The process of decentralizing the NEO network has been initiated with the election of a City of Zion consensus node onto the NEO MainNet.
City of Zion is an independent group of open source developers, translators, and designers that aim to support the NEO ecosystem and core.
The City of Zion consensus node has been working flawlessly on the NEO TestNet for half a year before the election.
There are more independent consensus nodes that are also running on the TestNet, and they are supposed to be voted by the end of the year.
NEO entered the era of decentralization!https://t.co/JOA7UibNnU
— Neo Smart Economy (@Neo_Blockchain) July 4, 2018
The KPN and Fenbushi Capital consensus nodes
The independent nodes include one hosted by KPN, one of the largest telecom organizations in the Netherlands.
KPN revealed their intention to host a consensus node back in January. It’s also important to mention that KPN has 6.3 million fixed-line telephone customers and over 33 million mobile subscribers in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
They also provide Internet access to over 2.1 million customers across Western Europe.
Regarding the Fenbushi Capital, this is a company running a consensus node in the NEO TestNet as well. It was established back in 2015, and it’s among the top 5 blockchain venture capital firms.
City of Zion, on coopetition
City of Zion published an article on coopetition – a philosophy where organizations which could be competitors choose to cooperate in shared projects.
This approach is taken by lots of industrial open source and energy consortiums.
City of Zion explained that “In line with these ideas, NEO will begin its decentralization by allowing well known commercial projects and communities to run consensus nodes, forming an initial confederation of actors with a strong interest in guaranteeing the security and success of the network.” The architecture will be less centralized.
There’s a webpage that allows users to monitor the NEO blockchain status and data on consensus node candidates and their votes. You can visit it here.
You can also read NEO’s official announcement and their decentralization timeline here.
