Neo releases NeoCLI v3.8.0, proposes block time reduction from 15 to 3 seconds

Neo has released NeoCLI v3.8.0, an update that includes a hard fork that will give the Neo Council the ability to modify block generation times. The T5 TestNet will be upgraded on April 30, with the MainNet hard fork scheduled for May 14.

Nodes must be updated before the hard fork, named Echidna, to avoid compatibility issues. The TestNet fork is planned for block 5,870,000, while the MainNet fork will take place at block 7,300,000.

Block time adjustment

The most notable new feature in the upgrade is support for block time management in the Policy native contract. This change was made to support a proposal to reduce the target block generation time from 15 seconds to 3 seconds. This would improve responsiveness and general usability of the N3 public networks.

To ensure GAS generation rate remains consistent, the number of GAS generated per block would be reduced from 5 to 1. These changes are not yet active and require approval from the Neo Council via multisig vote, expected to occur in about three months, to allow time for dApps to adapt.

Two new methods—SetMillisecondsPerBlock and GetMillisecondsPerBlock—have been added to the Policy Contract, allowing block times to be set and queried on-chain. Developers are advised to update any dApps that rely on hardcoded block intervals to use the contract method instead.

Other parameters including MaxValidUntilBlockIncrement and MaxTraceableBlocks have also been migrated into the Policy contract to ensure future modifications remain consistent across the network.

Other improvements

NeoCLI v3.8.0 includes various other improvements. These include a reworked CalculateNetworkFee method to better handle contract signers and support for public key recovery using secp256k1.

This milestone release also introduces the Notary service, pioneered by Neo SPCC as a NeoGo extension. Notary is an on-chain signature collection service that simplifies contract and backend logic for dApps where multisignature is required.

The implementation takes the form of a new native contract, Notary, and a new transaction attribute, NotaryAssisted. The service is actively used internally by NeoFS, and with v3.8.0, will be available for all dApps to consume.

This release also introduces the term “datoshi” for the smallest unit of GAS, analogous to a satoshi in Bitcoin. While primarily semantic, its inclusion points to growing standardization within the ecosystem.

Security and performance were key focuses in this release. Updates include constant-time cryptographic comparisons, SHA-512 support, memory optimization in core components, enhanced RPC error reporting, and various bug fixes.

The full announcement can be found at the link below:
https://x.com/Neo_Blockchain/status/1917425952252125662

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