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By Adolph Obasogie
02 March 2023

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Blockchains are counted among the relatively new inventions that the world has seen in the sphere of technology as the digital age matures. So, when mention is made of cryptocurrency, many people think only of Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, to the keen observer, the present ecosystem of many cryptocurrencies can be considered to be on par. Spin-offs of the Bitcoin blockchain operate just like the parent platform. Same goes for projects hosted on the Ethereum blockchain. There are others that are not exactly like the two platforms mentioned so far, and the NEO blockchain seems to be in a class of its own.

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How does GAS work?

It would be out of place to talk about GAS without an understanding of the NEO blockchain. NEO first existed as AntShares when it was announced to the world in 2014. NEO is reputed as China’s leading blockchain, and on this platform, transactions are powered by GAS. In terms of algorithm, NEO operates on the Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm (dBFT), and this is an improvement on the Ethereum proof of stake model. So, while NEO is an open source blockchain like Ethereum, it operates two native coins-NEO Coin and NEOGAS. GAS is used as a currency of reconciliation for all rights to NEO coin as well as the parameters that govern the ecosystem. With the NEO platform operating its native smart contract, whenever there is a transaction carried out, a ledger is created and verified by the blockchain with fees accounted for in GAS. Also, for any individual or company to run an app on NEO platform, any registration fee must be paid using GAS. In essence, while NEO COIN is the shareholding currency, GAS is the transactional currency. For very block mined, 8 GAS gets generated. As the NEO network grows, more GAS will be created until the fixed amount of 100 million is reached.
Who created GAS?
GAS owes its existence to the partnership of Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang. NEO got its name in 2017 when it was launched after the rebranding of AntShares. Zhang and Hingfei also co-founded the financial services company known as Onchain, and their quest is to provide blockchain platforms, insights, and solutions that can be used by government, corporate bodies, and stakeholders around the world. The founders operate out of Shanghai, and they have surged above the fray amid turbulent regulatory oversight by the Chinese government. By adopting a consultative approach to their dealings, they appeared to have gained the confidence of the Chinese government.

What are the pros and cons of GAS?

GAS like a few other cryptocurrencies regularly distribute dividends to holders. This is an attractive selling point that cannot be ignored. Beyond this, NEO certainly is highly regarded in the global cryptocurrency market. As long as NEO blockchain stays in business, GAS will be there to power its operations. NEO blockchain, with its smart contract functionality is gaining traction by the day. More dApps are finding their way to this platform, and this means higher usage capacity, which earns more transaction fees. This is helpful to the increasing popularity of GAS. GAS is however not fractionally distributed like bitcoin where you can get 0.0002 or less. Gas is limited to whole numbers, and the least unit anyone can hold is 1. The operations of the parent ecosystem, NEO is tied to China, and this can be a source of concern to some investors.

The future of GAS

As the alter ego of a domineering blockchain operator in an economy with more than 1 billion active users in the Asian market alone, GAS can be described as promising. With the plaudits that NEO has gained since its inception, it is safe to expect that its fortunes and that of GAS can only get better. Blockchains are making inroads into almost every facet of daily life, and for an ecosystem that is smart-contract compliant, only the upside looks tenable. For investors, the motivation to hold GAS is the recurrent distribution of gains to all holders and this is enviable. As long as users flock to the ecosystem, transaction fees will be generated, and the incentive to hold GAS will persist. In the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, GAS is among the few projects that seems to have an assured future.