Neo co-founder Erik Zhang has added a draft CAIP-2 profile for Neo N3 to the Chain Agnostic namespace registry. The profile defines neo:860833102 because the standardized chain identifier for Neo N3 MainNet, supplying a naming-layer prerequisite for integration with CAIP-2-based programs such because the x402 cost protocol. The identifier has been merged into the Chain Agnostic Requirements Alliance registry, although its standing stays Draft.
Zhang described the motivation in his announcement:
I began this work after noticing that protocols resembling x402 depend on CAIP-2, whereas native Neo had no canonical identifier. After neighborhood dialogue and upstream assessment, the neo namespace and CAIP-2 profile have now been merged into the Chain Agnostic namespace registry. Small piece of infrastructure, however an essential prerequisite for wallets, SDKs, funds and multi-chain functions to deal with Neo as a first-class community.
What’s the CAIP normal?
CAIP stands for Chain Agnostic Enchancment Proposals, a group of specs printed by the Chain Agnostic Requirements Alliance. The undertaking goals to do for blockchain interoperability what the Web Engineering Job Power does for web protocols: outline impartial, multi-stakeholder requirements that any chain can implement, with out being tied to any single blockchain’s conventions.
The specs are maintained in two GitHub repositories. The primary holds the CAIP specs themselves. The second holds namespace profiles, one per blockchain household, the place chains register their identifiers and doc their particular implementations of every CAIP.
CAIP requirements cowl a variety of interoperability issues, from how you can determine a sequence to how you can determine an account on that chain, to how wallets and dApps negotiate capabilities throughout ecosystems. The important thing ones related to Neo’s registration are:
- CAIP-2: Blockchain ID, the canonical format for figuring out any blockchain.
- CAIP-10: Account ID, which extends CAIP-2 to determine pockets addresses in a chain-agnostic method.
- CAIP-19: Asset Kind and Asset ID, canonical identifiers for tokens and NFTs throughout chains.
- CAIP-25: Pockets Create Session JSON-RPC Technique, which standardizes how dApps request capabilities and permissions from wallets throughout completely different ecosystems.
How does CAIP-2 work?
CAIP-2 defines a easy however consequential format: namespace:reference. The namespace identifies the blockchain household or protocol. The reference identifies the precise community inside that household.
Ethereum Mainnet, for instance, is eip155:1. The eip155 namespace covers the Ethereum household of chains, and 1 is Ethereum MainNet’s chain ID. Any EVM-compatible chain, together with Neo’s personal EVM sidechain Neo X, will be recognized beneath the eip155 namespace utilizing its chain ID. Neo N3, which runs its personal distinct protocol stack, requires its personal namespace.
The reference in neo:860833102 is Neo N3’s community magic quantity, an integer embedded within the protocol that distinguishes Neo N3 MainNet from different networks on the byte degree. The profile notes that community magic values are usually not assured to be globally distinctive, as non-public networks can reuse them, however the worth serves because the canonical community discriminator in Neo’s protocol and is the pure alternative for the CAIP-2 reference.
Earlier than this registration, there was no agreed-upon, cross-ecosystem technique to seek advice from Neo N3 in chain-agnostic protocols. Multi-chain instruments that wanted to reference Neo N3 had no normal string to make use of.
What’s x402, and why is CAIP-2 related?
x402 is an open HTTP cost protocol constructed round HTTP standing code 402, which the unique HTTP specification reserved for “Fee Required.” Initially developed and open-sourced by Coinbase, x402 is now stewarded by the Linux Basis’s x402 Basis as of July 2026. It’s designed for machine-readable, automated funds, notably for AI brokers that have to pay for API entry with out human intervention.
The protocol circulation works as follows:
- A shopper sends a request to a paid API endpoint.
- The server responds with a 402 standing and a machine-readable cost requirement.
- The shopper indicators a cost authorization and retries the request.
- The server or cost facilitator verifies the authorization and settles the cost on-chain.
All the trade is automated and doesn’t require a user-facing cost interface.
x402 makes use of CAIP-2 identifiers to specify which blockchain and community a cost needs to be settled on. A cost facilitator constructed on x402 references chains by their CAIP-2 identifier. And not using a registered identifier, a sequence shouldn’t be addressable inside that naming layer.
Neo’s neo:860833102 identifier makes Neo N3 referenceable within the CAIP-2 naming system that x402 makes use of. Nonetheless, the registration alone doesn’t make Neo N3 operationally supported by x402 facilitators. For Neo to operate as an x402 settlement chain, the ecosystem would nonetheless want a Neo-specific payment-scheme implementation, client-side transaction signing, server-side verification and settlement logic, and NEP-17 asset help, which is figure that continues to be to be accomplished.
What does the registration allow downstream?
The CAIP-2 registration establishes the identifier layer. The sensible implications construct on prime of it, although every requires its personal implementation work.
Multi-chain wallets and SDKs that implement CAIP requirements now have a standardized identifier for Neo N3. WalletConnect, for instance, makes use of CAIP-2 and CAIP-25 to ascertain connections between dApps and wallets throughout completely different chains. With a registered Neo namespace, these integrations can reference Neo utilizing an ordinary string moderately than customized naming conventions. Nonetheless, precise Neo account dealing with, signing, RPC help, and transaction logic would nonetheless have to be carried out for full integration.
The neo namespace additionally offers the inspiration for additional CAIP registrations. CAIP-10 account IDs for Neo N3 pockets addresses, CAIP-19 asset identifiers for NEP-17 tokens, and CAIP-25 pockets session interactions can now be developed on prime of the established namespace.
CAIP-222 and CAIP-25, at the moment at Draft and Assessment standing respectively, are the cross-ecosystem analogs of NEP-20, Neo’s pockets authentication normal, and NEP-21, its unified dAPI normal. The CAIP-25 comparability is partial, as CAIP-25 covers session creation whereas NEP-21 defines a broader dAPI floor. The CAIP-2 registration is the purpose at which Neo’s inner requirements can start to change into legible to that wider ecosystem.
Any protocol, bridge, or utility that makes use of CAIP-2 for chain identification, not solely x402, can now reference Neo N3 utilizing a standardized identifier. Chain-specific logic remains to be required for precise interplay with the community, however the identifier removes the necessity for customized naming conventions.
The complete announcement will be discovered on the hyperlink beneath:
https://x.com/erikzhang/standing/2089902094874775696
