NEO, the promising smart contract and decentralized application (DApp) development platform have recently joined the Microsoft-created .NET Foundation. It’s an important development since the move could help blockchain DOTNET development projects.
Blockchain technology is highly promising, and its potential impact goes well beyond cryptocurrencies. Having said that, developers still need sufficient help with developing blockchain applications.
This makes the collaboration between NEO and .NET Foundation important. With this move, it’s also obvious that Microsoft and NEO will collaborate much more closely.
Blockchain use cases are numerous and they span across all major industries. E.g., the technology has use cases in banking, financial services, international trade, commodities trade, supply chain assurance, energy, digital identity, real estate, government, healthcare, etc.
It’s no surprise that the global market for blockchain is growing rapidly. PR Newswire estimates that this market will grow to $57.641 billion in 2025, accompanied by an impressive 69.4% CAGR between 2019-2025.
While this is exciting, there are several challenges to blockchain adoption. Developers trying to build blockchain applications face multiple challenges, one of which is the inadequate programming ecosystem. Insufficient tooling is a challenge too.
Admittedly, blockchain is still a new technology and you ought to expect a few teething troubles when adopting new technology. Collaboration is a key to overcoming such challenges, and Deloitte considers it as one of the highest priorities of the blockchain ecosystem.
NEO/Microsoft collaboration for blockchain DOTNET development
Microsoft, the technology giant has created the .NET Foundation, which focuses on fostering open-source collaboration focusing on the .NET ecosystem. This foundation counts Google, Pivotal, Unity, JetBrains, Samsung, and several other key technology players among its members.
.NET Foundation supports its community members in various ways, e.g., project guidance, mentoring, IP/legal support, financial support, technical support, etc. The foundation supports a vast number of projects.
NEO, a smart contract development platform of growing reputation is a key competitor of Ethereum. The platform supports the creation of DApps and its capability for the digitization of physical assets is noticeable.
NEO is an excellent candidate for enriching the .NET Foundation, and it’s only appropriate that it’s the first blockchain project to join this foundation. This smart contract platform is already working on its NEO blockchain toolkit for .NET.
NEO will bring the following to the table to facilitate blockchain DOTNET development:
- NEO Smart Contract Debugger: Developers can use this to debug smart contracts inside Visual Studio Code.
- NEO Express: This enables management of the SDLC from within Visual Studio Code.
- NEO Smart Contract Compiler Enhancements: This makes compiling and debugging smart contracts easier.
- NEO-FX Library: It offers a unified programming model, making life easier for developers.
- NEO Visual DevTracker: This offers a chain explorer from inside Visual Studio Core.
The unmistakable synergy!
Given its .NET-centric innovation, NEO will clearly bring significant value to blockchain DOTNET development. However, what’s even more striking is the potential synergy between Microsoft and NEO.
The Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform has recently integrated VeriSol, a smart contract verification solution developed by Microsoft Research. It’s not hard to imagine how this can work in conjunction with the NEO Smart Contract Debugger and enable developers to write bug-free smart contracts. The adoption of blockchain needs exactly this kind of synergy!
