In September, Neo continued to proactively identify promising projects and engage in face-to-face meetups with existing and potential partners:

•  The Neo APAC Hackathon notched more successes among the event’s achievements with the final two City GAS Station Stops, and the team prepared for the October grand finale event in Hong Kong. 

• Further opportunities to showcase Neo’s commitment to maintaining a prominent position in the blockchain community included appearances at the Korean Blockchain Week and Token2049.

Read on for more comprehensive updates on Neo and the community.

🙌 A Successful Conclusion to the Neo APAC Hackathon City GAS Station Stops 

🇰🇷 City GAS Stations — Seoul GAS Station

Collaborating with local partners (OKX, Certik, KIMPGA, and more) Neo hosted the fourth GAS Station Stop in the Neo APAC Hackthon from September 1-2 in Seoul, South Korea. Panel discussions covering topics such as token models, dApps, and DeFi enriched the event, which was held at the Dreamwork venue in Gangnam.

Following the hacking session, the competing teams presented their projects to a panel of judges and attendees. 

Projects EBCW and magipop earned the prestigious Neo Excellence Award:

• EBCW won recognition for its pioneering SocialFi mechanism, rooted in real-action-based yields–effectively introducing the concept of "Proof of Routine."

• magipop stood out for an ingenious community co-creation platform that merges the realms of AI and blockchain technology. 

Additionally, two projects (EZSwap and MoonLight) won the coveted AWS Choice Award. 

🇸🇬 City GAS Stations — Singapore GAS Station

Neo hosted the final City GAS Station Stop of the APAC Hackathon’s five-city journey in Singapore from September 9-10. The event took place at the OGBC building and featured renowned partners such as OKX, Alchemy Pay, BeWater, Alibaba Cloud, AlienSwap, CSM Labs, MoleDAO, and more. Competitors included talents from local universities (such as Nanyang Technological University, ranked one of the top global universities) and beyond.

Again, the project teams had the opportunity to pitch their projects to the event judges and audience. 

Neo Excellence Award-winning projects included Acel and Card Brawl:

• Acel received recognition for its innovative solution tailored for merchants, delivering a familiar yet groundbreaking infrastructure to process blockchain-verified transactions.

• Judges recognized Card Brawl for implementing Roguelike mechanics in their project that appealed to gamers and added a unique twist to the gaming experience.

Two additional prize categories were awarded at the event:

• The NeoWizard and ChatyN project teams won the AWS Choice Award.

• The Insightic project won the Securr Choice Award. 

Award winners from these and previous GAS Station Stops qualified to move on to the hackathon’s exciting grand finale event in Hong Kong, which will be detailed in the October Monthly Report.

🗒️ Neo General Updates

🥂 Impactful Showing for Neo at Korean Blockchain Week 

“IMPACT,” the Korean Blockchain Week's flagship event, took place September 5-6 at the prestigious Shilla Hotel. The 10,000-attendee-strong event drew more than 240 notable speakers, including industry luminaries such as Vitalik Buterin and Arthur Hayes and many more. 

Neo proudly supported the event as a sponsor. The Neo team, including Neo’s Founder, Da Hongfei, made a significant impact throughout the event with an active and engaged presence at the Neo booth and beyond.

On the night of September 5th, Neo’s memorable afterparty at the Web3 Wonderland Gala served as a perfect conclusion to two days of networking and intensive discussions. This gala, co-hosted by Neo along with Titan, KaratDAO, Bing Ventures, and KIMPGA, provided a relaxing post-event environment for more than 200 blockchain enthusiasts. 

🎙 Continued Momentum at TOKEN2049

On the heels of the Singapore GAS Station event, Neo further engaged with the blockchain community from Singapore and beyond at TOKEN2049, the largest annual digital assets event in Asia. Neo Founder Da Hongfei participated in a panel discussion, sharing insights on empowering users through decentralized networks.

Da Hongfei also connected with event attendees and gauged the market atmosphere at the Neo booth and throughout the conference. Booth visitors were treated to another of the engaging activations that Neo has become known for. This activation, powered by the Non-Fungible Item (NFI) technology in OneBand running on the Neo blockchain, invited visitors to learn more about the Neo blockchain and ecosystem in a fun, gamified experience. 

🤝 Visionary Partnership: Neo and OKX Unite in Pursuit of a Shared Vision in Asia

Haider Rafique, Chief Marketing Officer for OKX, shared insights during an interview with CoinDesk regarding OKX's strategic move into the Web3 space in India. The ongoing collaboration with Neo in organizing the Neo APAC Hackathon across various Asian nations, including India, is intricately woven into OKX's broader strategic vision. This partnership is poised to yield fruitful outcomes in the foreseeable future.

🛠 Neo-CLI v3.6.0 Testnet and Mainnet Upgrade Notice

Neo-CLI v3.6.0 was released on September 5th, deployed to the T5 TestNet on September 6th,  and deployed to the MainNet on September 20th. Details are available in this Medium article: https://neo-blockchain.medium.com/neo-cli-v3-6-0-testnet-and-mainnet-upgrade-notice-6f08abcab4b9

🙌 Community Engagement

📝 Neo Community Trivia/Quiz 

On September 21st, Neo organized a 24-hour trivia/quiz event in the community, offering participants the chance to win 5 exclusive Neoverse NFT Blind Boxes as prizes. This initiative aimed to reward and engage individuals who actively follow Neo's activities. 

🌳 Ecosystem News

💍 New Use Case for OneBand 

As noted above, the popular NFI-powered OneBand made a new appearance at TOKEN2049. Neo Developer Community members COZ and AxLabs showcased another successful activation powered by the OneBand running on the Neo blockchain. The OneBand recipients at this event received a custom-designed NFT featuring an otter (a beloved animal in Singapore). Holders of the dynamic otter NFT received a new trait for each way station at the Neo booth that they visited as they explored the diversity of Neo's technology and ecosystem.

📄 OneBand Featured in News

Tyler Adams, CEO of COZ, joined Real Talk NFT in a podcast session to discuss the unique NFI (Non Fungible Item) created and nurtured in the Neo ecosystem. 

📈 Ecosystem Project Updates

Neo News Today compiles weekly reports on the progress of various projects within the Neo ecosystem. The reports cover a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, product updates, NFT/token releases, airdrops, and other market or community activities. Please see below for the updates on projects within the Neo ecosystem for the month of September.

August 28 — September 3: COZ, Flamingo Finance, FrankCoin, Meme2Earn, Neo News Today

September 4 - September 10: Battle Hardened, World of Elements, GrantShares, Meme2Earn, Flamingo Finance, Neo News Today, Neo Research, COZ, AxLabs 

September 11 - September 17: Neo News Today, Flamingo Finance, GrantShares, Unlocking the Chain, NeoSPCC, COZ, AxLabs

September 18 - September 24: NeoDashboard, Quicky Soul College, World of Elements, Poly Network, Carrot Swap, Flamingo Finance, COZ

September 25 - October 1: DogeRift, Carrot Swap, Flamingo Finance, R3E Network, COZ