NEP5: NEO Tokens Guide

This guide discusses the NEP5 token from NEO platform with different NEP5 wallets and projects, and a comprehensive NEO NEP5 tokens list.

NEO has been catching a lot of attention in the crypto community. Not only that NEP5 standard is also making news as it is part of the NEO platform. There are many popular NEP5 tokens out there including ONT, DBC, and NEX.

NEP5 is what we will be focusing on today. Our guide will be focused on exploring how it works, how it is different from ERC20. We will also list a few of the most promising NEP5 powered projects (both current and future.) Last, but not least we will compare it ERC20.

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What is NEP5 NEO Token?

NEP stands for “NEO Enhancement Protocol.” The number “5” is simply a revision that everyone has agreed upon. It is also the version through which the enhancements are added to the platform. This revision also added the support for NEO-powered cryptocurrency tokens, similar to what Ethereum was doing until now.

If you want to know the closest equivalent, then ERC-20 and ERC-223 standards for Ethereum. These ERC-20 and ERC-233 standards also provided a good reference during the development for NEP5. You should check out the comparison between ERC 20 vs ERC 223 vs ERC 777.

Why Do You Need A Protocol in The First Place?

Protocols ensure how a data or piece of code behaves or interacts with a network. One simple analogy is the HTTP protocol. It governs how data is transferred from the browser to a server. This way every browser or server knows which steps to take and also ensures that nothing breaks when the process takes place. Developers, on the other hand, have a standard to follow when developing their apps that utilize HTTP. This way standards and protocol govern the whole ecosystem for better functionality and execution.

NEP-5 is no different. It is a NEO standard protocol that governs the essential functions that a token should implement to be used within the network. For example, any token based on NEO should be NEP5 before it can be traded or exchanged with different parties or on the exchange. This also includes necessary actions including balance checks, token approval, transfer, and so on.

The NEP5 standard also ensures that minimum security is maintained when the tokens interact with other tokens or to the blockchain. In short, tokens that run on the NEO blockchain have to meet the NEP5 standard.

Read More: What is NEO Blockchain?

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NEP5 Functions

The protocol defined that a NEP5 token should have the following methods defined in them. To get a better understanding, let’s list them below.

1. name() returns string: The function returns the name of the token in string format.
2. symbol() returns strings: The function returns the symbol of the token in string format.
3. decimals() returns byte: The function returns the tokens decimals value. It tells if by how much token is divisible.
4. totalSupply() returns BigInteger: The function returns the total supply of the tokens
5. balanceOf(byte[] account) returns BigInteger: The function returns the account balance.
6. transfer(byte[] from to, BigInteger amount): The function returns the number of tokens transferred from one address to another.

NEO NEP Types

NEP has types. Yes, you read it right. It has three types. Let’s list them below.

1. Standard: The standard NEP is used to describe any changes that affect all or most NEO implementations. It includes changes such as in-network protocol, transaction validity rules, and so on.
2. Informational: The informational NEP is used to describe the NEO design issue. It is also used for general information or guidelines sharing.
3. Meta: The Meta NEP is used to describe a process for a change proposal or an event regarding it.

Meet NEP8 NEO Token

If you are into the NEO blockchain ecosystem, you might have heard about NEP-8. It might sound somewhat similar due to the naming convention, but it should not be confused with it.

NEP8’s purpose is to provide stack isolation for NeoVM. It aims to offer dynamic invocations security and also provide support for any new features in the future.

NEP8 vs NEP5

This means that NEP8 is different and serves different functionality when compared to NEP5.

Currently, NEP-8 is not live and is not deployed on mainnet. It has been in active development and is in test mode where the proposal is still in works. It is just a proposal and is not definite until now.

Do we need NEP5 Tokens?

When it comes to crypto, the first thing that comes to mind is the different technologies that we have in the market right now. It all started with Bitcoin which first utilized blockchain technology. It is also known as the first generation blockchain technology. After that, we saw the birth of the 2nd generation of blockchain technologies, i.e., Ethereum, LiteCoin, etc.

Then came NEO. NEO provides a smart economy that empowers developers to create dApps using smart contracts.

