Neo & On-ramp Payments

Recorded: May 26, 2023 Duration: 0:43:18

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Okay guys, yeah, thank you for joining us. I know you can all be on completely different time zones. So whatever time it is where you are, thanks for joining us. We do have our friends from
I'm Neo with us now. So yeah, we've got Dennis with us today. So we're very excited to have him. As I said, you can check out Alchemy Pay at Alchemy Pay.org. Yeah,
We have regular Twitter spaces where a Fiat crypto payment gateway providing services for developers on all kinds of blockchains, including NEO's blockchain. Hi Dennis, how are you doing today?
Hey everyone. Robert, yeah, we're doing quite well. Thanks for inviting us. Can you hear me well? Yeah, everything's worked out now. Yeah, thank you very much for joining us. Yes, it's a pleasure to have you guys. Yeah, so where are you joining us from today?
It's our Shanghai office, our main office. But of course we are quite distributed all over the world. Yeah, very happy to join. You guys always good to meet new people, new communities, great to meet alchemist
Yeah, well, it's a pleasure to have you guys here. You guys are very early starters in the in the whole game of blockchain and crypto. So yeah, you guys have been around for years now. Do you want to just introduce yourself a bit, Dennis?
because I know we did. We were going to have John, your colleague John on today, but he can make it so, yeah, perhaps just introduce yourself. Also tell us, you know, what you do for Neo now, how you got started with Neo, and then what you were doing perhaps before you joined Neo.
Sure, yep, John is a little bit busy today. He got something urgent to attend to. So I myself, I'm also the ecosystem growth department. It's like our business development department.
We look for new developers, new projects, new teams to join Neo ecosystem and build here myself before Neo I have a couple of years of experience in investment, I would say.
to help startups to raise capital, to do road shows here in China. So I think that experience translates well to what I'm doing here. What I'm doing here, I've been with Neo for about five years now.
Wow, yeah, that is a long time. Yeah, so you really are an OGN in the game then. So what do you do currently for Neo, your ecosystem growth growth? What does that mean? That means sort of partnerships or existing partnerships or building relationships with new partners. What is that?
Well, exactly that building partnerships with company like yours, like Alchemy, Alchemy Pay, but also any kind of partners really that could be wallets, exchanges.
But of course, the most important to us are teams, projects that can develop on Neo, usually those developer teams.
who build something like a game or a defy or an NFT project, you know, I reach out to them, invite them to build a Neo and tell them about advantages of our ecosystem, of our technology.
Yeah, that's what I do. They today just reaching out to new business and supporting existing business. Often they have some questions about
Neo, they would like me to connect them to our developers. I don't answer technical questions myself, but I can always connect them to write people. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Someone who connects the dots in the company perhaps in the project.
And also, yeah, when you talk about the infrastructure necessary for a blockchain, you know, this is what we're interested in. What we're excited about is being able to help you guys with the payment infrastructure so people can use
So, you know, fear crypto on ramps on their platforms that they're building on Neo blockchain and you so, so yeah, we're pleased to be part of the infrastructure. So tell us about the Neo project. So yeah, I mean, as you said, you've been there for five years. It's been around
Well, as long as I've been interested in crypto, what was the kind of mission behind the stars and what's the mission now? What's the kind of the overarching concepts behind Neo?
Well, our mission evolved over the years a little bit right. We've been around for so many years. The industry has changed. And when it just started, it was impossible to predict what it will evolve into what people will actually use.
So our mission is very broad, it's very bright because things change so fast, right? So our mission is just to make any asset digital or physical accessible by human beings and programs with minimized trust and permission.
So it may sound very abstract to make any asset available from the blockchain, but in reality it is and it can be from something as simple as a small, just fun meme coin to something more tangible.
you know, when projects start and they build something big and they have high capitalization, then it's something big built with help of blockchain because there are so many startups and entrepreneurs on the internet who have
good ideas and who have capabilities to build something but very often they don't have funding. They look for funding from ceiling besters but very often they don't have access to it and with help of blockchain, anything that
is capable, can raise capital and build something small first and if they're successful to build something bigger. So that's what blockchains have been very helpful with so far over this years and yeah we are happy that we
helped that a little bit as a part of the broader ecosystem of blockchains. Yeah, there are some competitors out there, right? People know about Ethereum and other guys. So we are kind of proud that
that we survived over all these years, been around. And there were some other projects that disappeared over the last years. We are still around. That's why we focus in our marketing, we focus on the world resilience, that's what we use in our consensus. - Yeah, you guys are the long term.
