NEO is the first Chinese block-project with open source, launched in August 2017 with the filing of developer Da Hongfei. But in fact the history of the project began 3 years earlier.

In 2014, Da Hongfei created the blocking company OnChain in Shanghai and launched a crypto-currency project called AntShares. The created crypto currency was named the same, and for the ticker ticker they chose the abbreviation ANS.

OnChain's main task is to create a new financial system that unites the real and virtual economy. The main instrument for such a merger was chosen by smart contracts, and the ANS crypto currency was the unit of payment for the execution of these contracts.