To make NEO work, NEP5 is created. It is necessary to understand that without proper standardization, tokens will not work or work erratically without any foundation or guidelines. This makes it necessary for the NEO developers to release a standard which is now known as NEP5.

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What Makes NEP-5 Special?

NEP5 is special, and we can concur about it from the fact that they make the NEO ecosystem work flawlessly. They contribute to the NEO ecosystem and bring it to the levels of what the Ethereum ecosystem has to offer. Also, the NEP5 token doesn’t breed competition. It aims to make the NEO platform stronger by encouraging developers to create more NEP5 tokens and run them on the platform. This means that it fuels innovation and also thrives on providing value to the developers and as well as the token holders.

NEP5 standard not only ensures that the quality of the NEP- tokens but also makes it easier for other exchanges to interact with them.

NEP5 NEO Tokens at Work

The NEP5 standard also helps ease of transfer for NEO tokens.

Let’s go through how it works. First of all, we need to have NEP5 tokens in your NEO public address. Both NEO and NEP5 are part of the NEO wallet.

Now, if a wallet holder sends the token to your public address, it will automatically show on the NEO blockchain. You can also track the tokens through neotracker.io or other tracking services. In short, it is easy to send, track and receive NEP5 tokens. They can also be transferred to new wallets or exchanges that support NEP5 token.

NEP5 Wallets

NEP5 tokens can also be stored in wallets. As it is a decentralized ecosystem, you have to store your tokens yourself. For this, you can use wallets that are available for free. These wallets are 100% secure. However, never share the private key of your wallets with anyone. If you do, your NEP5 token list will get stolen.

1. NEON wallet: It is one of the popular NEP5 wallets you can get. It stores receive and send NEO-powered tokens. Also, it supports automatic GAS generation which is distributed on a daily basis. All you need to log in and claim is by clicking a simple button. NEON wallet is open-source and is available for Windows, Linux, and MACOS.
2. NEO Tracker:  A web-based wallet that supports NEO and other NEP5 NEO tokens. It can also be used offline and supports GAS as well. You can also search transactions utilizing the blockchain explorer.
3. NEO Wallet: A web-based NEO wallet that offers features such as create, restore and import private keys. You can also add contacts and a backup wallet. All of these can be done through the web-based interface.

You can use NEO Explorer to find different NEO address! Other than these, you can also use hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano S.

Also Check: EOS Vs NEO: The Strongest Competitors Of Ethereum

How Is It Different from ERC 20? (NEP5 vs. ERC20) or NEO vs Ethereum

Until now, we discussed the resemblance of NEP5 tokens to ERC20. They offer similar kinds of functionality and purpose to each other. There are some key differences between ERC20 and NEP5 tokens. Also, NEP-5 token projects are not common when compared to ERC 20 projects. For a better understanding, you can read this article — what is ERC20?

Costs

One of the most significant reasons behind it is the costs associated with developing NEP5 tokens.

To get a better picture, let’s discuss the cost it takes to deploy an ERC-20 token onto the Ethereum ecosystem.  To deploy an ERC-20 token, a developer or an organization only needs 32,000 gas. Gas is a way of calculating the cost of making a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. If we calculate the cost of 32,000 gas with the current prices, an ERC-20 token project can only cost a maximum of 5$. Yes, you read it right. It is super cheap to get your token live on the Ethereum blockchain, keeping the development cost separate.

When it comes to NEO, it is an entirely different story. The cost of deploying smart contracts is calculated in GAS. NEO is powered by GAS and is also native to the platform. However, as we said, it cost a lot. To be exact, it cost 500 GAS to make NEP5 token live on the NEO blockchain. The price of GAS is hovering around $10 at the time of writing. If we calculate correctly, it will cost $5000 to get your project live.

That’s a lot! Also, the price of GAS fluctuates which means that it can cost anything from the range of $5000 to $10,000 or even more. At the peak, the price of GAS reached an astounding $85. That’s too much!

Also, there is no guarantee that the projects will be a success which leads to too much risk for NEP5 developers. However, it also has a positive side associated with it.

