NEO Controversy: Can We Trust the Ethereum of China?
- Like Ripple, NEO is quite centralized - the council manages almost 50% of all NEO tokens.

The Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term ecosystem is no stranger to controversy and drama. In keeping with this, the Chinese blockchain firm NEO has been attracting criticism of late because of the recent crash of one of its nodes.
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On March 3rd, one of the validator nodes of the decentralized project went offline, resulting in a network crash. NEO skeptics have been vocal on the subject.
Jameson Lopp, a developer at Casa, wasted no time in challenging NEO’s then $8 billion market cap, saying that the project is “not even fault tolerant to a single consensus node failing.”
And yet NEO still maintains an ~$8B valuation despite proof that it's not even fault tolerant to a single consensus node failing, much less tolerant to Byzantine actors... not sure if the market is irrational or just ignorant. https://t.co/QUPGDh2pUD
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) March 4, 2018
However, an explanatory statement was released by NEO’s R&D manager Malcom Lerider, in which he gave a high-level overview of the issue.
In a Medium post, Mr. Lerider wrote: “I call it an edge case because it requires a node being out of sync, going offline, then back online during consensus, and send ”change view” (because out of sync) when the consensus is already at a high iteration number (6 or more). Every time a view is changed, the view time is increased. This means that there is an increasing delay in each iteration to be able to receive all consensus messages. What we experienced yesterday is a combination of 1. Delay is too long, 2. Consensus messages being forwarded with priority but not received with priority (queued behind other messages). These will be fixed in an upcoming patch.”
He also pointed out a tweet of NEO developer City of Zion, arguing that the “system can handle nodes going down”.
$NEO Consensus mechanism (dBFT) continue to produce blocks even when CoZ Dev Chris Hager "kills" one consensus node.
— COZ (@coz_official) March 5, 2018
(NOTE: This was executed on a NEO private-network, there was no harm done to the NEO mainnet)https://t.co/t0yyO1qJ18
However, with rising concerns in the community, NEO’s founder Da Hongfei stepped up to explain the project’s consensus and the technicality of the recent issue.
Mr. Hongfei quickly refuted the reason of the crash put forth by Mr. Lerider. He wrote: "The delay is not out of the reason described by the statement of Malcolm Lerider in Discord, although he is NEO's Senior R&D Manager. His statement was then misused as evidence that 1 Consensus Node failure will bring down the NEO network. It is a ridiculous and ignorant accusation and can be debunked easily. The actual reason is more complicated and we were aware of this issue and had been working on it long before the recent delay happened."
He further explained the technicality of the issue: “One or even two Consensus Nodes going offline or colluding maliciously will not trigger this issue because dBFT tolerates "f" (in NEO's case f=2) faulty nodes given there are "3f+1" (in NEO's case 7) Consensus Nodes. We are pretty sure the block delay is caused by a corner case lying deep in NEO's p2p protocol implementation: in some unusual scenarios, Consensus Nodes disconnect from the networks temporarily but reconnect shortly after. In such scenarios block delay is observed. We had been testing fixes for weeks on testnet and it was planned to be deployed on Mainnet Mainnet A mainnnet is a term to describe the primary blockchain network that a cryptocurrency project will operate. The mainnet reflects the final product or stage of a cryptocurrency project that can be accessed and used by the general public. This means that cryptocurrency transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on blockchain.In contrast to mainnet networks exists testnets, which describe the state during which a blockchain protocol or network is not yet up and running on its full capacity. A testnet is used by programmers and developers to test and troubleshoot all aspects and features of a blockchain network before they are sure the system is secure and ready for the mainnet launch.How ICOs Help Sculpt the MainnetPrior to the mainnet of a blockchain is launched, project’s team will install an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), or other strategies to help levy funds and grow community support. Traditionally, collected funds injected into the project in a bid to develop the prototypes of the blockchain network that are then tested during the testnet phase. Migration onto the mainnet from the testnet is an act that must be undertaken with great care. Errors in this process can result in a partial