Jinghui Liao, a core contributor to Neo, has founded a new community called R3E Network, with the goal of enriching the Neo developer ecosystem through innovative tools. The R3E Network team consists of nine experienced developers and cryptographers focused on a range of initiatives, including the development of a real-time oracle solution, smart contract automation, ZK rollups, gas-free contracts, and the introduction of Rust tooling into the Neo ecosystem.

Four members of the team are currently allocated to the oracle node development, two are assigned to smart contracts and SDK development, and one is working on ZKP theory and design. The remaining two members are tasked with community management and website development.

Real-time oracle

R3E’s primary offering is its real-time oracle solution, which leverages trusted execution environments for security. This will be the first tool developed by R3E made available for community testing, aiming to deliver real-world data to smart contracts with close to 100% accuracy.

The solution addresses the efficiency issues inherent in traditional oracle solutions, which usually require at least one transaction or consensus round before accessing data from a source. Although such latency is acceptable when data remains stable, it proves inadequate when significant and frequent data fluctuations occur. To combat this problem, R3E Network has devised a unique approach to oracle construction, eliminating the need for a transaction prior to data retrieval.

This alternate approach raises questions regarding authenticity and integrity, such as ensuring the oracle operates honestly and verifying the accuracy of data posted on the blockchain. R3E Network’s solution is aimed at addressing these concerns while providing real-time data access. In addition to its oracle service, R3E Network plans to offer smart contract automation services, allowing smart contracts to register or automatically trigger events.

Trusted execution

Trusted execution environments, which provide secure and protected environments for processing sensitive data through a combination of hardware and software components in modern processors, are fundamental to R3E’s offerings. During a recent Twitter Spaces session with Neo, R3E Network members highlighted Apple’s Face ID technology as an example of TEEs in action. Jinghui explained that iPhone users might question the security of their face data storage, especially if their phones are lost or stolen. In such cases, the TEE securely stores the Face ID data, ensuring access solely by the CPU. Jinghui emphasized that hacking into a TEE is an incredibly difficult task, as it necessitates compromising the CPU itself. By processing requests within a TEE, data confidentiality is maintained, and unauthorized access is prevented, thereby upholding both authenticity and integrity.

Rust language

R3E Network is the first Neo developer community to adopt the Rust programming language, famed for its memory safety, performance, and steep learning curve. All oracle node functionality, including TEE and non-TEE components, will be developed with Rust. The team also intends to introduce Rust versions of the NeoVM and EVM into its oracle service. These building blocks may then act as a foundation for other Rust tooling in the future, such as dApp SDKs or a smart contract compiler.

The R3E Network GitHub can be found at the link below:
https://github.com/R3E-Network/