Blockchain platform Neo has disclosed plans to launch its Neo3 Preview2 blockchain platform. It is likely to feature upgrades like improved throughput, stability, and security.
In a recent webinar on YouTube, Seattle head of NEO Global Development, John deVadoss discussed in detail his thoughts on the launch of the Neo3 Preview2 platform.
deVadoss started by reiterating NEO’s vision for its Neo3 platform. According to him, the platform would showcase insights and plans for creating top-notch functions like native contracts and built-in Oracle solutions.
deVadoss further accentuated the platform’s plan to support large-scale blockchain-based applications. He also outlined major elements of the Neo3 Preview1 testnet. One such key element has been the migration from the UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model to its native tokens NEO and GAS.
Highlights of Neo3 Preview2 upgrades
After speaking exhaustively on previous upgrades, deVadoss delved into the key areas that the Neo3 Preview2 would cover. He especially highlighted the architectural optimizations of Neo Core and NeoVM.
NeoVM and Neo Core upgrades
The upgrade is about 16 times more effective than any of NEO’s previous upgrades. With NeoVM currently decoupled from the chain, this would lead to better extensibility of Neo’s protocol.
Neo3 smart contract system
Apart from Neo3 smart contract support, Preview2 will also provide several modifications such as better permission control, contract ID. Also, there is the feature of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) friendliness, inadvertently promoting Neo3 migration, and tool development.
Faster Neo3 infrastructure development
Neo3 Preview2 boasts of powerful features to facilitate the faster development of Neo3’s infrastructure. And one of the exciting results of this would be the next-gen internet (NGI).
Performance enhancement
- Redesigned opcodes alongside simplified instruction sets
- New internal primitive type
- Introduced reference counting to facilitate better resource management
- Improved compiler friendliness
- Added variable slots and removed AltStack
Among other points, attention was given to decoupling from blockchain yielding expanded use cases of NeoVM. Also, there were some enhancements in the smart contract modifications. These include additional function pointers and also exception instructions.
Neo Core
Performance enhancement
- Neo blockchain will enjoy optimized transaction confirmation. Parallel signature verification is still undergoing testing. If proven, it would increase TPS (transactions per second) almost 8 times higher than Preview1.
- Other improvements include a more efficient communication protocol, better automatic data compression function, index synchronization methods, etc.
The Neo3 Preview2 also touched upon smart contract optimization. It highlighted the manifest and the contract levels under permission control. Moreover, contract ID, global unique identifiers, data migration not deemed necessary during contract updates.
Economic model adjustment
- Support for keeping decimals for system fees, which will be burnt directly
- Incremental fees for contract storage to lower contract costs
Modularization
- Preview2 has a decoupled storage layer as well as added support for several storage schemes, including LevelDB, RocksDB, memory, etc.
- Also, there is a decoupling of the RPC module with added user-defined support modules.
Light node design
This will become possible by limiting the height of transactions and blocks that can be accessed by smart contracts.
Furthermore, Neo has invited developers to test the platform. Users can now enjoy enhanced developer experience and quality features, on Neo3 Preview2 upgrades.
An official blog post explained the upgrades in much detail. Also, you can catch the deVadoss webinar here.
To remind, NEOLine mobile wallet upgrade came out recently. Also, in the virtual 2-day BlockDown 2020 conference, NEO founder, Da Hongfei expressed his opinion on the future of blockchain and its scope of application.
