NEO has been a hot topic of discussion these days across various online platforms and community boards.
Dubbed as the Chinese Ethereum, NEO is a development platform which facilitates the deployment of other networks through its own platform.
With this feature, NEO also enables the new platforms to have their own, customized tokens, which also go by the name of NEP-5.
As NEP-5 Tokens grow in support from community members as well as the exchanges which trade them, it’s important to know what they are in order to be truly successful with them.
So what are they? How do they work? And why should you choose NEO and NEP-5 tokens as a cryptocurrency to add to your portfolio?
NEP-5 Guide: What are NEP-5 Tokens?
NEP stands for NEO Enhancement Proposals. NEP-5 Tokens are tokens created on the NEO blockchain.
NEP-5 is the standard for tokens to run on the NEO blockchain. All tokens on the NEO network are built to the NEP-5 standard, allowing potential projects to be able to use the NEO blockchain to grow their ecosystem.
Whether it’s mentioned in the documentation or not, a token created on the NEO blockchain has to conform to the NEP-5 standard.
This standard applies to all past, present, and future tokens.
If you are still confused, NEP-5 tokens are to NEO what ERC20 Tokens are to Ethereum: Tokens that are created on their respective networks to conform to their specific standards.
If a project wanted to issue more tokens on the NEO blockchain, it would have to make sure that the token was compatible with the NEP-5 standard. Only after ensuring for compatibility, would they be able to place it on the NEO blockchain.
Why are NEP-5 Tokens special?
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What makes NEP-5 Tokens fundamentally valuable or special is the fact that they contribute to the NEO ecosystem. The idea is that, the more NEP-5 tokens that are running on the platform, the stronger the NEO ecosystem grows. The stronger that NEO and the NEO community gets, the more potential there is for growth in both price and innovation.
NEP-5 tokens are also important because they make general NEO token exchange much easier.
All NEP-5 tokens fall under your NEO public address, which means that you can send NEO or any NEP-5 token via your single NEO public address. The NEO and NEP-5 tokens are all part of your NEO wallet.
Once the NEP-5 token is sent to your NEO public address, it will automatically show up in your neo-gui wallet or neotracker.io. These tokens can also be transferred to other wallets or exchanges directly from neotracker.io and are supported on NEON wallet and Binance.
Say for example, you wanted to purchase Ontology. If you wanted to send it to yourself, you would only need to provide your NEO public address.
Straightforward and simple, right? Let’s move on.
From a larger standpoint, NEP-5 tokens are important and carry weight because of the fundamental economics of the NEO blockchain.
ERC-20 tokens continue to be deployed on a regular basis while NEP-5 tokens seem like they are only just starting their civilization on a new planet. Only a handful of NEP-5 tokens exist today.
But this could work in their favor, since this current state of scarcity could give them more value.
You might be thinking: why is it that there are only a few NEP-5 tokens while ERC-20 continuously grow in number? The answer is simple:costs.
It takes more resources to deploy an NEP-5 token, while ERC-20 tokens do not cost as much. Most motivated individuals would be able to create and deploy an ERC-20 token, as ERC-20 tokens only require 32,000 gas on the Ethereum blockchain to deploy the contract. By and large it would cost an individual or a project about .25 to $5 to deploy an ERC-20 token via a smart contract.
Things are a tad bit different on the NEO blockchain.
The NEO blockchain allows for creation of smart contracts, yet accessibility or deployment of contracts will carry a significant cost. This cost is covered by GAS, which is a native token of the NEO blockchain used to supplement network operations.
Care to guess how much it will cost to bring your NEP-5 token into existence?
500 GAS!
To put matters into perspective, the current rate of GAS is ($18.51), which means that 500 GAS would come to a grand total of $9,255!
But remember the high times of cryptocurrency that we had last year? Remember when GAS was as high as $85? This would have cost potential token developers a pretty penny.
The barrier to entry that is imposed by these costs should invite the type of crowd that is interested in remaining on the blockchain project for the long term.
Projects will have to become either very sophisticated to become successful scams or be authentic, invest in the ecosystem and help contribute to the cryptocurrency community and the rest of the world in some form or fashion.
This should invite developers that won’t simply vanish after the initial deployment of their NEP-5 token, making it to where the ecosystem is better off overall for potential users of the product; for future projects; for the NEO blockchain community, and for investors in each project.
Another benefit of this initial cost is the fact that less projects will lead to less congestion on the NEO blockchain, since the network will not be crowded by “spam” projects.
Less projects in general may imply less overall transactions, clearing general congestion in that regard as well.
NEP-5 Guide: What’s so great about creating NEP-5 Tokens?
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Another thing that makes NEO good is that NEP-5 Tokens are possibly much easier to develop and exchange.
NEO supports many additional code bases (e.g. C#, VB.Net, F#, Java, Kotlin), which makes it much easier for developers to jump in and get started with NEO.
