisible, meaning only whole coins can be transferred. A total of 100 million NEO tokens were produced. Transaction fees are covered by GAS, another digital asset on the Neo platform. NEO holders are rewarded with GAS in proportion to the amount of NEO they keep in their accounts, while NEO holders also hold voting rights for things like changes to the platform.
The Neo blockchain allows 1,000 transactions to be performed per second, with a new block generated every 15–20 seconds. GAS production is also provided with each confirmed block. When GAS rewards launched in 2017, eight GAS tokens were produced in each block. However, it has been calculated that this number will decrease by one unit each year, culminating in a total of 100 million GAS produced over approximately 22 years.
How can you store NEO tokens?
NEO tokens can be stored in compatible online, desktop, mobile or hardware wallets. If you want to synchronise the entire blockchain you can use the Windows desktop Neo GUI wallet. However, this requires disk space and internet bandwidth, so for many holders a third-party desktop application such as NEON Wallet or Neo 03 will suffice. If you want to carry your NEO wallet with you, you can use mobile wallets like Aphelion and O3, or online wallets such as NEOtracker Wallet or Aphelion.
You can find the most common wallets at via the Neo website and test the various wallets until you find the right one for you. You should make sure that the wallet you choose gives you the opportunity to record the private key or the 12–24-word phrase and that you securely store the private key and all associated passwords of the wallets. You can also store NEP-5 assets, which are digital assets on the Neo blockchain, in portable hardware wallets that are not constantly connected to the internet. In order to send NEO from hardware wallets, you need to connect the device to your computer and use the wallet application. Payments are confirmed on your hardware wallet by entering your password with the physical buttons on the device, making it a very secure option.
