Neon EVM Alpha — Now Live on Solana Devnet
TL;DR
- EVM on Solana is within reach. Neon EVM “Alpha” is now available for developers and testers on Solana Devnet.
- This Alpha period is meant for battle testing. We are looking for and welcome any feedback related to issues in code deployments or deficiencies in our documentation.
- The Neon Labs team is focused on partnering with crucial ecosystem infrastructure components like wallets, bridges, block explorers, oracles, indexers, DeFi legos, and others during this time to prepare for users on day one of Mainnet launch.
- If you are building and would like to get in touch about partnerships, grants, or anything else, the Neon Labs team is ready to hear from you.
Alpha is Live on Devnet
The Alpha version of Neon EVM is now live on Solana Devnet, meaning Ethereum developers looking to build on Solana using Solidity have a stable EVM to use.
During the Pre-Alpha, our developers were able to validate Neon EVM MVP functionality and launch NeonPass on Devnet. In addition, two crucial infrastructure components met key milestones in their integration/development:
- NeonScan — A block explorer for Neon devs and users to track transactions
- Indexing Dashboard — Created in partnership with Aleph, the indexing dashboard is needed to monitor Neon EVM performance and receive statistics on transaction efficiency. The dashboard will also help Neon operators monitor statistics and gas prices.
Presently, in the Alpha phase, the Neon Proxy and the Neon EVM Program (smart contract on Solana) are deemed to be stable. The two programs have been deployed on Devnet and can be tested by anyone. After testing on Devnet, Neon Labs will move to launch Neon EVM Beta, which will be on Solana Mainnet.
It’s important to remember that the Neon EVM Alpha represents an MVP. There are currently five unsupported Ethereum functions and four precompiled smart contracts that can’t yet be used on Solana. Compatibility with native Ethereum functions continues to be our highest priority, and the team is investigating solutions for the incompatibilities.
The Purpose of Neon EVM Alpha
The objective of the Alpha version of Neon EVM is to demonstrate platform stability to the community. A key component of this phase will be to identify any unknown issues and scenarios that may cause transactions to fail. The Alpha will be driven by the deployment of dApps on Neon EVM. The usage of and interaction with these dApps will give us a better understanding of how the EVM performs in practice.
After the initial launch on Devnet, Neon Labs plans to take Neon EVM to Solana Mainnet. The timing of the Mainnet launch will be determined by the data we gather from Devnet.
As for initial ecosystem infrastructure, developers and users will also be able to transfer SPL and ERC-20 tokens using NeonPass and swap supported ERC-20 tokens (USDT, USDC, wETH, wSOL, NEON) using MoraSwap (Neon’s first AMM.) Additionally, all transaction details will be available on NeonScan and the Aleph Indexing Dashboard.
A successful Alpha phase will include:
- A demonstration of platform stability through the identification of all transaction failure scenarios.
- The initial deployments of dApps.
- Key infrastructure in place, such as NeonScan block explorer, bridging solutions, and scalable RPC.
- DApp teams being ready for users on day one of Mainnet.
- The launch of Neon EVM to Mainnet.
Neon Proxy Operator Program During Alpha
Initially, all Operator nodes running on Devnet will be maintained by Neon Labs. As the product moves onto the next release phases, we will release the requirements to run an Operator node. Anyone meeting the node requirements will be able to apply to join the Operator Program. For all questions related to the Operator Program, please use the #operators channel on our discord. If you don’t have access, reach out to our discord admins.
How the Community Can Help
Community testing and feedback are critical during the Alpha phase. To help us out, feel free to experiment with Neon EVM Alpha while it is on Devnet. If you have anything to report or have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us using any of our social media channels. We welcome all feedback and insights.
All the questions related to the deployment of dApps and usage of Neon Alpha you are welcome to ask in our Discord #developer_support channel. However, the technical bugs should be reported via our GitHub.
To build the best product, we need you to help us stress test the platform in as many ways as possible.
What’s After Mainnet?
Following a successful Neon EVM Alpha phase and transition to Mainnet Beta, our integration roadmap is focused on delivering key Web3 building blocks like The Graph, Chainlink, and others. On the product roadmap side, Neon is entirely focused on integrating tightly with Solana programs, meaning the ability to read/write between contracts deployed on Neon EVM and Solana natively, to enable composability and a merging of two ecosystems. The additional stages will further mature the Neon EVM platform by enabling access to a broader spectrum of use cases, liquidity, and users.
We will be releasing a more comprehensive description of our roadmap in the coming weeks.
Join Our Community
Follow us on the social media and development channels below to stay informed. In addition to our regular posts, we release bi-weekly newsletters on Medium covering our development journey and any notable announcements. The next couple of months are certain to be eventful. We look forward to the community’s input into what we’ve built so far.
