NEO Ramps Up U.S. Operations with 2019 DevCon Held in Seattle

In a possible effort to reposition itself as a contender in the Western market, NEO is hosting its 2019 DevCon in Seattle, Washington, this February 16th through 17th. The conference is consistent with NEO's goal to become the "Most developer-friendly public blockchain project and decentralized application platform."

Recently, NEO has increased its activity in the state of Washington, recently hiring former Microsoft general managers John DeVadoss as head of NEO development and Peng Huang as NEO platform strategist.

Perhaps the move is NEO's attempt to differentiate from its colloquial label as "Chinese Ethereum" and gain better Western recognition? Although the exact purpose is still unknown, there is speculation that NEO will reveal its reasoning at the DevCon.

"NEO's singular focus on developers, and its innovative algorithm for consensus differentiates the NEO platform from the likes of Ethereum. We are democratizing access to decentralized platforms for every developer, using the language and tools of their choice," deVadoss said in a comment to CryptoSlate.

NEO DevCon 2019 is a forward-looking summit for developers and blockchain-enthusiasts who are interested in learning about the various decentralized applications on the NEO platform.

The event will also feature talks from some notable figureheads in the space, including NEO founder Da Hongfei, managing director of Microsoft Digital Worldwide Drew Gude and several other high-ranking Microsoft employees, and Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Information and Communication Technology industry sector lead Dr. Joseph Williams.

The event will also highlight some of the top contributors to NEO, including NEO Global Development R&D director Peter Lin and General Manager Zhao Chen.

NEO Foundation and its subsidiaries will announce its roadmap and plans for the future, including the important reason why the largely Chinese project has chosen to host their conference in the city of Seattle.

CryptoSlate will be live at the event to provide coverage and updates to the community, including an exclusive interview with NEO Founder Da Hongfei.

Background on NEO. NEO is a smart contract blockchain platform and cryptocurrency that is designed to "Build a scalable network of decentralized applications" using commonly available programming languages.