1. Only quality projects go through, and developers reflect upon their project before even starting to work on it.
2. Developers continue to work on their projects after deployment.
3. There are no spam projects in the NEO ecosystem.
4. Less and useful projects mean that the NEO blockchain always performs optimally without the possibility of congestion.

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Development Flexibility

When it comes to development, NEO provides a better ecosystem for the developers. The number one reason behind it is that there is no language dependency for creating NEP5 tokens, smart contracts or dApps that run on the NEO blockchain. When it comes to Ethereum, the developer needs to learn Solidity, their proprietary language.

Solidity is a new programming language and is created only to work for the Ethereum blockchain. Not many people know about it or have the expertise to develop Ethereum dApps and smart contracts. This makes it hard to hire talent in the market.

This brings two benefits to the NEO blockchain.

1. Any developer can get started with the development without the need to learn a new programming language.
2. NEO provides better customization and handling due to programming language flexibility.

Consensus Model

DAO hack on Ethereum blockchain was historically one of the biggest hacks in the history of cryptocurrency. Technically, when the hack happened, a major part of the community wanted to reverse the changes, whereas the other half wanted to flow as-is with no changes to the blockchain. This led to the hard fork which in turn give birth to Ethereum Classic (ETC). ETC is the same Ethereum blockchain before the DAO hack took place. ETH carried on with new changes and fixes so that it doesn’t have to go through the same problem again.

NEO, on the other hand, have a better consensus method to combat similar situations. It uses the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT) model. This consensus method is drafted in such a way that it prevents similar forks for the NEO blockchain and ensures that in case of a dispute, the new changes can be made without need of a fork. In short, it is more stable and has an upgrade path built in from the start.

Read More: NEO vs Ethereum: Which is Better?

Quantum Computer Proof

Security is one of the big reasons why we use blockchain. It is comparatively secure compared to other technologies out there. Blockchain also provides transparency, integrity and a way to transfer funds efficiently.

However, Ethereum is still vulnerable to quantum computing. The cryptographic algorithms used by Ethereum are not protected from what quantum computers have to offer. This means that these powerful computers can easily make decrypt private keys.

In the case of NEO, it is quantum-ready. When the quantum computers come, the NEO blockchain will ready to adapt to its the decryption processing power that they have to offer. However, that doesn’t mean Ethereum will perish. Their developers would update the cryptographic algorithm when the times comes. But, now NEO has the advantage and is ready for the future.

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Promising NEP5 Powered Projects

As you might have understood by now, NEO provides a platform where projects can thrive to their maximum potential. In Fact, the number of projects has grown in the past two months or so. To get a grasp NEP5 potential and NEO blockchain, we will now discuss the most promising NEP5 powered projects right now. So, without any delay, let’s get started.

Promising NEP5 Token List

 

Name	NEP5 Token	About The Project	Usage
Ontology	ONT	Ontology project is all about building a trust ecosystem that thrives on integrated, distributed and diverse network.	Can be used in many ways including authorization, verification, data exchange and much more.
DeepBrainChain	DBC	DeepBrainChain is an AI computing platform running on a blockchain.	Provide a decentralized, cost-effective, safe and secure AI computing platform
NEX	NEX	A decentralized exchange and payment platform built on top of the NEO blockchain.	Enables easy trading of NEP5 tokens. It will also facilitate transactions between cross blockchain technology such as Ethereum and NEO.
Zeppin	ZPT	Zeppin is a decentralized platform for creatives.	With Zeppin, creatives can efficiently distribute their work, get recognition and also provide cross-border payments.
THEKEY	TKY	THEKEY is an identity verification tool that utilizes blockchain along with big data.	Helps governments and other organization to authorize individuals and their records quickly and efficiently.
The Effect Network	EFX	The Effect Network is a decentralized network for artificial intelligence.	Provides AI projects to run in a decentralized form, offering a cheap alternative to centralized ecosystems.
Moonlight	Moonlight Lux	Moonlight offers a complete end-to-end project management platform on the blockchain.	Empower organizations to take advantage of the platform and, also provide gigs and liquidity.
Asura Coin	ASA	Asura Coin provides an eSports ecosystem that provides self-growth and empowerment.	Enables players, teams, managers, investors and other entity related to gaming to take advantage of a decentralized platform.
iMusify	IMU	A decentralized platform for music creators.	By using the platform, music creators can share their music with the world and earn full profits without the need of the middle-man.

