Neo has recently unveiled its NeoCLI v3.8.0 update, notably featuring a hard fork named Echidna. The hard fork is designed to bestow the Neo Council with the capacity to alter block generation times. A critical upgrade for the T5 TestNet is scheduled for April 30, with the MainNet hard fork programmed for May 14. Nodes need to be updated before the hard fork to circumvent compatibility issues. The TestNet fork is planned for block 5,870,000, while the MainNet fork will be implemented at block 7,300,000.
The most significant feature of the upgrade is the inclusion of block time management support in the Policy native contract. This change has been instigated to back a proposal aimed at reducing the target block generation time from 15 seconds to a mere 3 seconds, thus enhancing the responsiveness and general usability of the N3 public networks.
To maintain a consistent GAS generation rate, the number of GAS generated per block will be reduced from 5 to 1. These changes are not active yet and need the Neo Council’s approval via a multisig vote. This vote is expected to take place in approximately three months, providing enough time for dApps to adjust accordingly.
The Policy Contract has been endowed with two new methods— SetMillisecondsPerBlock and GetMillisecondsPerBlock, permitting block times to be set and queried on-chain. Developers are urged to update any dApps that depend on hardcoded block intervals to use the contract method instead.
Several other parameters, including MaxValidUntilBlockIncrement and MaxTraceableBlocks, have been relocated into the Policy contract to ensure future modifications remain consistent across the network.
NeoCLI v3.8.0 also brings a host of other improvements. These include a reworked CalculateNetworkFee method for better handling of contract signers and support for public key recovery using secp256k1.
This pivotal release also introduces the Notary service, a brainchild of Neo SPCC, designed as a NeoGo extension. The Notary service simplifies contract and backend logic for dApps where multisignature is required. It is implemented in the form of a new native contract, Notary, and a new transaction attribute, NotaryAssisted. The service is currently used internally by NeoFS and will be accessible for all dApps with the v3.8.0 release.
In addition to these enhancements, the term “datoshi”, representing the smallest unit of GAS (akin to a satoshi in Bitcoin), has been introduced. This semantic inclusion signifies the growing standardization within the ecosystem.
Security and performance were paramount in this release, with updates including constant-time cryptographic comparisons, SHA-512 support, memory optimization in core components, enhanced RPC error reporting, and various bug fixes.
For more detailed information, the full announcement can be found using the link provided below:
https://x.com/Neo_Blockchain/status/1917425952252125662.