And yeah, we, you know, we have a good market capitalization right now and we have good technology. We have anything these developer teams need if they want to develop something or blockchain.
these smart contracts, the Oracles, we support different development languages. And what we call NIO is like everything in one place, all in one full stack.
All in one place. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I was going to ask that, you know, this is what makes it stand out from layer one block trends, you know, so that the developer-friendly language I suppose, tools, right? This is the thing. Support for the developers.
Yeah, that's correct. We support this popular languages like JavaScript, Python, what's the last one? C# as well. So this
And we were one of the first ones to do so. After that, there were some other competitors who also have that, but our tools are quite mature, battle tested by many developers. So that's something
that we didn't have. We support you know this widely used programming languages in our tools, but also we have other features like Oracle's decentralized storage, the main name service, all
in one location. So this is quite special, quite unique and makes it really easy to develop on one location. What do you mean like one location you mean like one dashboard or what's the client look at out of the user looking at?
Just in our ecosystem for example for other players there is Ethereum and there is Chainlink which are separate companies and if Chainlink
I think decides to stop working maybe not the serum but with Solana or something like that. They still have to communicate with each other.
We have a channel team to ensure the support. But we kind of have all just under our brand, I would say, in our community. So it's easy. And then on more technical level, which I understand less better and not
quite as well. They just can call each other and because there is some good integration between Neo and our orbitals.
features you offer and sectors that you focus on. Do you want to explain, I don't know if maybe this is a good one for you or this is a question I have with John, but technical features like DBFT consensus.
Do you not are you the guide to?
I can talk a little bit about that. It's easy, you know, basic levels.
We were one of the first blockchains to integrate that. So there are different consensus mechanisms back in the day Ethereum was using another one. I unfortunately forgot which one. But basically we were very early to use deep
BFT and also other and later other players like Cosmos started using that. So right now it's something like an industry standard, all the big guys but who are new, right? Who are newer than Ethereum? A lot of them use this
DFT, for example, Cosmos is so it's pretty well established. It just it means that so we have the nodes we have validators on Neo and one of the nodes proposes something they propose that there is
this kind of transaction, let's add it to blockchain. And then other have to agree, right? Other nodes have to agree that there's a correct transaction. So DBFT is just a way, a consensus, a way that a majority has to agree that these transactions
action doesn't do a double spend or doesn't spend some other people's money. So from high level it's a majority, right? A majority of those have to agree that this transaction is great. Yeah, I think it's two thirds.
majority. In fact, I'm just looking now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that must be that. So, and you know, the engineers calculated that it's not too many. If all nodes have to agree, then it will take too much time. Right. If less than two thirds have to agree, then it's
not as save. So this number is just right. So yeah, a lot of different elements and features that you guys have. Have you been doing in terms of like we've had a dip in the public interest around crypto?
the headlines, the news, the coverage, I think, during as the bare market or crypto winters gone on. How are you guys bringing about getting new users into ecosystem, new developers, making it accessible for end users as well?
Well, probably nothing special, just like everyone else is doing that right there. Some pretty established business models, pretty established that.
that everyone wants to use NFTs, there is DeFi and that's what we have. So for DeFi for DAX, we have our DAX which is called Flamingo Finance. Flamingo.finance is the address
So it's an AMM DAX. So people can trade the opa stockings there and also Bitcoin, Ethereum, Staking is available as well. And actually the APY is still quite good.
We have the NFT marketplace, near NFT marketplace goes, goes market, goes market.io, some unique NFTs there and transaction fees.
and not too high. So we have that cover. So your question was about how do we approach users right there. It's just it's about building a good product that everyone needs and everyone expects. So we have all these things on
Right now what we've learned before was a landing protocol like Ave or compound and actually we are building one right now look ourselves but another developer team from Korean our partners so they're working on that right now
and people will be able to stay near there or wrap to Bitcoin. And what about borrow and stuff? What about the community in terms of more of building your people thinking about?
neo more like as in publicity.
It's also a standard stuff. I would say we have marketing right, which is and else things that we have accomplished and we have our media platform called the
news today where you can find all the news about NIO and also we participate in conferences. We were on consensus, we were talking 2049 in the Singapore all the major events we go there.
And yeah, usually everyone who talks to us on those conferences, they're happy to see that, you know, we evolve and we thrive. We're a little bit out of spotlight.
the last couple of days, but anyone who learns about our ecosystem a little bit more is pleasantly surprised. You guys have been around for a long time. You guys have got the connections with just about everyone in the space and a lot of the original developers and the original people building a
lot of the block trains and the apps that we are using today. So yeah, I think you've had a big impact. You know, everyone knows NIO. Yeah, it's great to be working with you guys. Yeah. So what do you think the focus will be for NIO over the coming year?
Well, we observe the market and whenever anything new comes around, we just join the trend, right? No one knows what will be the next big thing.
The memes were all the rage recently and our meme platform is called... I think it's called News Army, or something like that.
called it meme to earn. It had quite a lot of users, some fun memes over there. And yeah, just by creating memes and if people vote for your memes, you get a little bit of the token.
So that's, yes, anything training that comes around will be happy to join the trend. But overall, what we are focused is continuing deliverance. So we have our story solution.
Coming about it's called NeoFs, Neo-Isle storage, decentralized. We are working on that. It will be easy to use. Right now it's more developer friendly.
But we are making it more user-friendly as well, something like draw box, right, where you just use your browser, install software to store your files in a cheaper way. So that's another thing.
that's coming about NeoFs. And that's good man. So yeah, I think it's a couple of things that they're working on. So I mean, I watched you guys, you know, update. So what was it? N3, right? So you
are now operating under the dual token, tokenomics or economic model. So how does that benefit?
people who are participating in, you know, on-chain governments, the governance and how do they, you know, benefit from these tokens. So the tokenomics is kind of the same what we always had. We did change
the tokenomics a little bit with Nino M3. We wore the first one and probably still one of the few that have that dual tokenomics. So on the Ethereum, when you pay for gas fees,
you just use Ethereum as well, right? But on Neo, we have Neo which is governance token and this token is listed everywhere of course right by NAMS, all the big changes and just holding
that Neo generates gas for you and then you can sell gas or you can use it for transactions. So it's two tokens, right? Two token model. Basically, we also have
Dennis, we can't hear you too clearly.
We got you.
Okay, where did you lose me? Is it connection?
I think you're going to explain about maybe the governance.
Okay, yeah, just let me know if my connection breaks down. So, yeah, sorry for that. So governance, yep, we have 21 nodes. So you need to vote on our governance governance
on that page you vote and after that your Neo generates gas for you. Actually the return is quite solid. It's around 8% per year, right? It's not bad and it's been like that for many years.
years now, you know, there was the yield farming craze, it kind of came and go a little bit hard to come to have that high yield sustainably. So it's quite cool that on the other you can have that. Very good. Yeah, very good. Okay. So
Yeah, we touched on it a little bit in terms of, but well, maybe not actually so the incentives for the ecosystem. I was going to talk with John a little bit about the Neo EcoBoost Fund, the $200 million fund.
to provide a sort of lifecycle support for ecosystem projects. Were you working on the eco-boost aspect of your projects?
Yes, I'm less involved into that less than John that that number. It's okay. Probably was at the top of the market, right?
But we have that and many of the projects that are on the NIO right now were supported.
by that fund back in the day and some of the projects that I mentioned earlier like Ghost Market, Flamingo Finance were supported from that fund and we have
this meme and if it's like a dodgery game also by that fund in a couple of other projects as well. Yeah I think I've seen the dodgeryft game. Yeah, a while back though. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a fun game. Yeah, yeah. I played it.
So you guys again, I mean, tell me what you are able to talk about. John was going to talk a little bit about the neon, sorry, the neon token and its utilities overall talking about 100 million, neon were generated at Genesis, right?
Is that right? And the foundation still maintains some of those, correct?
Yeah, it's 100 million and generated that genesis back in the day many years ago. Yeah, when was that? 2015 and when would it have been?
I would need to check, but yeah, I think about that because just our main net was generating blogs for seven, eight years. I also think around that. Yeah, it truly is an impressive history. Okay, so yeah, what do you think the major challenges have been over the last couple of years?
And what I guess, what do you think is, and in response to that, what do you also think is the bigger achievements over the last few years?
Right. Well, the market is a little bit more competitive than it used to be. But and there are solutions. Cosmos there is a cosmos SDK. And it's very easy to
launch your own blockchain right now. For many developer teams out there, it means you don't have to write your own code. Don't have to hire this very rare for blockchain developers. Now you can use just a software kit.
to launch your own chain and people are at the bottom. Roll ups these days that you will be able to have your own roll up. What's important to remember is that high enough blockchain has the system is not only a technology game but it's also a
Could you talk into the microphone? Maybe you're covering the microphone. It sounds like sometimes it breaks. Is it wide or it's fine now? Check check. Okay, maybe it has a break. Yeah, sorry for that. So it's a
competitive environment there and now it's easy to launch your own blockchain with some SDKs that are out there, maybe to launch your own roll up. But I think what's helpful for Neo is that we have this token, right, this market cap. And it means with that we can
support projects that would like to develop a new we can support partnerships with exchanges or with fiat like yours like alchemy pay so that's very important right we bring this economic
We have a great weight with us that helps us to survive and thrive in the next boom market as well. So that's very helpful. And for our biggest achievements, I would say,
Neo N3 that you mentioned it was a big change that probably was the biggest migration in history because it meant it's a new blockchain. So because N3 was so different from N2 we had to have a new Genesis blog, a new first blog right it started from a new
All assets were breached one to one. It was a lot of work right? It's still ongoing. So if any of people who listen to me right now, if you still have near on end two, you should migrate.
that on our main page near the RIG and just migrate. So in that case, your near will generate gas. What do we talk about? If you still have it on end to it, we'll not generate any gas. Okay. So yeah, definitely do that soon. Migrate your tokens. Of course, I'm sure most people have done that for now.
And I'm pretty sure Alchemist supports N3, our latest version. So right now if you use Alchemist to buy Neo, then you will have the latest version. Yes, you use Alchemist to pay. And this is by the way you can go to Alchemist.org to find out more about our projects as well.
That's very helpful. And so for our humans, Neo and three migration and the entry has these new features like decentralized storage, decentralized identity, integration,
it's Oracle and it just like faster in general so this is a pretty good achievement and yeah we're quite happy about that yeah yeah okay so yeah Dennis it's been great to have you thanks for stepping in and taking this space and
Yeah, do appreciate you joining us. You know, we said so if they go to neo.org They can find out more about you Twitter obviously your handle is neo underscore smart Sorry, what is it smart blockchain?
Smartie, that's right, yeah. And yeah, the N3 version is fantastic. The blockchain is brilliant and it's been around for a long time. You guys keep doing it, keep pushing forward in the space. So yeah,
Let's go one last question then. So, you know, after such a long sort of crypto winter so far, what do you think is going to be the capitalist for the next bull market or the next interest or the next catalyst? Sorry, the next catalyst for crypto
So as we go forward. Well, we have Bitcoin halving next year, right? That's always helpful. Every time it happens, I think a little bit before that it's
It's going to price going down, but after that it's bull market, right? And it's always helpful what the US does in terms of printing dollars. They were hesitant to print in the last
what is it? One and a half years. Everyone expects them and pretty much everyone thinks they will restart printing quite soon. Yeah, it might be a time for risk on us. It's again, you know, in terms of global
It's always an innovation, always something you do not expect. I won't tell that people would be trading NFTs on Bitcoin right now. Some people do that and the fees are quite high. So there is something new that we cannot even tell about. Yeah, that's what we tried to do.
that will be interesting to see as well.
I just wanted to add that we are really thankful to Alkameh for the integration. Guys like you always have unique communities and I think you are quite global, you accept
these payments from so many countries all over the world. So that's really cool. I'm pretty sure it means new people will be able to buy Neo that were not able to do that before. It's really cool. Yeah, yeah, making it accessible for everyone.
And thanks for having me as well. Thanks for this opportunity to share a little bit about me. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Okay. Thanks very much, Dennis. Thanks to the whole team at Neo. Thanks to my team as well at Alphie Pay.
check us out, alphemype.org and neo.org. It's been a pleasure. Until next time guys, thank you very much. All right, thank you everyone for joining. Bye bye.