Ethereum or NEO–which one’s best? Is there even really a battle between these two platforms? Well, it depends on who you speak to since the topic is still hot and up for debate.
Both Ethereum and NEO are more than just digital currencies. In fact, they’re quite similar in the sense that they are both aiming to provide investors with different platforms for housing DApps and smart contracts.
There’s no doubt that Ethereum was here first, but NEO is taking the game to the next level, developing a technology that is being touted as the future of blockchain. NEO is more than just the ‘Chinese version of Ethereum’ since it’s newer, faster, and looking to build a global audience outside of the Asian market.
Check out the five key differences between Ethereum and NEO:
5. Digital Identity
Let’s face it. Cryptocurrency investors are hardly anonymous anymore. Privacy is vital, but with more companies and governments operating on the blockchain, platforms need to comply with international legislation regarding AML and KYC.
Ethereum has been slow in keeping up with industry trends since it relies on DApps to develop digital identities which it can then secure on its blockchain. NEO is several steps ahead in this regard, as it plans to issue digital identities on its blockchain to comply with international standards.
NEO also uses facial features, voice recognition, fingerprints, SMSs, and several other methods to verify the identity of its users.
4. Programming Language Support
Ethereum employs one programming language only– Solidity. For developers who want to build smart contracts or DApps on Ethereum, there’s only one path: they have to learn this language.
On the other hand, NEO already supports multiple programming languages like C#, VB.Net, F#, Java, Kotlin, and Python, and is planning to add C, C++, Golang, and JavaScript to its database in the near future.
3. Smart Contract Execution
The main difference here is the philosophy behind the tool. Ethereum is designed like a giant computer, where a massive number of contracts run all the time. NEO uses a different approach since it puts together a complex ecosystem where apps and organizations work together.
Ethereum was the first to set a standard for the creation of new cryptocurrencies on its blockchain, with the ERC-20 protocol. NEO followed the same policy and created the NEP-5.
For smart contract execution, both platforms use a Virtual Machine System. NEO’s Virtual Machine is possibly more advanced and intuitive than Ethereums since it optimizes code more efficiently.
2. Consensus Mechanism
Ethereum is switching from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (POS) mechanism. This means (among other things) that they will use a cheaper distributed form of consensus. It’s also a greener solution as PoS needs less energy than PoW.
NEO’s consensus mechanism is called delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT)–an improved version of PoS that makes the NEO blockchain more scalable.
1. Transaction Speeds
There’s an enormous gap between the two platforms here. While Ethereum supports 15 transactions per second, NEO can handle 10,000 operations per second, making it a no-brainer for e-commerce enterprises or other companies requiring high transactional volume.
Is NEO the Blockchain of the Future?
The short answer to this is we’ll have to wait and see. Only time will tell how the two platforms will develop. NEO seems to win the debate on paper, but Ethereum is still the second most profitable platform by capitalization after Bitcoin.
Moreover, while NEO seems to enjoy strong support from the Chinese Government, global regulation surrounding it is not yet clear.
Ethereum, on the other hand, has a large developer community, demonstrably more solutions, and has been declared ‘not a security‘ by the United States SEC. The company is also highly proactive when it comes to getting involved in establishing uniform crypto regulations across the globe.
However, like everything in the cryptocurrency space, it will be interesting to see how both NEO and Ethereum evolve and scale up from here on out.
