NEO governance transparency crisis escalates, founders clash fiercely over asset control rights

NEO Internal Major Disagreements Erupt. On December 31st, founder Da Hongfei and Zhang Zhengwen engaged in a public clash over issues of fund control and protocol governance, each side presenting their own account, revealing longstanding governance vulnerabilities.

Da Hongfei’s Allegation: Asset Concentration Risk

Da Hongfei criticized Zhang Zhengwen for long-term control over the vast majority of NEO and GAS assets, deviating from previous commitments to transfer them to multi-signature wallets. He pointed out that this centralized control model constitutes a single point of failure, with Zhang Zhengwen leveraging financial advantages to achieve absolute influence in protocol governance, effectively hijacking the project’s decision-making process. In this founder’s view, true decentralized governance should be based on asset dispersion and checks and balances of power.

Zhang Zhengwen’s Counter: Financial Black Box Concerns

Zhang Zhengwen approached from another angle, pointing the finger at Da Hongfei’s control over the foundation’s assets. He accused that all foundation assets except NEO/GAS have been under Da Hongfei’s sole control for a long time, with related financial operations lacking transparency, and the community and third parties unable to access auditable disclosure information. Zhang Zhengwen argued that his insistence on holding NEO/GAS is to minimize risk, preventing core assets from being caught up in uncontrollable operational environments.

Deep Reflection on Governance Dilemmas

This public dispute exposes structural issues within NEO’s governance system—whether it’s the lack of checks and balances at the founder level or the long-term deficit in financial transparency, all point to the same fundamental problem: the contradiction between centralized control and decentralized ideals. How to rebuild community trust and establish a truly transparent, multi-party participatory governance framework remains an urgent challenge for NEO.