Weiss Ratings make for an interesting talking point but they have little basis in reality. For those in the know – analysts with a proper grounding in cryptocurrency – NEO is a project that raises major red flags which no decorative award can mitigate. In general, Chinese cryptocurrency projects are more heavily centralized than those from the west, and NEO appears to be particularly guilty of this. This may change as more nodes are rolled out, but for now at least, NEO holds the keys to the castle.
One of the project’s more vocal critics is Store of Value blog, whose author has described NEO as “A Multi-Billion Dollar Disaster”. In a damning post, they outline their reasons for this pejorative, including the following:
Blockchain slowdown during popular ICOs, questioning NEO’s claim to be able to support 1,000 tps. A post named The Story Behind the Worst ICO of 2018 outlines the problems that beset The Key’s crowdsale.
Developer issues with getting smart contracts to work coupled with high deployment costs running into tens of thousands of dollars. Based on the current price of GAS, it would cost $15,000 to create a smart contract.
The other major issue affecting NEO is that its main use, at present, is as a springboard for ICOs. These projects need to prove themselves by adding real value and usability to the NEO ecosystem. If they can achieve that, and foster an interconnected framework of dapps, DEXes, protocols and off-chain solutions, NEO will prosper. If these projects fail to make an impact, however, or are constrained by issues affecting the blockchain, the entire ecosystem is at risk of failure.
Every blockchain has its technical problems to solve, and there is no reason why NEO can’t overcome its teething troubles and alleviate over-centralization concerns given time. Communication is not one of the team’s strong points, however, and while NEO muddles on in silence, the dissenting voices are getting louder.