NEO is considered to be one of the upcoming blockchain networks designed for dApps, and it has just completed an upgrade to its mainnet. This latest upgrade focuses on reducing the number of spam transactions in a bid to keep the network running smoothly. From now on, transactions with a gas fee of less than 0.001 GAS are considered low priority and only 20 of these transactions will be allowed in every block. For transactions larger than 1,024 bytes, a new fee will be added to the GAS fee for the transaction. This is designed to stop dApps spamming the network with thousands of transactions both large and small, meaning the network should run more smoothly.
Avoiding the Ethereum Issue
Back in 2018, a rogue dApp essentially took over the Ethereum network by sending GAS fees to the $5.50 mark – a record high. This meant the network became slow and cumbersome as network traffic began to pile up. In a bid to stop this from happening on the NEO network, the development team has created these new fee structures. Since the upgrade went live, average block times on the NEO network has decreased and become more regular. This is a good indication that the upgrade is working well.
Upgrades All Around
NEO isn’t the only blockchain network that has recently decided to upgrade. Back in May, Bitcoin Cash completed its bi-annual hard fork where it added a raft of new features – including Schorr Signatures and SegWit recovery. However, as soon as the fork took place, a raft of issues appeared on the blockchain. There was a 3,392 BCH double spend, strings of empty blocks and even an asymmetric chain split. For the time being, it appears as if the issues with Bitcoin Cash have calmed down and things are returning to normal, but that’s not how any project wants their hard fork to go.
More dApps are continuing to launch on the Ethereum network, meaning NEO needs to step up its game it if wants to be crowned as the king of the dApp world. More developers are creating wallets on Ethereum for dApps as well, with Hedgehog launching earlier this week. If NEO don’t start incentivizing developers to consider its network, this very useful mainnet upgrade could all be for nothing. Hopefully with the new improved speeds and fee structure, NEO can come back into the fray and start scooping up big name dApp developers.
