TL;DR
This week we’ll dive into the Solana Ecosystem and review one of its newest protocols, NEON. Recently launched to the Solana mainnet, NEON is an Ethereum Virtual Machine for Solana designed to solve interoperability issues. The previously named “Ethereum Killer” must be quickly realizing the importance of playing well with others. Seeing the success of EVM Layer 2 projects like Arbitrum and Optimism steal much of Solana’s thunder over the past two years. NEON will hopefully bridge the gap between Solana and Ethereum to allow more EVM-developed projects to launch their protocols on Solana, enabling deeper liquidity and a more scalable DeFi environment for Solana users and reiterating that old saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Learn more about “The Return of Solana”
Solana was initially created to solve interoperability issues found in networks like NEM and NEO. Seeing these well-funded projects unable to tap into the growing liquidity of Ethereum quickly became their greatest flaw. However, for the most part, Solona has operated independently from Ethereum as a non-EVM Layer 1 Network, relying solely on cross-chain bridges to provide the network on and off ramps between Ethereum.
This worked well enough until Solana’s network inefficiencies began rearing their ugly head. Combined with the FTX fallout and a crypto winter, Solana soon saw that bridges alone wouldn’t be enough to take the protocol where it needed to be.
This makes the development and launch of NEON a major step in the right direction for Solana. Allowing products designed for Ethereum, like Uniswap, to function as intended on Solana. All without the need for a complete redesign.
What is Neon EVM?
The idea for Neon started near the end of 2021, according to the project GitHub. However, the project didn’t go public with its intentions until last year after raising $40 Million in early funding, catching even the biggest Solana supporters by surprise when the Neon Foundation said it would soon launch an Ethereum Virtual Machine as a smart contract on Solana.
Allowing for the deployment of Ethereum-based dApps in a Solana environment and enabling Ethereum projects to benefit from the technical advantages of Solana’s infrastructure, connecting Solana to Ethereum’s vast liquidity pool in new and mutually advantageous ways.
Neon creates an environment for Solidity and Vyper-based dApps to exist on Solana by deploying specialized hybrid contracts on the Neon EVM. Because Neon operates as a separate instance of Solana.
This means that contracts are deployed on Neon instead of directly on Solana, letting developers use Ethereum-based tools and deploy their projects in a Solana environment.
In the name of lowering fees and speeding up transaction efficiency. Neon takes the best of both networks and creates an environment where they can coexist. But with Solana not being designed to interact with Ethereum, this means Neon has very limited capabilities.
How does NEON EVM Work?
Like most cross-chain applications of this type, NEON works by providing intermediaries that parse and pass information between Solana and Ethereum.
Information from each network is sent through Neon’s proxy servers where it can be deciphered and distributed.
We’ve…
Head of Research Jesse is a passionate seeker of truth who enjoys educating others about Bitcoin. As a free thinker and 2nd amendment advocate, Jesse believes each individual has the right to monetary freedom. “The swarm is headed towards us” -Satoshi Nakamoto