or complete loss of funds from the network.The eventual mainnet launch is a key milestone in a cryptocurrency’s lifecycle. The launch of the mainnet signifies the moment that a cryptocurrency network is ready to begin acting as a system of value transmission, and has the potential to grow its adoption.Some of the most significant mainnet launches that occurred in 2018 include the Tron network and the EOS network. A mainnnet is a term to describe the primary blockchain network that a cryptocurrency project will operate. The mainnet reflects the final product or stage of a cryptocurrency project that can be accessed and used by the general public. This means that cryptocurrency transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on blockchain.In contrast to mainnet networks exists testnets, which describe the state during which a blockchain protocol or network is not yet up and running on its full capacity. A testnet is used by programmers and developers to test and troubleshoot all aspects and features of a blockchain network before they are sure the system is secure and ready for the mainnet launch.How ICOs Help Sculpt the MainnetPrior to the mainnet of a blockchain is launched, project’s team will install an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), or other strategies to help levy funds and grow community support. Traditionally, collected funds injected into the project in a bid to develop the prototypes of the blockchain network that are then tested during the testnet phase. Migration onto the mainnet from the testnet is an act that must be undertaken with great care. Errors in this process can result in a partial or complete loss of funds from the network.The eventual mainnet launch is a key milestone in a cryptocurrency’s lifecycle. The launch of the mainnet signifies the moment that a cryptocurrency network is ready to begin acting as a system of value transmission, and has the potential to grow its adoption.Some of the most significant mainnet launches that occurred in 2018 include the Tron network and the EOS network. Read this Term this week.”
Market Dynamics
The impact of the delay and downtime clearly reflects on NEO as well as GAS’s performance on the market. Both coins have taken a plunge in the last 7 days. NEO depreciated 22.8% in this period as its value went down from $142 to $108. GAS the token which fuels the network dipped from $44 to $32.


Despite the dip, NEO still is the 7th largest coin in the market, with a market capitalization of over $7 billion.
The Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term ecosystem is no stranger to controversy and drama. In keeping with this, the Chinese blockchain firm NEO has been attracting criticism of late because of the recent crash of one of its nodes.
Discover credible partners and premium clients at China’s leading finance event!
On March 3rd, one of the validator nodes of the decentralized project went offline, resulting in a network crash. NEO skeptics have been vocal on the subject.
Jameson Lopp, a developer at Casa, wasted no time in challenging NEO’s then $8 billion market cap, saying that the project is “not even fault tolerant to a single consensus node failing.”
And yet NEO still maintains an ~$8B valuation despite proof that it's not even fault tolerant to a single consensus node failing, much less tolerant to Byzantine actors... not sure if the market is irrational or just ignorant. https://t.co/QUPGDh2pUD
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) March 4, 2018
However, an explanatory statement was released by NEO’s R&D manager Malcom Lerider, in which he gave a high-level overview of the issue.
In a Medium post, Mr. Lerider wrote: “I call it an edge case because it requires a node being out of sync, going offline, then back online during consensus, and send ”change view” (because out of sync) when the consensus is already at a high iteration number (6 or more). Every time a view is changed, the view time is increased. This means that there is an increasing delay in each iteration to be able to receive all consensus messages. What we experienced yesterday is a combination of 1. Delay is too long, 2. Consensus messages being forwarded with priority but not received with priority (queued behind other messages). These will be fixed in an upcoming patch.”
He also pointed out a tweet of NEO developer City of Zion, arguing that the “system can handle nodes going down”.
$NEO Consensus mechanism (dBFT) continue to produce blocks even when CoZ Dev Chris Hager "kills" one consensus node.
— COZ (@coz_official) March 5, 2018
(NOTE: This was executed on a NEO private-network, there was no harm done to the NEO mainnet)https://t.co/t0yyO1qJ18
However, with rising concerns in the community, NEO’s founder Da Hongfei stepped up to explain the project’s consensus and the technicality of the recent issue.
