What is Gas (GAS)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

GAS is the operational fuel for the NEO blockchain, a platform focused on building a "smart economy." Unlike generic "gas" concepts (e.g., Ethereum’s fee unit), GAS is a distinct token with three core roles:
- Transaction Fees: Paid to validators for processing transfers or smart contracts.
- Staking Incentives: NEO token holders earn GAS passively, similar to dividend yields, encouraging long-term participation.
- Governance: Council members (elected validators) use GAS to vote on protocol upgrades, fee adjustments, and resource allocation.

2. Tokenomics & Distribution

• Fixed Supply: Total supply is capped at 100M GAS, with ~65M circulating as of December 2025.
• Emission Rate: Generated at 5 GAS per block (~15-20 seconds), with 80% distributed to voters, 10% to NEO holders, and 10% to council members (Neo N3 Migration Docs).
• Migration: After NEO’s 2021 upgrade to N3, GAS generation shifted from Legacy to N3, requiring token migration via wallets like NeoLine or exchanges like Binance.

3. Key Differentiators

• Dual-Token Model: Separates governance (NEO) and utility (GAS), unlike Ethereum’s single-token (ETH) system.
• No Gas Auction: Fees are predictable, avoiding Ethereum-style bidding wars during congestion.
• Subsidized Costs: The Neo Foundation allocated 200K GAS to offset migration fees for small holders during the N3 transition.

Conclusion

GAS is NEO’s economic backbone, balancing utility, governance, and incentives. Its fixed supply and structured rewards aim to sustain network security and user engagement. How will NEO’s evolving governance model impact GAS’s role in decentralized applications?