Neo Kills Legacy Chain—N3 Now Runs the Show

Out with the old, in with the N3—Neo’s blockchain upgrade is complete, and the legacy network is officially retired. No more half-measures; this is a full infrastructure overhaul.

Why it matters: Neo N3 promises faster transactions, smarter contracts, and—of course—the usual ’enterprise-grade’ buzzwords that make VCs nod sagely while retail bags keep stacking.

The kicker? Another ’generational leap’ in blockchain tech... just don’t ask about the token price performance since the last one.

Neo Team Hits the Kill Switch

The idea of obsoleting a blockchain feels strange since decentralized networks by their nature are meant to live forever – or at least until the last node operator unplugs. In the case of Neo, the name and the network isn’t being killed stone dead: it’s already been replaced by Neo N3, and the shutdown of Neo Legacy is merely a formal note to remaining devs and users to move operations to the chain’s successor if they haven’t already.The Legacy testnet is poised to close on June 1, before the Legacy mainnet follows suit on October 31. Prior to this, a final snapshot of the network will be taken. This can be thought of as a time capsule, or perhaps a cryogenically preserved image of the Legacy chain in its final state. This isn’t being done just for posterity, incidentally: the eight years of blockchain data that the network has accrued continue to have value in attesting to various events that occurred onchain, and thus there is an economic and historical imperative to preserve this data.

Nostalgia for Neo 

In its announcement confirming the legacy chain’s closure, the Neo team took time out to highlight the data points that attest to its impressive benchmarks. During its lifespan, the chain has produced over 14 million blocks, processed over 281 million transactions, and prompted the creation of nearly 3 million addresses. More poignantly, its team adds that “It’s where many Neo developers began their journey and brought their dreams to life.”

But those dreams haven’t been put on pause: they’ve merely moved to Neo N3, which launched in 2021 as the next-gen successor to Neo Legacy. With developers and users having known for years that the Legacy chain was poised to be wound down, the official closure date won’t come as a shock. But it’ll nevertheless give crypto OGs a few feels as they think back to Neo’s remarkable run during the 2017 bull run, and the associated highs and lows that followed on a network that captured the industry’s imagination, not just in Asia, but around the world. 

So long Neo Legacy and thanks for the memories. Now it’s over to Neo N3 and its EVM sidechain Neo X for more of the same.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice