Qtum and NEO are both cryptocurrencies based in China. Designed to replace Ethereum, both coins are competing to take over as the leading smart contract platform. Although at the moment it seems that NEO is leading in the west, already building a name for themselves, with Qtum lagging behind. At the moment, finding discrepancies between the two currencies is hard, although NEO is a few steps ahead of Qtum. Keep reading as we’re going to do a detailed comparison between Qtum vs NEO coin.
NEO Review
NEO is one step ahead of Qtum in the race to become the leading smart contract platform, and there is one main reason for this. NEO discovered early on what their advantage over Ethereum could be. Where Ethereum forces developers to use their own native programming language in order to code smart contracts and DApps.
This means that the barrier for entry is very high, forcing a developer to learn a new language in order to contribute to the Ethereum community. By implementing C#, F#, Java, and more languages, NEO (and Qtum) have an advantage over the crypto giant.
With this advantage, NEO allows for their community to innovate much faster, and on a wider scale. The company is even planning to include more programming languages in the future.
NEO’s Digital Assets
NEO holds 2 different types of digital assets, private and global. Both are stored securely and transparently on the decentralized network. The first, private contract assets, are kept in private storage and can only be identified with a certain client or clients.
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And the second, global assets, are stored and recorded publicly, allowing the entire network of clients to identify them. Blockchain technology allows for these digital assets to be registered, traded, and circulated transparently.
You can also link these digital assets to physical assets if you choose.
NEO Token vs GAS
Holding NEO tokens is similar to holding shares in a company. By 2017, NEO distributed 100 million tokens, giving each token holder some network voting and management rights. Holding tokens allows users to vote on important blockchain decisions.
GAS, on the other hand, is a utility token. When a user uses the NEO network to store/ transfer tokens, they pay fees, and this (in the form of GAS) is used to pay bookkeeping services. By 2040, there will be an expected 100 million GAS tokens circulation.
NEO Wallets
For people who want to start investing in NEO, there is an array of wallet options available that are easy to both use and install. With both web and desktop versions available, there are a few different routes you can take, each with different benefits.
Here are a few of NEO’s available wallets along with some basic information.
NEO Wallet
The locally stored wallet was created by PeterLinX. This wallet is a light version, and allows a user to store, and receive both GAS and NEO. It can be used on Edge and Chrome and is available in Chinese and English.
Learn more: Best DASH Wallets on the market
NEO Tracker
This wallet is only available in English unfortunately for all those non-English speakers out there. This is an offline wallet and is not stored on a server.
OTCGO
On the other end of the spectrum, this wallet is a Chinese only wallet. This platform also doubles as an exchange.
Neon Wallet
This wallet was made by the City of Zion and is a good wallet for newbies. As the rest of the wallet, it can send and receive both GAS and NEO. Available for use on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Morpheus Wallet
This wallet is an English only platform. And uses recovery files, encrypted keys, or private keys for access. There will soon be a mobile version available for this wallet.
Qtum Review
Qtum was brought into existence in 2016 and is a hybrid version of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The ultimate goal of the project is to bring the best of both worlds together in one project, with some individual twists.
By combining the bitcoins UTXO model with Ethereum’s dApp model and adding that to a proof of stake model to conserve energy, Qtum aims to benefit business users the most.
Qtum’s Services
Since Qtum is aimed primarily at business users, the company has also integrated some key services to optimize the user experience for this particular group of people. This includes implementing oracles.
Learn more: Bitcoin.com Wallet for extra safety
Oracles are third party software, hardware, or human agents that can submit data to the blockchain, and monitor smart contracts. The reason oracles are used is to add another layer of security and customer trust and to strengthen the security of a smart contract.
Qtum also has a great mobile app that allows its users to manage smart contracts on the go. By using light clients to limit the amount of transaction history stored on the blockchain, it is possible for Qtum to allow its users to manage their smart contracts on mobile while keeping the computational power and speed the average user expects.
Qtum Wallets
Qtum offers a native wallet that is 100% mobile and has direct communication with the smart contracts on the network, but there are other options. Here are a few Qtum wallets to choose from:
Bitpie
If you want to manage a few currencies in one place, a good multi-currency wallet option that is also compatible with Qtum is the Bitpie wallet. With double-layered protection on this wallet (a 12-word phrase, as well as a pin code) it has a pretty thick security blanket. This wallet is a particular favorite of IOS users, as it works best on the iPhone.
Qtum Electrum Wallet
This is a desktop wallet that is available from the Qtum official website. It is possible to combine this wallet with a hardware wallet, which is ideal for the more security-oriented person wanting to use cold storage.
Qtum vs NEO Conclusion
If you’re familiar with crypto, you’re probably familiar with the Ledger Nano hardware wallet. This is the ideal and more secure way to keep your crypto as its cold storage and inaccessible by hackers.
Qtum and NEO are both promising projects, and will likely have bright futures. When choosing between the two, there are a few key differences to consider. Qtum is aimed at business users, where NEO is a more general use coin. Where NEO can be compared to Ethereum, Qtum is more a mix of the two biggest currencies; Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Qtum has implemented some great features like oracles and a mobile app to make their system easier to use, and NEO is currently allowing smart contracts and dApps to be coded using a variety of code languages which is accelerating the rate of innovation. Only time will tell which project manages to overtake Ethereum, if either.