NEO News: Week in Review – October 22nd to October 28th

NEO

Dutch telecom provider, KPN, was voted as a consensus node on the NEO MainNet. The addition of the KPN node represents an increase in decentralization for the NEO blockchain, reducing the number of consensus nodes currently controlled by the NEO Foundation to five. NEO Global Development (NGD) has stated that “NEO is scheduled to fully democratize the election of consensus nodes” in 2019.

NGD announced the winners of its NEO Creative Design Competition. Approximately 100 entries were submitted to the competition. The NEO Creative Design Competition called on the community to design a new website UI for neo.org, and create icons for individual elements of the NEO ecosystem, such as NeoContract, NeoVM and NeoID. The winners and their design submissions can be viewed at this link.

A range of NEO events were held across Europe, with a NEO Moscow meet up held on the 23rd, NEO St Petersburg meetup held on the 25th, NEO Berlin meetup held on the 26th and the NEO Berlin hackathon held on the 27th and 28th.

Ecosystem

Alchemint partnered with Qihoo 360, a Chinese cyber security company known for its antivirus software, web browser, and mobile application store. Qihoo 360 has recently begun working within the blockchain space, and recently discovered and reported a vulnerability in the EOS Node Remote Code Execution. Qihoo 360 will provide security for the Alchemint ecosystem and smart contracts.

Ontology opened the second round of its Triones consensus node candidate submissions, where 16 new nodes will be enlisted, bringing the total to 44 seed nodes. The first round of seed node selections ended on July 18th, 2018, where 28 nodes were admitted with a total of 14.39 million staked ONT tokens. The recruitment window for the second round of seed node applications will close on November 8th. 

Neon Exchange (NEX) hosted a “first birthday event” celebration in Amsterdam on Saturday, October 27th. Fabio Canesin, NEX founder, gave a presentation and participated in an AMA alongside chief design officer, Nathaniel Walpole. Attendees were encouraged to ask questions and tell the NEX team their “hopes and dreams and help us build the NEX Community!”

Aphelion updated its desktop platform to version 3.0.7, which includes improvements to UTXO transactions, refinements to withdrawals and deposits, a new backend application programming interface (API) for market statistics, and user interface (UI) improvements. Additionally, Aphelion added the following coins to its platform: ASA, AVA, CPX, TOLL, and EFX.

Aphelion also listed the Neon Exchange token (NEX), paired with NEO and APH for trading. Aphelion is the first exchange to list NEX, and although they have assured that they are “100% confident in our legal compliance,” there has been debate in the general community as to the legality of listing or trading NEX security tokens on the platform. The Aphelion exchange has entered its third week of MainNet operation, having launched on October 10th and recently surpassed US $100,000 in trade volume. 

For The Win (FTW) deployed its new smart contract on October 27th. Upon the launch of the smart contract, FTW conducted a 1:1 token swap from its existing “FTW” token to an upgraded “FTX” token, and began trustless OTC trading through its FTXchange smart contract on the NEO MainNet.

QLC Chain released its proposal for a community governance solution, and has divided its blockchain governance structure into two functions: technical and social. Moving forward, QLC Chain will focus on maintaining the legitimacy of the governance, determining who gets to vote, the weight of each stakeholder and voters, and legitimizing decisions made.

APEX Network announced the third and final wave of its KRATOS One special node rewards program. The snapshot for the third wave of KRATOS One is scheduled to take place at 6:00pm Beijing time (UTC +8) on Tuesday, October 30th. APEX has noted it is “likely that there will be additional special node program(s) before MainNet launch, of which details and format will be announced after KRATOS One concludes.”

nOS announced its public token sale will begin on Monday, October 29th, at 6:00 pm (UTC). Of the 30,000+ users who registered to participate in the token sale, 15,000 were selected randomly by lottery. The token sale will be comprised of two rounds. The first round will begin on October 29th, and conclude at 5:00 pm (UTC) on Thursday, November 1st. The second round is set to start immediately following the first. The USD value of NEO and ETH will be pegged to a 10-day Exponential Moving Average.

Phantasma Chain announced Soulink, a web extension that will allow users to earn privileges, rewards, and access enhanced privacy protection features. Sites that support the Soulink extension will enable users to purchase and participate in content whilst only providing the information that the extension provides. Private keys are kept secure and transaction data will not be leaked.

Ryu Coin released its bi-weekly report, which highlighted its promotional giveaway, ecosystem and product development, the private beta release of the Slime Soccer game, events attended, and partnerships developed.

Spotcoin announced it will strive to launch its exchange a year ahead of schedule, now tentatively planned to open as soon as mid-December of 2018. Tim Gick, CEO of Spotcoin, said “the exchange is central to our success. The early launch proves we are keeping our promises and living up to our own high standards.” Prior to the targeted mid-December beta launch, Spotcoin will run a closed, controlled alpha test of its exchange. Following the alpha test, Spotcoin will open registration for users to begin buying, selling, and trading SPOT tokens when the exchange is live.

Token Listings

Aphelion listed ASA, AVA, CPX, TOLL, EFX, and NEX.

Upcoming Events

November 3 & 4: NEO Blockchain Hackathon in Zürich, Switzerland.

November 6: NEO Colorado Meetup – Denver.

November 10: NEXT/NEOFANS Meetup – Hangzhou.