NEO versus Ethereum: Why NEO might be 2018’s strongest cryptocurrency

NEO is a platform with a purpose. Can it compete with Ethereum? Or better yet, does it even need to?

Why Read This Article?

NEO and Ethereum — which pill will you take? Sorry, couldn’t help myself. We care about this debate because we’re investors. From a developer’s perspective, functionality is the most important. There is no brand loyalty in blockchain yet. So if a platform can do something better than its competitors, it will win over developers. So which one does it better?This article is long because I have chewed through all the information I could find about NEO and Ethereum and digested it for you. There are lots of articles summarizing the “differences” between Ethereum and NEO, but they do the debate little justice. They skim over things, don’t explore them well, explore only one aspect, or aren’t holistic in their analysis and don’t explain why the differences even matter and what their relevance to the real world is. I was frustrated by the lack of a comprehensive article. This article is my response.I will admit that I explore NEO more in-depth than Ethereum. This is because so much information is widely available for Ethereum. With NEO, there is much less. As such, I focus on explaining NEO and then comparing that explanation to Ethereum’s capability.So bear with me, grab yourself an espresso and lock yourself in that room you “do work in.” This will be well worth your time. I also won’t blame you if you just read the TLDR — Too Lazy, Didn’t Read — under the articles.

Let’s begin

If Ethereum is Goliath, NEO is David. If Ethereum is Brad Pitt, NEO is Brad Pitt’s cousin, Zach Pitt—younger, better dressed, and more talented — but right now relegated to serving cocktails to Brad and his friends while he acts on the side. Ethereum did it first. It was revolutionary and exciting and took the crypto world by storm. Web 3.0. Today almost every ICO is built on Ethereum’s ERC20 token platform and Vitalik Buterin is one of our time’s greatest minds. Yet if we’ve learned anything from the fact that Alibaba is closing in on Amazon’s market cap and WeChat dominates China’s social media scene, it’s that China plays by their own rules. The Land of the Red Dragon uses their own technology, their own networks, and cares little for what the U.S. is doing. The question is, can NEO compete with Ethereum, and does it even need to?Ultimately, NEO and Ethereum are aiming for similar roles in the crypto community. Both want to be platforms for the new internet: for DApps (Decentralized Applications), ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), and smart contracts.

Overview of Ethereum and Neo

While both NEO and Ethereum have generalized blockchains that provide a toolbox for would be developers, their objectives differ. I would summarize each platform’s objectives as such:

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Ethereum’s goal is to create a platform for the development of DApps in order to create a “more globally accessible, more free, and more trustworthy Internet:” an internet 3.0.

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NEO is a blockchain project “that utilizes blockchain technology and digital identity to digitize assets, to automate the management of digital assets using smart contracts, and to realize a “smart economy” with a distributed network.”That’s a mouthful. Let’s breakdown these objectives to fully understand the projects. It’s important to understand that both platforms share many of the same capabilities, but the distinction in their branded objectives is very important.Ethereum: Ethereum’s goal is to be the platform for DApps and they are largely accomplishing this. They own the DApp market right now. Their roadmap is all about giving users and developers more control and more options in developing their applications.NEO: NEO is working towards developing a product for the future. It not only rebranded from Antshares to NEO in June of 2017, but they refocused their marketing as well — with enormous success. Neo’s objective, while ultimately utilizing many of the same technologies as Ethereum, is to be the platform for a new smart economy.

In short: Ethereum is developing in response to new demands. NEO is developing their platform in anticipation of future demands.