NEO
Deployment of neo-cli version 2.10.0 to the NEO TestNet consensus nodes began on March 18th. The update includes numerous changes designed to increase the stability and performance of the NEO blockchain. The most noteworthy changes are the inclusion of dBFT 2.0, an updated version of NEO’s consensus mechanism, and a set of memory pool performance improvements.
NEO supported the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan in holding a hackathon from March 21st through 23rd. The hackathon focused on creating dApps that have positive social contributions. NEO provided online tutorials and remote support. The winning teams may receive additional guidance from University professors to hep them further develop their ideas.
NNT Catch Up
NEO News Today published a recap of the inaugural NEO GameCon in Akhibara, Tokyo, held on March 9th and 10th. The conference was NEO’s first gaming-focused event and attracted more than 1,500 attendees over the two days. Speakers included NEO leadership such as Da Hongfei, Erik Zhang, and Johnson Zhao; celebrities such as pop group 9nine, and TV show hosts from Tsukuriba; and ecosystem projects such as O3, MagicCube, and NEOLAND.
NEO News Today’s Colin Closser conducted an interview with Red Pulse CEO, Jonathan Ha, to discuss the company’s growth. The platform, which has been live for half a year, has close to 250 freelance contributors sharing insights on China’s markets and getting paid in the PHX token.
Asura Coin is holding a six-week competition, which began Monday, March 18th. At the beginning of each week, Asura aims to announce a Telegram game for participants to play and compete for prizes. Participants with the three highest scores at the end of each week will receive GAS tokens as a reward.
Splyse released an updated non-fungible token smart contract template. The contract template is an example that follows the NFT standard submitted by Splyse as a NEO Enhancement Proposal. This token standard proposal has been marked as accepted and is now pending finalization.
Developer Groups
COZ board member, Chris Hager, is conducting a NEO workshop at the ANON Blockchain Summit in Vienna, Austria on April 2nd. The workshop is titled “Deep dive into the NEO blockchain” and will follow a similar format to the workshop provided at NEO DevCon 2019. Students can expect to learn about the architecture of the NEO blockchain and its features, including the dBFT consensus protocol, block generation, and the NeoVM.
NewEconoLabs released its first bi-weekly report for March. Among the updates were a preview of its new NEO Name Service domain exchange and its Teemo browser extension wallet. Other progress included NEO node optimisation enhancements and contributions to the NEO dAPI standard.
Ecosystem
March 18th, Bridge Protocol announced it had received approval to list the Bridge Passport extension in the Google Chrome Web Store. The Bridge Passport allows users to manage KYC/AML information for personal verification and compliance. In conjunction with the release of the Bridge Passport, the team has also open-sourced the Bridge Passport Browser Extension on its GitHub page. Bridge recently launched its new smart contract and accompanying NEP-8 compliant token.
March 18th, Red Pulse announced the rollout of Red Pulse Professional content samples for the platform’s free users. Red Pulse Professional is intended to provide actionable and timely intelligence to guide banks, brokerages, and asset managers who are operating in Chinese financial and capital markets. Red Pulse also announced custom newsletters for its Professional users, and the opportunity for Red Pulse research contributors to earn double PHX rewards.
March 18th, Alphacat published its bi-weekly report, which highlighted new apps in the ACAT store and improvements to its forecasting engine.
March 18th, nOS updated its client to v0.5.2, which included numerous bug fixes and an overhaul of the login/register system. nOS also announced the integration of Scatter, a wallet and development suite for building dApps on various smart contract platforms. Lastly, NOS was added to the BitMart exchange and paired with BTC.
March 19th, NEO Economy adapted its portfolio viewer and app store to function within the nOS virtual operating system. The users nOS wallet automatically connects to NEO Economy dApps when visited through the nOS browser, preventing users from having to expose their private key.
March 19th, Travala launched its crowdfunding campaign, its SMART discounts and loyalty program, and began an AVA trading competition following its listing on BitMart. Travala is seeking US $3.5 million in funding via traditional Series A round. Under a traditional equity-based model, 4.05% of the total newly established shares are available for crowdfunding access. Travala’s SMART discount and loyalty program offers up to a combined 10% of rewards, divided into two tranches of 5%.
March 20th, For The Win (FTW) integrated its lottery and raffle game service into the nOS platform. Users with a nOS account can access the games directly from within the nOS application. Looking forward, FTW aims to host raffle events with CNEO for reward distribution.
March 20th, QLC Chain will launch its MainNet on March 31st. Additionally, the platform will be launching its first application, the Global SMS Billing Platform through its partnership with Montnets Group.
March 21st, Switcheo announced its upcoming “NEO V3” exchange smart contract, which includes an extensive list of new features to be “progressively rolled out” to the user base. Chief among the new features is atomic swaps, along with an ability to burn tokens cross-chain. Users will also be able to sweep their dust balances for SWTH tokens on the V3 smart contract.
March 23rd, Switcheo updated its listing policy to better protect users and increase liquidity. Current and future token listings must pass a list of criteria surrounding the liquidity and utility of the token.
Token Listings
Bridge Protocol (BRDG) listed on Switcheo.
Travala (AVA) listed on BitMart.
Events
March 27th: NEO Colorado meetup – Denver
April 2nd: NEO developer workshop – Vienna
April 8th – 10th: NEO developer workshop – Zürich
About The Author: Dylan Grabowski
Dylan is a reformed urban planner with a passion for covering the Neo ecosystem. His objective as a writer for Neo News Today is to report news in an objective, fact-based, non-sensational manner. When not behind a computer screen, he can be found in the mountains rock climbing. Find Dylan on Twitter (@GrabowskiDylan).
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