Neo bills itself as a “rapidly growing and developing” ecosystem that has the goal of becoming the foundation for the next generation of the internet — a new economy where digitized payments, identities and assets come together.
Initially known as Antshares, this project was believed to be China’s first-ever public blockchain when it was launched in February 2014. The open-source platform subsequently rebranded to Neo three years later.
As well as creating a worldwide community of developers who create new infrastructure for the network and lower barriers to entry, the team behind this project operate an EcoBoost initiative that’s designed to encourage people to build decentralized apps and smart contracts on its blockchain.
It’s often been likened to the Chinese version of the Ethereum network.