NEO is a next generation smart economy platform (formerly Antshares) and China's first open source blockchain that was founded in 2014, is often known as the “Ethereum of China”. What is NEO? NEO uses a smart economy approach to implement its distributed network concept. Its main objective is to digitize assets using the decentralized network of blockchain technology and digital identity. Neo’s main aim is to be the distributed network for “smart economy”. As their website states: 'Digital Assets + Digital Identity + Smart Contract = Smart Economy.' Neo was developed by Shanghai-based blockchain R&D company “OnChain” and funded by two crowdsales: first crowdsale on October 2015 sold 17.5 million NEO tokens for $550,000 and the second crowdsale sold the remaining 22.5 million NEO tokens for $4.5 million. So why NEO? Asset digitization and identity on the NEO platform essentially creates a novel way for asset registration, issuance, and circulation. This means that tangible assets like real estate, company shares or even fiat money can be digitized and traded on the NEO network, thus giving rise to a whole new economy. Its digital identity system allows for integration between the platform and the real world economy. It has custom digital identity standards that enable the creation of electronic identity data for individuals, organizations and even entities. These electronic systems use multi-layered authentication models that include facial and voice recognition as well as fingerprints. All digital assets on the platform enjoy legal protection thanks to the use of digital certificates on its public blockchain. This, in turn, guarantees trust as the system offers an indelible and unalterable record of all entities’ holdings.
Bluzelle is a decentralized, scalable database service that aims to provide an effective data storage solution for the newly emerging blockchain ecosystem. It provides a solution to the scaling problems that developers of decentralized applications (dApps) face while using centralized infrastructure and traditional cloud-based databases. Bluzelle uses reliable ”swarm” technology, in which it stores tiny bits of data in groups of nodes or “swarms” which are distributed across the globe. Since this makes it independent of single data centres, Bluzelle’s scaling ability is limitless. Bluzelle adjusts the number of nodes and their location dynamically, reducing request time and improving overall performance. Bluzelle's swarm technology makes it extremely reliable as it redundantly stores pieces of data across the globe, eliminating a single point of failure. Since there are no data centres, Bluzelle’s resources are provided by network “producers”, who earn funds and pass on the savings to users. Bluzelle held an ICO from January to February 2018, selling 33% of its total supply of 500 million BLZ tokens and earning $19.5 million USD in the process. As of July 2018, Bluzelle has a circulating supply of about 183.02 million BLZ, with an individual price of $0.328 and consequently a market cap of around $60.25 million USD. The potential of an endlessly scalable storage service which is quick in its scaling, which is capable of storing any amount of data in a decentralized manner, is one that many investors may have an eye for. BLZ is still new and in its beginning stages, but its experienced team and excellent advisors work in its favour and are indicative of a bright future for the BLZ token. Investing in the token may not give high returns in a short period (since the cryptocurrency is so new and difficult to predict). So some more research is advised.