In Ethereum, developers had to learn a whole new coding language called Solidity, before they were able to do any real development on Ethereum.
This created, what some may consider, as an unnecessary learning curve that initially, might have slowed development.
NEO, however, does away with this, and just lets developers use common languages like Java, (potentially), making the process of development easier and faster for the blockchain.
So, What Sorts of Projects are on NEO? (A Comprehensive list of NEP-5 Tokens)
Now that we’ve talked about what NEP-5 tokens are and why they are special, let’s get into a comprehensive list of these NEP-5 projects.
Some of these tokens serve unique purposes while some of them rival existing projects that are currently being offered through other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum.
However, even with added competition, the news of such projects is good for the end user because it makes similar projects strive for excellence and that ultimately results in better services for the users associated with these platforms.
Let’s get into the projects.
PKC – In the current climate where Facebook is being held accountable for its shady data sharing and monetizing policies, PickioChain is perhaps the most relevant project to answer the issue with a tangible solution.
Leveraging the power of blockchain technology, PickioChain is going to provide data management services to people in order to provide them full control over their personal data.
PickioChain would also store a trail of verification for the stored data so users could then share their data with institutions such as hospitals or legal entities. Sharing this data allows for relevant processes to get completed much faster without having to wait for additional verification of information.
With this, users can also share their data with companies in return for compensation while also making certain that their data would not be divulged in places where they do not want it to be disclosed.
With the level of attention that the Facebook controversy is getting and how it is leading towards data protection regulation, PickioChain could very well emerge as a winner in the future by already providing the functionalities required to implement the required set of solutions.
ONT – The Ontology project promises businesses of all sizes the possibility to deploy their own blockchain solutions without having extensive knowledge of how blockchain works. The project will provide complete support for public blockchains and updated smart contracts.
Together with NEO, the project aims to also connect these blockchain platforms with similar and complementary platforms in the future in order to create an ecosystem which works alongside NEO.
In theory, it seems that Ontology is a development platform within a development platform (NEO); however, if its solutions prove to be easier to adopt for smaller entities, then this could itself compliment NEO in the long run.
RPX – China has emerged to be one of the biggest financial markets in the world, but it is still difficult for people outside the country to access the region properly.
Not much information is usually available for the financial entities within the country, which makes it hard for people from around the world to ensure the credibility of any Chinese firm or individual whom they are establishing business relations with.
Red Pulse aims to resolve that problem.
The platform wants to bridge the gap between China and the rest of the world when it comes to accessing information about the capital markets in the region. Red Pulse will focus on creating and disseminating content and research material for interested parties around the globe, who could then use the provided information and services to obtain relevant information.
By focusing on China as its target region, Red Pulse has secured a use for itself within that region for people who are interested in tapping into the Chinese market for their business operations. But the project’s success depends upon whether it can provide tangible solutions that could translate into wider adaptability.
Fun note: RPX was the first token to debut on the NEO platform.
ZPT – Zeepin provides market solutions that focus upon the creative industry. Catering to sub-industries ranging from designers to musicians, the platform aims to provide a marketplace to connect the creators with individuals who are interested in procuring their offerings.
Using the transparency and immutability that comes with the blockchain technology, Zeepin will also provide copyright services to the creators of the creative content.
While many marketplace projects have come to light over the past couple of years, Zeepin seems to be unique in the sense that it caters to the creative market, where its user base consists of creative arts and their connoisseurs. This is what sets it apart from other platforms.
DBC- Deep Brain Chain provides an AI computing platform where users can procure the services to perform complex computations and algorithms.
The system is unique in the sense that it leverages the computation power of nodes to supplement its own AI solutions, which can then be used by businesses and individuals alike. Users who “rent out” their computational power to the system receive the DBC token in reward.
The platform is also going to have an AI-based marketplace to trade related applications that rival the likes of Amazon Alexa.
In addition to this, DBC also works as a platform for secure data exchange, which is another use case to benefit from blockchain technology.
QLC – Qlink (QLC) aims to be the world’s first mobile decentralized network, aiming to reduce the cost of telecom infrastructures. It uses blockchain technology to apply digital identities to telecom assets, repackages those assets, and records their usage footprints. It also aims to allow person-to-person sharing of assets, such as Wi-Fi, mobile assets, and enterprise-to-peer SMS.
Not to be confused with Q Link Wireless, Qlink aims to bring down the costs related to the telecom industry by providing digital IDs to telecom devices and entities.
Qlink aims to use these digital IDs for its users to be able to share data and communication signals, such as Wi-Fi, over a peer-to-peer network that uses blockchain technology. By using the blockchain technology, Qlink wants to bring down the costs associated with telecommunications and enhance the effectiveness of recording and sharing relevant data.
