Neo founder Da Hongfei hosted a cross-platform AMA

Neo founder Da Hongfei hosted a cross-platform AMA on X and Discord to discuss SpoonOS, a newly announced agentic operating system framework, and the broader trajectory of the Neo ecosystem.

Across both platforms, Da responded to over 60 questions from community and ecosystem participants, addressing Neo’s evolving strategy, technical priorities, and plans for long-term sustainability.

Key takeaways:

* SpoonOS is an “agentic OS” designed to support the creation of AI-powered agents on the Neo blockchain, providing foundational infrastructure rather than a traditional blockchain operating system.

* It builds on technologies like decentralized identifiers, zero-knowledge machine learning, and the MCP+ protocol to manage real-time, privacy-preserving data across agents.

* SpoonOS is initially launching with support for both Neo N3 and Neo X.

* To incentivize development within the SpoonOS ecosystem, Da announced a US $2 million fund split across three programs:

* Grants for individual developers to build interesting and useful applications.

* Ecosystem Fund investments in startups and projects.

"We're also planning a hackathon and other activities to encourage participation in the SpoonOS ecosystem," he added.

* In response to a question about the challenges of agentic software, Da explained that SpoonOS agents will require explicit user approval to access assets, ensuring safety and transparency.

* On the topic of governance, he envisions a future where agents can vote on behalf of users in DAOs, reducing the cognitive cost of participation and enabling more fluid decision-making processes.

* The AMA highlighted Neo’s renewed focus on developer experience, privacy-preserving AI, and modular agent systems.

* SpoonOS is still under development, so patience is advised. Follow the SpoonOS X account for future updates and demo announcements.

* Da closed by affirming Neo’s foundational mission: “To make any asset, digital or physical, accessible by human beings and programs with minimalized trust and permission.” This vision remains the guiding principle as Neo transitions from smart to sentient systems.

The transcript of the AMA across both platforms can be found below.

Discord Questions:

Q1: Are you currently in Dubai?

Da: “I’m in Singapore now. I moved to Singapore in 2020.”

Q2: What happened to Erik Zhang?

Da: “Erik spent most of his time on his personal life recently. But he is still involved loosely on technical and treasury management issues.”

Q3: What do you believe will be the most game-changing feature that will bring Neo back into the spotlight in 2025/2026?

Da: “The current tech stack of Neo N3 is not State of the Art and mainstream. But I see a paradigm-shifting trend coming for programming and computation. AI and ZK will be the key tech. Neo will double down on these two key techs. SpoonOS will be a product focused on the AI side.”

Q4: Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, what role do you hope Neo and SpoonOS will play in the broader Web3 and global economy? For example, do you envision mainstream businesses, governments, or consumer devices routinely using autonomous agents on Neo by then?

Da: “In 5-10 years, I envision that the underlying blockchain architecture will be very different from today’s Ethereum-esque architecture. Neo Foundation will be on a completely different next-gen arch to be back in the game.”

Q5: “Some might say ‘operating system’ is a buzzword. What key features will definitively demonstrate that SpoonOS is a true OS for agents and not just another framework? Are there specific benchmarks or demos you aim to hit early to prove its OS capabilities?”

Da: “I agree it’s a buzzword, but I also think it’s a good metaphor of what SpoonOS can do – an agentic OS where devs and users can build agent applications on top of it.”

Q6: Training and running neural nets can be energy-intensive. Has the team considered mechanisms to minimize the environmental impact of SpoonOS (such as using off-chain compute networks, incentivizing green computing, or carbon offsets)?

Da: “SpoonOS is not an LLM. It’s a framework to build agents who use LLM to communicate with other agents and Web2 services.”

Q7: Beyond digital services, do you envision integrating SpoonOS with IoT or robotics? For instance, could a fleet of autonomous vehicles or smart factory devices use SpoonOS agents to coordinate tasks on-chain?

Da: “Currently, SpoonOS is working on A2A and MCP, which are “Agent-to-Agent” and “Agent-to-Web2 Service”. I can imagine there will be “Agent-to-Device” protocols emerging in the future.”

Q8: You previously launched an AI agent simulation game called Matrix. What lessons from Matrix have informed