On the newest Neo core developer convention, contributors targeted on simplifying the proposed customized contract pricing mechanism NEP, evaluating transaction-based approaches to proving node uptime, and making ready governance and cryptographic modifications for future releases. This session additionally offered additional readability on the high-level structure of Neo N4, which facilities on Neo N3 as the primary chain with a bridged sidechain.

Customized contract pricing mechanism is filtered to GAS solely
Builders have reviewed a draft NEP that introduces a standardized approach for good contracts to outline customized execution charges along with commonplace community prices. This proposal makes use of new pricing metadata fields within the contract ABI, supported by DevPack instruments and enforced by Neo VM, to allow fashions resembling pay-as-you-go, subscription-style entry, and direct compensation to contract holders.
Dialogue targeted on decreasing complexity by limiting the primary model of the mechanism to GAS-only funds. Proscribing the design to GAS is taken into account a major simplification in comparison with supporting any NEP-17 token, whereas addressing the core want of contract-level tolling.
We had been additionally enthusiastic about a extra streamlined design the place a portion of current system prices had been redirected to contracted or designated beneficiaries through devoted interoperable calls. This avoids introducing a wealthy asset mannequin within the preliminary launch and depends solely on the GAS already current on the VM throughout transaction execution.
Extra superior ideas, resembling paying execution charges in different tokens through native liquidity pool agreements, had been acknowledged as having worth in the long run, however had been thought of exterior the scope of the present NEP. The precedence is to finish a clear GAS-only mechanism that may be prolonged later with out breaking compatibility or unduly complicating the preliminary implementation.
The NEP will probably be up to date to replicate this path, incorporating suggestions from latest evaluations and simplifying the specification accordingly.
Node liveness proof has moved to a transaction-based mannequin
The group continued to work on designing a “proof-of-node” mechanism to make sure that registered committee members are working dwell, appropriately configured nodes.
Earlier concepts, resembling counting on light-weight proof-of-work or peer-to-peer extensible messages, raised issues about community spam and ambiguity in distinguishing connectivity points from precise downtime. At the moment, the popular path is an on-chain strategy the place the activeness of the committee is demonstrated by common transactions.
This mannequin requires committee members to submit small transactions at outlined intervals. Duty for every lively transaction may be assigned deterministically primarily based on knowledge resembling earlier block hashes, and the dBFT plugin can deal with transaction creation robotically. This ensures that solely correctly working nodes can meet the necessities with out guide intervention.
A devoted governance-oriented native contract can keep a file of those pings, together with the date and time every committee member final despatched a liveness transaction, and combination success metrics over time. In comparison with P2P layer messages, this design gives clearer auditability, pure price limiting by transaction charges, and fewer modifications to network-level permissions.
Particulars resembling timing home windows, penalties for failed pings, and integration with future candidate choice logic will probably be refined in follow-up work, however in depth changes had been made to using transactions as the premise for node liveness monitoring.
Blocked funds restoration focusing on Neo 3.9
The developer is Request blocked funds The pull request remains to be beneath dialogue and is a candidate function for inclusion within the Neo 3.9 launch.
This variation provides a managed restoration mechanism for addresses frozen as a consequence of governance measures, resembling after hacking or malicious use of funds. After the one-year interval, blocked balances can’t be moved with out the approval of 19 of the 21 commissioners, guaranteeing that any restoration efforts require a robust supermajority.
This function is clearly not designed for lost-key situations the place customers can now not show possession. As an alternative, we goal to formalize a slender path for dealing with licensed addresses beneath strict time and signature constraints, enhancing readability and predictability for ecosystem stakeholders.
Ethereum suitable BLS interface evolves through neo-go
The convention additionally touched on ongoing work to help Ethereum-compatible serialization of BLS12-381 in CryptoLib native contracts, primarily for Neo X and EVM-adjacent use circumstances.
neo-go pull requests now implement the specified interface, reflecting a previous settlement that CryptoLib’s Ethereum-compatible strategies ought to align with the present API design somewhat than introducing a separate byte-only type. Evaluate suggestions from the Neo X group has already been integrated, and extra evaluations are requested to finalize the interface.
The identical strategy will probably be ported to the C# implementation as soon as the neo-go model is deemed secure. It’s hoped that this sample can later be prolonged to different curves resembling BN254, sustaining interoperability with EVM instruments whereas sustaining a constant cross-platform cryptographic interface.
N4 structure: N3 principal chain with native bridge sidechain
To conclude the assembly, builders mentioned how the evolving Neo N4 roadmap pertains to the present Neo N3 community and future bridge development.
Neo N4 is positioned as an structure the place Neo N3 continues to function as the primary chain, with no modifications or consumer migration required for current dApps. Compatibility between N4 and N3 was emphasised. Software-specific sidechains run Neo N4 code (developed on the grasp department) and join again to the primary chain by a local good contract-based bridge that handles cross-chain communication and asset motion.
The core growth group was requested to think about a number of native bridge designs that match this mannequin, together with the potential for incorporating or adapting current options such because the AxLabs bridge. As soon as a number of choices are documented, Neo management selects the strategy that finest meets N4’s long-term scalability and interoperability objectives.
This path strengthens Neo N3 as a secure and suitable base layer, whereas offering a transparent path to increasing the ecosystem by specialised sidechains and standardized cross-chain infrastructure.
The complete textual content of the dialogue may be seen on the hyperlink beneath.
https://youtu.be/96kpFwQe9EA

