NEO is centralized
Hello everyone,
I'm often researching new coins to invest in, and NEO caught my eye, maybe because they copied part of my name. I've been using "Neoxian" back when NEO was just known as Antshares.
What I typically do is download the local wallet and purchase a modest amount of the coin, and start playing around with it and researching it.
One thing I'm trying to find out is if it's a real crypto-currency. And that means understanding it's consensus mechanism. Usually this is easy, Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, or some combination or variation.
NEO uses Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)
Hmm, well that's a new one. I won't even pretend that I understand how that works. I read somewhere that one could use their stake in NEO to vote on the consensus nodes (or bookkeepers) and I thought "cool! It sounds like Steem's Delegated Proof of Stake". But when I dug deeper, I found out that voting wasn't implemented.
I read this article:
http://storeofvalueblog.com/posts/how-centralized-is-neo/
It explains that NEO has seven fixed nodes that are selected by the NEO team.
Some choice quotes:
This was why I was so disappointed to find out that NEO was so incredibly centralized. Investing in NEO was akin to investing in a number in Da Hongfei’s personal database.
If any node goes offline, consensus cannot occur and the blockchain will effectively shut down.
Apparently that's just what happened on October and the whole chain went down for several hours.
Well that doesn't sound good at all. But maybe they will implement voting later?
Below is a blog post from City of Zion, an independant group of open source developers that work on NEO:
https://medium.com/proof-of-working/decentralization-from-coopetition-b10d7ce3b9d
One quote:
NEO will begin its decentralization by allowing well known commercial projects and communities to run consensus nodes
So, isn't this the exact opposite of decentralization? This is a central body allowing others to run consensus nodes.
Another quote:
All nominees for consensus nodes will go through a rigorous identification process before being voted in on MainNet. This process includes providing identification that can hold the owners of the consensus node host legally liable.
What? Really? So some central authority, probably a government will ID the consensus node runners and allow them to join the network. And they will be "legally liable"!
This is absolutely not a decentralized network. And not just because it is not implemented yet, but because the NEO team and City of Zion are adapting a philosophy of compliance, and catering to governments (the Chinese government).
To find all this out is very disappointing, I'll probably be exchanging my NEO for true decentralized crypto-currencies.
I like the way Steem does it. I'm a Steem witness, and I never had to identify myself. I never had to ask anyone's permission to run a Witness. I simply had to obtain votes from those with stake in the system.
This is how it should work.
Every other day new ICO being launched and who cares to read their in depth white paper. This really makes ponzi schemes to flourish.
Thank you so much letting us know that its centralized, because its very very important to know this particular factor before investing.
Thank you and Have a great day.
It certainly is more centralized by nature of proof of stake. That is also the reason it can process 10,000 transaction a second and far less energy needed then Proof of Work protocol. The Neo block chain is designed with enough compliance to be government and business friendly. More programming languages are supported so it will attract a wider demographic of programmers and end users. It will be the dominate platform in my opinion for business performed out in the light of day so to speak. There are places in the crypto universe better suited for privacy so just utilize whatever platform suits your needs. Ultimately I feel the book keepers should be randomly selected from the qualified pool using transparent algorithm that takes logistics and other basic criteria.
I think this is one form that is almost similar to steem .. but there are still many risks that will happen to the users if one day they close access to their site. @neoxian
I think you should consider holding some Neo as a long-term investment, because it has a lot of potential. The Neo team has tried to work with the Chinese government as it has developed its platform. While the Chinese government has been taking an anti-crypto stance in recent months, its history has been that when it allows businesses in China, it tends to favor Chinese companies whenever possible. I think blockchain technology is here to stay and it's hard to imagine the Chinese missing out on all its benefits. If China eventually greenlights the use of the technology in China and gives a license to Neo to operate exclusively in China, Neo's market cap could rival or exceed Ethereum's.
If I hold it, it's not because it's a cryptocurrency but it's just like holding a stock I think will go up like Apple.
Yes, exactly. Even if you don't use it, you have a chance to earn 10x your money while risking only x. It's a good asymmetric trade. If it works out, you sell and collect profits.
they need balance and gain certain lvl of gov support to continue. Just like when alibaba started.
The big difference is China can ban centralized services like facebook and youtube, but can not ban bitcoin. So there will be little favor to develop a private chain and hope it is free from competing with decentralized network like bitcoin
I am a Neo fan and have many friends who are fans too. But yes, the present centralization of the ecosystem is one of our main concern as well.
@neoxian,
I doubt NEO from day one! I think my guess was correct! If you say something fake, yeah it should be! I have that experience from your previous reviews!
Cheers~
Thank goodness! I thought i was the only one....
Neo is a goodbuy only bc it is one of the few coins china gov supports.
Like, ripple which is also centralized( oh wait it going to be decentralized one day hmm...) but is supported by the banks. But unlike neo which is used in their chain,what is the point of ripple. And no one gave me that answer yet. Banks use ripple tech but not the token so... yeah.
And fucking verge= privacy is a joke, hiding my ip is so going to help.
So sorry but had to rant. Some(most?) of new people in crypto these days don't know which are are actually good crypto.
I am a crypto noob. However I have a fair number of decades in and around the equity markets. So call me simple, but I learned a long time ago to not buy things I dont understand. One thing I do know is Steemit seems to work. I write a post, in 7 days I get paid in Steem type tokens that can be sold for fiat etc or reinvested here. I like it. Why folks are always looking for a new coin beats me LOL.
Mostly, I hope that the tokens from various ICO that have an actual business model will have different gains depending on the success of the objective. I really like the wepower token because I want to promote the green power movement. They intend on funding green energy production and once they can provide energy to customers, the customers can pay in tokens or fiat. Its far better then a stock and anybody can afford to buy some since you can own just a small fraction of a crypto compared to stocks
Thanks for this, you brought up some very interesting points.
Would love it if you would make a daily / biweekly coin brake-down .
You sure have more knowledge than most us ,so I'm all ears
Do we have anything resembling an official NEO response on this issue? So far the only person to have brought this up seems to be the author of the article that you cited. I would love to hear what the NEO team has to say about this before we go into spreading FUD about this project.
As far as I know, this situation has not improved. To be fair, I haven't checked. If you have news, rebuttals, or facts I'd be happy to hear them.