Neo, also called the Chinese Ethereum used to go by the name Antshares, wich aimed at the fact that the cryptocurrency supported smart contracts. The digital coin is very popular in China and the aim is to serve as a platform for, among others, large applications. Here are five reasons to or not to invest in NEO.

Smart contracts +

One of the upsides of Neo is the focus on smart contracts. There is a lot of interest in smart contracts because they offer a lot of advantages. You can see a smart contract as a contract with a set of programmed rules, that can be automatically performed. It's like a smart version of the normal contracts we know from insurance contracts or lease agreements, but because the rules in the contract can be performed automatically, things like the transactions can be performed more quickly.

Support from government and companies +

It might seem a bit contradictory that the digital currency is so popular in China, while China seems pretty anti crypto. The government banned a lot of crypto but seems to be interested in Neo. Before the ban was initialized, Neo founder Da Hongfei was apparently consulted and Hongfei seems to be very respected by government officials. It could even be possible that the cryptocurrency will eventually be fully backed by the Chinese governement. According to the People's Bank of China, Beijing would even be interested in creating their own Chinese cryptocoin. Besides, Neo is being backed by businesses, wich is a good sign for the coin to succeed.

Support for programming languages +

Neo differentiates itself a little from other cryptocurrencies, because it supports a lot more programming languages. This is important because it means that more companies can use the network of smart contracts in their own systems. The more companies start using Neo, the more the cryptocurrency will be generally accepted, wich is good for the value of the coin.

Chinese governement (threat) - ;

Although the Chinese government seems to be supporting Neo, the Chinese governmentsystem is very strict and the chance that regulations for cryptocurrencies, kills Neo still exists. If the government gets the idea that crypto is taking away power from the government, the chances of the government taking measures by banning crypto, increases. This would be one of the downsides for Neo.

Neo has no unique selling point - ;

Another downside for Neo is that, compared to other crypto's it's fairly unknown and doesn't really have anything exclusive that makes it different than others. To attract more people, the coin should have something that makes it such unique and better than other cryptocurrencies, that people are interested in the Chinese coin. Ofcourse the fact that Neo supports a lot of programming languages is a big plus, but the question is if this is enough.