R3E Network has released neo-rs v0.18.0, claiming a 189x performance improvement over baseline for the Rust-based Neo N3 node implementation. The release focuses on throughput and latency optimization through SIMD instructions, a lock-free mempool, and batch signature verification, while maintaining full protocol compatibility with the C# reference client.

The update follows v0.16.0’s achievement of 100% Neo N3 protocol parity earlier in September, a progression the project frames as establishing correctness first, then optimizing for speed.

Reported performance metrics

R3E Network reports the following benchmarks under what the release describes as “extreme workload” conditions:

Metric Baseline v0.18.0
Blocks/sec 5 945
Transactions/sec 75 14,175
State ops/sec 12,000 2,270,000
Block validation 850ms 185ms

These are project-provided figures. The release does not detail the hardware configuration or testing methodology used to produce the benchmarks.

Optimization approach

The release identifies 29 optimization areas. Among the most significant, according to the project:

SIMD cryptography. neo-rs now uses AVX2 and SHA-NI CPU extensions for cryptographic operations. R3E reports SHA256 hashing dropped from 2.8µs to 0.35µs per operation using hardware-accelerated instructions.

Lock-free mempool. The transaction pool was rebuilt using DashMap-based concurrent data structures, removing lock contention as a bottleneck during high-throughput periods.

Batch signature verification. Grouping signature checks reduced verification time from 4.28ms to 1.22ms per batch, according to the release.

Async I/O and background computation. RocksDB writes were made non-blocking, and state root computation now runs in the background rather than inline with block processing.

Zero-copy execution. The NeoVM stack was rebuilt with arena-backed allocation and reference-counted buffers to reduce memory overhead during contract execution.

The release notes acknowledge drawing on optimization techniques from other blockchain implementations, including Solana’s account prefetch patterns, Aptos’ Block-STM foundations, and Reth’s async I/O approach.

Protocol compatibility maintained

R3E states that v0.18.0 maintains 100% compatibility with C# Neo v3.10.1, with 3,075 tests passing and zero protocol deviations. The release added 104 new performance-specific tests to the suite.

Three known issues are identified, none described as affecting production operation: one Oracle test failure attributed to test setup configuration, a RocksDB compilation workaround required for Windows builds, and three MPT cache edge-case tests.

Roadmap

Jimmy Liao, R3E Network core developer, announced the release on Sept. 24. According to the project’s published roadmap, v0.19.0 is targeting Block-STM parallel execution in Q4 2026, with a v1.0.0 production stability milestone planned for Q1 2027.

neo-rs joins neo-cli and neo-go as the third Neo N3 node implementation. The v0.18.0 release is available via Docker and binary downloads for Linux and Windows, with macOS ARM64 supported through Docker only.

The full release notes can be found at the link below:
https://github.com/r3e-network/neo-rs/releases/tag/v0.18.0

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