NEO, the next generation cryptocurrency and smart economy platform for building a scalable network of decentralized applications (dapps), has just undergone a significant update to its virtual machine, NeoVM.
The update makes the NeoVM deployable outside of the NeEOnetwork, which is an extremely attractive attribute for developers. The updated NeoVM provides blockchain developers with a friendly infrastructure to build and deploy smart contracts in a sound running environment.
NeoVM Developments: Stack Isolation and Deployment Outside the NEO Network
Neo’s VM has seen continuous improvements since it was first released in January 2018.
Since then, NeoVM has undergone milestone upgrades from 2.2.1 to 2.3.3 which implemented important features like stack isolation, and now the ability to be deployed outside the NEO network.
Stack isolation was an important feature that led to NeoVM’s most recent update.
To put it simply, stack isolation is like upgrading your computer system from DOS to Windows. In the DOS system, the memory is shared by all programs, which means if one program encounters an error, the whole system could crash.
Windows solves this issue by running all the programs in individual instances so that a rogue program will not affect others. By adding stack isolation to NeoVM, each smart contract can only access its own stack area and is, therefore, more stable and secure.
Once the stack isolation was successfully working, the NeoVM underwent a change on encoding and a hash dictionary was added for interop services. The interop service was then changed from class to InteropService, which made it much easier for NeoVM to be deployed outside of the NEO network.
As NEO heads into the new year, developers continue to improve and maintain NeoVM to make its execution more stable and reliable.
Moving forward, NeoVM will continue to set a precedent for developer-friendly VMs and push the implementation of smart contracts and blockchain technology forward.
NEO Releases NGD Annual Report 2018
2018 was a wild year for NEO as the project’s price both soared and crashed with a high of $187 per coin and a low of under $6.
Besides the exorbitant and volatile price action, the NEO project accomplished a lot in terms of community growth, development of the dapp ecosystem, overall global performance, technical progress and team building.
NEO’s annual NGD report published on Medium outlines these accomplishments in great depth.
Here’s a summary of their key achievements in 2018:
- Community Development: NEO grew and improved their existing communities, and started multiple new communities as well. New development and research communities were established this year such as NEL, NeoResearch, Keymakers, Next, NEO Denver and NSPCC.
- Dapp Ecosystem Development: 2018 saw a massive increase in dapp development and many developer teams were established to build dapps on NEO. Currently, there have been nearly 100 dapps built on Neo, which is a growth rate of over 3,000%.
- Global Activities: NGD hosted/sponsored over 100 events in 2018, including developer conferences, community expansion events and more. NEO DevCon was their the largest event in 2018, and the next Neo DevCon is set to be held in Seattle.
- Team Building: The NEO Foundation reorganized its subordinate structures in March 2018 and established NGD. Now, there are 38 full-time NGD employees, resulting in a growth rate of 200% despite the bear market.
- Technical Progress: NEO developers were very busy last year. They vigorously optimized the consensus algorithm to eliminate forking risk and enhanced the stability of the consensus mechanism, which further ensured the security and activity of NEO consensus mechanism. The entire NEO system was tested extensively and the ecosystem saw many improvements as a whole.
Conclusion
While NEO accomplished a lot in 2018, we can expect just as much or even more as we head into 2019 with new developments in all the areas mentioned above.
Da Hongfei, the founder of NEO, put it:
2018 was a tumultuous year for us but we have been holding on to the vision of smart economy and will make NEO the most developer-friendly public chain.
Will NEO overtake Ethereum and TRON in terms of dapp development in 2019? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