Ontology

Ontology offers a trust ecosystem on the NEO blockchain. It is all about providing a diverse, distributed and integrated trust network to the users. This means that it supports different blockchains and IT structures. To make it possible, it uses protocols that ensure that basic functionalities such as digital identifies verification, authorization, data exchange, and others run without the need for any centralized authority.

Also, when you bring trust to the network, it automatically enables organizations and corporations to focus on the most important thing in their business, i.e., operations.

Ontology takes full advantage of what NEO blockchain has to offer. In fact, Ontology is deeply connected with NEO. The Onchain is currently developing the ontology. It is a Chinese development company. Not only that, the Ontology chief architect is no other than Li Jun Js. All-in-all, this adds considerable credibility to what they are trying to achieve as we all know that the team behind the project is capable.

Technically, it offers ONT blockchain frameworks, ONT Interaction protocol, and ONT blockchains. All these, when combined, are known as Ontology Infrastructure.

Key Features Worth Highlighting

• Offers distributed trust collaboration
• It is a high-performance blockchain project
• Complete customization support for different blockchain applications
• It Offers various protocols and modules such as ONT ID, ONT Data, and ONT Scores.
• Works in different scenarios such as distributed data exchange, identity systems, and much more.

Read More: Benefits of NEO – Much More Than Smart Economy

DeepBrain Chain (DBC)

DeepBrain Chain is an extremely promising platform. In fact, it is the first AI computing platform that utilizes blockchain to its advantage. It aims to build a platform that completely changes how artificial intelligence computing works. To do so, they are aiming to provide a safe, flexible, low-cost, and decentralized artificial intelligence computing platform.

The platform, on the other hand, will make it easy to run AI projects and products.

Right now, companies have to invest a lot regarding computing power and resources to make their computations. The process is unforgiving and can take a lot of time. Not to mention, to solve a problem, an AI enthusiast generally has to do repeated calculations to get the desired results.

This is where DeepBrain Chain comes in. They are providing an efficient and cost-effective way to provide AI computing power to the users. To reduce the price, they are going to use a unique business model. According to the business model used by them, the company or organization that wishes to use their service only needs to pay 30% of the costs. The node will manage the rest 70% of the cost through mining.

The nodes will be a significant part of the blockchain. They will be mainly used in their decentralized neural network where each node has a role to play. For the algorithms to be tested on the nodes, DeepBrain will be going to pay using the DBC native token. The DBC token is built using the NEO’s smart contracts. It also uses a hybrid consensus mechanism comprised of POI and DPOS.

Interesting, right? They will also take active participation in providing a decentralized trading platform. It will be completely safe to use the trading platform. Also, it will offer new features thanks to its AI-powered blockchain.

Key Features Worth Highlighting

• Secure and low cost
• Offers great privacy protection
• Offers a great platform for AI projects to explore and take advantage of.

Also Check: Are Blockchain And AI A Perfect Combination?

NEX

NEX is the third project that we are going to discuss on the list of NEP-5 promising projects that are already released. NEX is an exchange and payment platform that takes advantage of the NEO blockchain and is developed by none other than the City of Zion (CoZ). It made a lot of buzz and hype.

NEX unique selling point is its ability to provide a simple trading platform and also offer complex transactions. It leverages the decentralized nature of NEO and also providing speed and security to the users.

Behind the scenes, it utilizes the off-chain matching engine. The engine makes proper use of the blockchain features and makes it easy for the NEX to handle faster and complex transactions across multiple blockchains such as Ethereum and NEO.

NEX can also handle a significant amount of volume and provide verifiable transactions across blockchain technology. It also offers a payment service. The payment system works by providing the third-party smart contracts to send and receive assets on NEO platform. In compensation, they get GAS and NEO for the computation required to make the transaction successful.