Qlink provides unique solutions for the telecom industry, since it is hard to find prominent blockchain solutions which serve the telecom sector and have it listed as their focus.
This approach could make Qlink an early settler in this segment, and the experience could give it an edge over similar solutions that are bound to come in the near future.
TKY – THE KEY is a digital identity management and verification service which runs on blockchain technology.
With the growth of the blockchain industry as the next internet, digital identity verification could play a big part in situations where an individual would need to verify their identity on relevant platforms (such as data sharing platforms or payment based blockchain platforms).
This could make THE KEY a sought after project a few years down the line. However, it should be noted that THE KEY is not the first solution of its kind, and several other platforms such as Civic already provide these solutions.
TNC – Dubbed as the lightning network to NEO, Trinity could prove to be truly disruptive and beneficial by being an off-chain scaling solution if and when NEO ever faces any scalability issues or higher transaction times with increased adoption.
Out all of the projects that have originated from NEO, Trinity seems to have a very effective use case. It remains to be seen how effective Trinity proves to be in delivering what it promises.
ACAT – This is a robot-advised marketplace, with AI and big data. Unlike DBC, this AI is built to put fairness and honesty into the NEO market by deterring hackers and scammers.
This also provides an effective use case that contributes to the overall functionality and improvement of the NEO blockchain. Therefore, this could easily be termed as an essential utility for the NEO ecosystem and thus could remain operating for a long time.
NRVE – Arguably the first “social media blockchain” to hit NEO, Narrative could prove to be the blockchain user’s answer to browsing Twitter, Instagram and Medium all in one.
Touted as a “content economy”, Narrative is a content sharing platform where users could add their content to share it with the world. The more high quality and well received the content is, the more benefits it would provide to the contributor through the project’s incentive model.
Since the project is first of a kind and focuses on creating and sharing content, it has the potential to grow in a market which is yet to find its footing, and thus the early bird advantage could work in its favor.
IAM – The Bridge Protocol aims to be network that connects machines and human users in order to provide data verification and management services for individuals and businesses alike.
By using real world compliance guidelines, the platform’s objective is to facilitate business processes by providing cost effective solutions for intricate and detailed methods such as know your customer (KYC) verification requirements.
The platform will also utilize private blockchains to maintain confidentiality of data for relevant users.
While this provides the promise of users being able to implement their processes over a blockchain network, the most effective use case that the platform actually speaks of is identify verification, and that is already being provided by a number of blockchains such as THE KEY (mentioned here in this post).
GAS – The fuel token for the network for resource control on the network, with a limit of 100 million.
Current Prices of Tokens
Current Prices (In USD):
NEO: 1 NEO = $61.14
DBC: 1 DBC = $0.0158
QLC: 1 QLC = $0.10
RPX: 1 RPX = $0.0358
ZPT: 1 ZPT = $0.017
TKY: 1 TKY = $0.0352
IAM: 1 IAM = $0.05
NRVE: 1 NRVE = $0.062
Note: As of this writing.
Upcoming Tokens
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NEO also has a few current and upcoming ICOs for projects that propose interesting use cases to their users. A few of such ventures are mentioned below.
CGE –Concierge is going to be a decentralized travel booking platform. By harnessing the power of blockchain technology and coupling it with its intended list of vendors, the platform aims to provide peer-to-peer connections between travelers and vendors. This would open doors to direct communication with a 0 percent fee.
Through the creation of smart contracts, the platform aims to execute transparent transactions between the relevant parties in order to ensure that it could establish itself as a trustworthy platform for facilitating travel arrangements.
The project provides unique solutions and certainly has the potential of wider adoptability, but it is too early to predict its tangible success since its ICO is still underway.
The project’s ICO is intended to end by the month of April 2018.
IMU – The iMusify project intends to provide music creators a fair platform to share their creativity with the world.
By using blockchain technology’s fairness and transparency mechanisms, the project intends to eradicate the issues that new and old artists face with popular streaming services by giving them all the power that they deserve in order to take optimal benefits by getting paid directly by the users.
Rivalling Spotify, this could certainly prove to be a solution that could become a success with the wider adoption of the blockchain.
iMusify’s pre-sale is scheduled to begin on May 1, 2018, while its main token sale is going to be initiated on June 1, 2018.
ASA – The Asura World blockchain is going to provide an eSports ecosystem to online gambling enthusiasts who can place bets and enjoy the thrill of the games in a safe and secure environment.
The platform will also provide mentoring services to new players of the genre, and by teaching them the skills required to succeed in this segment, aims to enhance the experience for them by twofold.
The project’s ICO is going to be held on May 21, 2018 and is scheduled to run for three weeks before it ends on June 15, 2018.
Exchanges That List NEP-5 Tokens
The exchanges that are listing them are Huobi, Kucoin, and Lbank.