Mr. Hongfei quickly refuted the reason of the crash put forth by Mr. Lerider. He wrote: "The delay is not out of the reason described by the statement of Malcolm Lerider in Discord, although he is NEO's Senior R&D Manager. His statement was then misused as evidence that 1 Consensus Node failure will bring down the NEO network. It is a ridiculous and ignorant accusation and can be debunked easily. The actual reason is more complicated and we were aware of this issue and had been working on it long before the recent delay happened."
He further explained the technicality of the issue: “One or even two Consensus Nodes going offline or colluding maliciously will not trigger this issue because dBFT tolerates "f" (in NEO's case f=2) faulty nodes given there are "3f+1" (in NEO's case 7) Consensus Nodes. We are pretty sure the block delay is caused by a corner case lying deep in NEO's p2p protocol implementation: in some unusual scenarios, Consensus Nodes disconnect from the networks temporarily but reconnect shortly after. In such scenarios block delay is observed. We had been testing fixes for weeks on testnet and it was planned to be deployed on Mainnet Mainnet A mainnnet is a term to describe the primary blockchain network that a cryptocurrency project will operate. The mainnet reflects the final product or stage of a cryptocurrency project that can be accessed and used by the general public. This means that cryptocurrency transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on blockchain.In contrast to mainnet networks exists testnets, which describe the state during which a blockchain protocol or network is not yet up and running on its full capacity. A testnet is used by programmers and developers to test and troubleshoot all aspects and features of a blockchain network before they are sure the system is secure and ready for the mainnet launch.How ICOs Help Sculpt the MainnetPrior to the mainnet of a blockchain is launched, project’s team will install an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), or other strategies to help levy funds and grow community support. Traditionally, collected funds injected into the project in a bid to develop the prototypes of the blockchain network that are then tested during the testnet phase. Migration onto the mainnet from the testnet is an act that must be undertaken with great care. Errors in this process can result in a partial or complete loss of funds from the network.The eventual mainnet launch is a key milestone in a cryptocurrency’s lifecycle. The launch of the mainnet signifies the moment that a cryptocurrency network is ready to begin acting as a system of value transmission, and has the potential to grow its adoption.Some of the most significant mainnet launches that occurred in 2018 include the Tron network and the EOS network. A mainnnet is a term to describe the primary blockchain network that a cryptocurrency project will operate. The mainnet reflects the final product or stage of a cryptocurrency project that can be accessed and used by the general public. This means that cryptocurrency transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on blockchain.In contrast to mainnet networks exists testnets, which describe the state during which a blockchain protocol or network is not yet up and running on its full capacity. A testnet is used by programmers and developers to test and troubleshoot all aspects and features of a blockchain network before they are sure the system is secure and ready for the mainnet launch.How ICOs Help Sculpt the MainnetPrior to the mainnet of a blockchain is launched, project’s team will install an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), or other strategies to help levy funds and grow community support. Traditionally, collected funds injected into the project in a bid to develop the prototypes of the blockchain network that are then tested during the testnet phase. Migration onto the mainnet from the testnet is an act that must be undertaken with great care. Errors in this process can result in a partial or complete loss of funds from the network.The eventual mainnet launch is a key milestone in a cryptocurrency’s lifecycle. The launch of the mainnet signifies the moment that a cryptocurrency network is ready to begin acting as a system of value transmission, and has the potential to grow its adoption.Some of the most significant mainnet launches that occurred in 2018 include the Tron network and the EOS network. Read this Term this week.”
Market Dynamics
The impact of the delay and downtime clearly reflects on NEO as well as GAS’s performance on the market. Both coins have taken a plunge in the last 7 days. NEO depreciated 22.8% in this period as its value went down from $142 to $108. GAS the token which fuels the network dipped from $44 to $32.


Despite the dip, NEO still is the 7th largest coin in the market, with a market capitalization of over $7 billion.