Last, but not least, NEX also provides NEX wallet extension. This extension makes it easy for seamless coordination between dApps, websites, and NEX.

Key Features Worth Highlighting

• High volume and complex trades supported
• Provides payment service
• NEX wallet extension
• Supports Cross-chain trading

Zeepin

Zeepin provides a distributed economy for the creative industry. It is a dedicated ecosystem that is trying to solve the problem that current people go through in the current industry. Zeepin is providing creative industries to take advantage of what Zeepin has to offer, i.e., protection, connection, recognition, and that too unbiased.

The idea is built around decentralization and wants to make it more efficient for the creative industry to make cross-border payment seamless. If you see, many project creators work across the borders. It takes a lot of time to get paid. This delay can cost a lot when clustered together.

Other than acting as a payment system it also provides creators copyright features. This means that anyone can copyright their work on the blockchain and get a certificate for it. It also makes it easy for creative industries to find connection and encourage individuals to take on diverse projects which were beyond their reach earlier.

Also, to facilitate talent and creative work, Zeepin also provides a way to host your own crowdfunds, all on top of the blockchain. Other key features include talent recruit.

To build trust among parties, Zeepin utilizes smart contracts which are created by following NEP-5 standards. It automates profits and distributes them according to the agreement of the smart contracts. In short, it can be used by anyone who has a creative endeavor. For example, it can be used by writers, artists, architects, designers, and performers.

Key Features Worth Highlighting

• Supports cross-border payments
• Supports copyright
• Empower good projects so that they can raise funds

THEKEY

The last project that we are going to discuss is THEKEY. THEKEY is an identification verification tool (IDV) that works on top of the blockchain. It uses many blockchain related techniques including the blockchain-based dynamic multidimensional identification (BDMI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The BDMI uses PII which is made available and authorized by government officials.

So, what does it all mean? In short, it is an identification and verification tool which utilizes blockchain and national big-data technology.

So, what’s unique in this project? It is the data stored or retrieved using THEKEY is entirely trustable. It can neither be altered nor denied. THEKEY is completely backed up by the government and is built using the national database. Hence, it leads to better reliable results. Officials will have an easier time finding information. Also, the search will be more accurate, comprehensive, and dependable in every possible way. Individuals can also gain from this type of system and will need not wait for retrieving valuable data.

THEKEY also benefits from lower costs as it is fast and avoids duplicate work. It also bypasses data collection, authentication, and processing. It also provides an excellent user experience as users don’t have to rely on any software solution. Once their identity is stored, it can be accessed anytime from anywhere.

We have included THEKEY in the list of the promising NEP-5 projects because it shows real-world implementation.

THEKEY project is big. Until now, 210 million peoples’ data have been gathered and stored on the blockchain by the government authorities which provides real-time access.

Key Features Worth Highlighting

• Low cost
• Fast and reliable
• Government-backed data stored in the blockchain
• 100% trustable.
• Great user experience

The Effect Network (EFX)

Just like Deep Brain Chain (DBC), The Effect Network is also a decentralized network for artificial intelligence. However, it is not entirely similar to DBC. It is mainly driven to offer services in the artificial intelligence market by using the decentralized and open nature of the NEO platform. The EFX will provide an ecosystem that offers 3 phases. It does it by giving a low barrier to entry, zero fees, and fast growth. It is, of course, fueled by the NEP5 tokens and will change how AI and humans interact with each other.

Moonlight

Moonlight is yet another promising project that aims to provide a platform that is completely decentralized and also offers end-to-end project management. It is built on top of NEO blockchain. The main aim is to improve the marketplace by providing interesting gigs and liquidity. It also provides a trustless resume that automatically adds tasks when a user completes a task.

Asura Coin (ASA)

Asura Coin is a NEP-5 powered token that fuels the Asura World platform. It is an eSports ecosystem that is self-sustained and extremely promising. The Asura Coin is the center point of the whole system which makes the transactions possible. It incentivizes actions for eSports community development and brings gaming to the masses. It provides a competitive platform where teams, managers, and sponsors can thrive and build a better eSports experience for everyone.

iMusify (IMU)

iMusify is a music-related platform that is built on the blockchain. As usual, it is decentralized and provides content creators to share their music with the world. It gives power to the music creator by removing the middle-man and also providing users a way to access music directly through blockchain. It is creating a social media platform that delivers value rather than exploitation of a user’s data and Ad system.

