Neo co-founder Erik Zhang detailed a series of protocol-level updates across Neo N3 and the upcoming Neo 4, with a focus on transaction fee controls and native token infrastructure.
Contract fee whitelist
Neo core developers have completed development of the Subscription Rate Whitelist for Neo N3, and this feature is currently in testing and ported to Neo 4. This mechanism allows selected smart contracts to operate under alternative pricing rules defined at the protocol level.
Whitelisted contracts employ a fixed rate GAS model, allowing for predictable and stable execution costs. Neo 4 further extends the design and introduces a zero-fee execution mode for critical on-chain infrastructure. This is true for use cases such as stablecoins and identity systems where transactions can be performed without GAS fees at the protocol level.
Control of the whitelist is assigned to the Neo Council through the native PolicyContract, allowing governance to decide which contracts are eligible.
TokenManagement native contract
Zhang also announced the addition of TokenManagement, a new native contract designed to integrate token infrastructure on Neo. This agreement provides a shared foundation for both fungible and non-fungible tokens, replacing the need for projects to implement token logic separately. NEO and GAS native contracts will also be adjusted to use the new management contract.
TokenManagement supports NEP-17-style alternative tokens and NFTs that use the same underlying primitives, including deterministic asset IDs, shared accounting logic, unified storage, and standardized events and callbacks.
By integrating these components at the protocol level, Neo aims to reduce duplicate code and improve token security across the ecosystem.
Protected token callback
As part of the TokenManagement rollout, Neo added virtual machine-level enforcement for token callbacks. methods such as onPayment, onNFTPayment, onTransferand onNFTTransfer Can now only be called by native contract.
This change prevents spoofed callback calls, forged token interactions, and types of reentrancy and logic spoofing attacks. Token callback security is enforced directly by the VM, rather than relying on developer conventions.
enshrines protocol-level primitives
According to Zhang, TokenManagement reflects a broader change in Neo’s design philosophy. Core mechanisms have been moved to audited native contracts, allowing application developers to focus on higher-level logic rather than low-level accounting and implementation details.
Neo positions this approach as the basis for further improving on-chain security while improving the long-term maintainability of the protocol.
The announcement can be found on Zhang’s X page.
https://x.com/neoerikzhang