What is NEX?
Today, cryptocurrencies are primarily traded on centralized exchanges where user funds are at risk to hackers and platform managers. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) allow users to retain control of their funds as trades are mediated by smart contracts on a blockchain. Unfortunately, today’s DEXs are slow, hard to use, and are restricted to trades on a single blockchain. Neon Exchange (NEX) is a new decentralized exchange that solves these problems, leveraging a high performance off-chain matching engine built with Elixir to handle massive order volume, allow cross-chain exchange, and support more complex trading APIs. Many people do not use DEXs because they cannot trade with their national currencies. NEX is the first DEX that will allow its clients to enter the exchange with fiat currencies such as USD, powered by a global network of licensed third parties.
Exchange services are critical not just for users of cryptocurrencies, but also for many other applications built upon blockchain technology. NEX envisions a vibrant ecosystem of web-based decentralized applications (dApps) running across public blockchains such as NEO, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. These applications require tools to interact with, make transactions upon, and send data across chains. To achieve this vision, NEX is developing the first cross-chain browser extension. Web applications can use this extension to collect payments for goods in any digital currency, make trades and transactions across blockchains, and interact with smart contracts across NEO and Ethereum. All of this cross-chain functionality is powered and made possible by the NEX off-chain matching engine.
NEX is issuing 50 million tokens to fund development and future expansion, of which 25 million will be sold to the public. NEX tokens are in the process of being registered as a security (first in Europe), and will provide holders with a share of all revenue generated by the exchange and related services. Revenue per user will be determined by the number of NEX tokens they hold and the length of time they commit to staking their tokens. The minimum fee share rate is 25%, increasing linearly to a maximum of 75% when tokens are staked for two years.