What Is Gas (GAS)?
GAS is the native token of the Neo blockchain. It’s a part of the dual token system of the network, alongside the NEO token, and it essentially is used to cover network and system fees. Take a look at the Gas price chart featured above if you want to see the current GAS price.
Before jumping to a more detailed GAS description, it’s important to determine what is the Neo blockchain about. To put it simply, it’s really similar to the Ethereum blockchain because its main purpose is the development of decentralized applications (dApps). However, it’s more scalable and offers a simple smart contract development system that implements popular programming languages. For these reasons, Neo is often referred to as “Ethereum’s killer.”
Getting back to GAS tokens, they are used to cover the operation and storage of tokens and smart contracts. Network fees are allocated to the Neo consensus nodes while system fees are burned. For this reason, GAS tokens could be compared to gas on Ethereum.
However, the way to acquire GAS coins is quite unique since you can get them simply by holding NEO tokens in your wallet. The one-click GAS claim feature is present in the majority of Neo wallets.
Talking about the generation of GAS, 5 new tokens are generated with every block. Out of these 5 tokens, 80% goes to voters, and the remaining 20% is split equally between all NEO holders and the Neo Council. Thus, if you want to acquire more GAS tokens, you need to participate in the governance processes of the Neo blockchain.
Tokenomics of GAS
Since GAS tokens are generated with every new block on the Neo blockchain, they were not pre-mined. However, GAS tokens have a max supply set at 100 million. This means that, once the circulating GAS supply reaches its max supply, no new tokens will be minted. It’s estimated that such an amount will be reached in 2040.
Though apart from receiving GAS by holding NEO, you can also acquire it on various crypto exchanges. However, before doing that, note that the GAS price tends to fluctuate. Thus, it would be beneficial to analyze the Gas price chart above to see the main trends in the changes of the GAS value.