The NEP-5 token standard is growing in support from many exchanges and this may lead to a potential increase in the value of the NEP-5 tokens.
More NEP-5 tokens will also be tradable on other platforms in the future due to their versatility and usability.
Another important note in regard to exchanges in the aspect of decentralized exchanges that have recently created a stir in the NEO community.
Neo focused exchanges like Switcheo and Nex are also going to be important players for the NEO ecosystem.
Why? Let’s get into that next.
The Importance of Switcheo and Nex
Decentralized exchanges are all the rage these days right? Binance is going to get one, Etherdelta is out there for Ethereum and others like IDEX is out there too. That means that the NEO community has to have one, right?
And it does have one, in the form of Switcheo.
Built on the NEO blockchain, Switcheo is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange that focuses on listing NEP-5 and GAS tokens. This is being done in order to encourage the usage of the NEO blockchain by making its tokens accessible to the masses.
Switcheo has a traditional exchange interface that is capable of providing the most important features to end users, for them to make trading decisions easily.
NEX, also known as Neon Exchange, is another decentralized exchange that is currently in the process of finalizing know your customer (KYC) procedures before it holds its ICO.
NEX will have a better user interface as well as a simplistic browser extension wallet that will allow individuals to engage with decentralized applications while also allowing for the acceptance of NEO, NEO based tokens and the NEO network fuel, GAS.
Wallets that support NEP-5 tokens
There are many, many NEO wallets, which also support NEP-5 tokens to get NEO to run, but here are the most popular ones.
Ledger Nano S – Keeps your NEO safe from hackers in the long term. One of the most secure NEO wallets. The only problem is that you have to have the hardware to send NEO and GAS, but the hardware only makes it more secure.
NEON Wallet – Facilitates the potential for sending, reception and the storage of the NEO digital asset as well as the GAS digital asset. Additionally, this wallet provides for more simplicity due to the fact that users can automatically receive their due GAS, if they hold NEO in this NEON wallet.
Binance – An exchange that many regard as trusted and secure due to its track record in being transparent with users and communicating with them through several key instances. This exchange is also one to hold your NEO. It’s also much more rewarding to hold your NEO in this wallet, rather than storing your NEO in other wallets.
Why is it much more rewarding?
Simplicity.
Binance is also one of the exchanges that allows individuals to claim their GAS.
NEO GUI – This wallet is regarded as the premiere desktop wallet made for the NEO community, it was created and deployed by the core NEO team. This is a graphic user interface and it is considered as a synchronizing wallet. This means that it will have to take some time to catch up and synchronize with continuous NEO blockchain.
NEO Tracker – NEO Tracker Wallet is an open-source web-based wallet. It is another great wallet because of the fact that users of this wallet can have claim to the GAS generated by the network in relation to the NEO that they have in their wallet.
It is regarded as an offline wallet due to the fact that it utilizes the browser of the respective machine that is being used provide the relevant information, the data does not rest on the servers of the NEO Tracker.
An interesting note is that this was a wallet that wasn’t created by the official developers of NEO. Yet, the wallet is still used by several members of the NEO community and does seem to adhere to specific standards to keep digital assets safe and secure.
NEO Wallet – Also known as Web Wallet, this wallet is a lightweight wallet maintained by the NEO community. This lightweight wallet is regarded by many as beneficial because of the properties of storage, and the potential for sending and reception of both digital assets, NEO and the digital fuel for the NEO blockchain, GAS.
It is currently available as an extension for both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
NEO CLI – This is another official wallet for NEO, by NEO. The differentiation in this wallet lies in the fact that it is based on Command Line Prompts, hence the name, NEO CLI. Of course, this means that not everybody will want to use this wallet, it is a bit more complicated, much like trying to use Ether Delta when you could just use Coinbase. If you are somewhat familiar with developing and using languages like Javascript and C sharp, well this wallet just might be for you. If not, there are a variety of other user friendly wallets on the market.
This wallet does provide the ability of the user to be able to have reception of the digital assets of the NEO blockchain, NEO and GAS. Users will be able to use the wallet to store and send their NEO and GAS digital assets.
This is another wallet that is recognized and allows for the user to claim their generated GAS.
The Coda: Guide for NEP-5 Tokens
While this provides you with the basic information regarding NEP-5 tokens and the upcoming projects which use them, it should be noted that this information is bound to be enhanced with time. NEP-5 tokens will only increase in numbers as more developers lean towards NEO to test the platform’s services.
That being said, these first few projects are crucial to NEO’s success, since they will essentially tell the world whether the platform is a viable one or not when it comes to catering to user needs in the real world.
In any case, the NEP-5 market is very likely to grow and thus these tokens may be something to look into.
Disclaimer: Investors are advised to do their own research before moving forward with a financial decision of any kind, whether it pertains to digital or conventional investments.