Read More: NEO dApps Ecosystem: Complete List of NEO Decentralized Blockchain Applications

Ultimate NEO NEP5 Tokens List

Name	Token	About The Project
NEX	NEX	A decentralized exchange and payment platform.
Switcheo	SWTH	A multi-chain decentralized exchange.
Alphelion	APH	A P2P trading and exchange platform.
Loopring	LRN	A new decentralized token exchange which uses new crypto trading standards.
Spotcoin	SPOT	Spotcoin is over-the-counter clearing house between fiat and cryptocurrency.
Alcehmint	SDT	Alchemint aims to provide fiat-pegged cryptocurrency with a stable price.
Asura Coin	ASA	Asura Coin provides an eSports ecosystem that fuels self-growth and empowerment.
ForTheWin	FTW	ForTheWin is a blockchain-powered online gambling platform.
EXCHAIN	EXT	A decentralized advertising blockchain platform.
THEKEY	TKY	THEKEY is a blockchain identification verification tool that creates secure identities.
BRIDGE	TOLL	Bridge improves verification assurance and reduces legal costs for individuals and ICOs.
PikcioChain	PKC	PikcioChain is a secure blockchain based exchange that protects personal data.
Ontology	ONT	Ontology is building a trust collaboration ecosystem that thrives on a distributed network.
DeepBrainChain	DBC	DeepBrainChain is an AI computing platform running on a blockchain.
NOS	NOS	NOS provides a transparent internet with the help of the virtual operating system.
Senno	SENNO	Senno is a blockchain based decentralized sentiment analysis and crowd-based ecosystem.
NeoNameService	NNC	A decentralized domain name service.
Trinity	TNC	Trinity Network Credit is a universal off-chain scaling solution.
NKN	NKN	NKN is a decentralized, shared network connectivity protocol.
QLINK	QLC	Qlink is an open source blockchain telecom infrastructure and mobile network.
Red Pulse	RPX	Red Pulse is a China-based research platform that aims to incentivize innovation.
Moonlight	LUX	Moonlight is a blockchain powered smart economy workforce platform.
Alphacat	ACAT	Alphacat is a decentralized AI-powered marketplace.
Travala	AVA	Travala is a decentralized travel booking platform.
Quarteri	PROQ	A decentralized real-estate platform.
Thor	THOR	THOR is a decentralized gig economy.
Zeepin	ZPT	Zeepin is a decentralized platform for creatives.
Galaxy	GALA	GALA is a decentralized app that enables content creators to explore creativity.
iMusify	IMU	iMusify is a decentralized platform for music creators.
Endrosit	EDS	A futuristic content distribution ecosystem.
Narrative	NRVE	Narrative is a social media platform that is building the content economy.
Wowbit	WWB	A service platform that is trying to create value using Wowoo tokens.
Phantasma	SOUL	A next-generation blockchain platform for content distribution.
Coupit	COUP	Coupit is an affiliate platform on the blockchain.
Effect AI	EFX	Effect.AI is a decentralized platform for artificial intelligence.
Master Contract Token	MCT	A utility token adding value to the NEO smart economy.
Guardium	GDM	A decentralized emergency response network

Conclusion

NEO is an excellent blockchain platform and ecosystem. Individual elements such as NEP5 power it. Today’s we went through what NEP5 has to offer regarding value, functionality, projects, and much more! The NEP5 standard provides more value when compared to ERC20 as you have read it from the comparison of NEO vs. Ethereum. We have added quite a few NEP5 powered projects and also shared some upcoming promising projects with you.

So, what do you think about NEP5? Is it here to stay? Can it be improved? What are the promising NEP-5 NEO projects? Comment below and let us know.

If you want to get a better idea about blockchain fundamentals, make sure to check out the free blockchain course.

*Disclaimer:  The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. Do your own research!