News on the Neon upgrade v14:

Geometric TWAP

As part of the Osmosis v12 upgrade, arithmetic averaging has been implemented for pricing, but when used as an oracle for lending protocols, it's better to consider upward price manipulation using geometric averaging. The Neon upgrade will enable Osmosis liquidity pools to expose both the arithmetic and geometric pricing mechanisms, allowing protocols to choose which mechanism they use. This will be useful for the implementation of concentrated liquidity, as it will streamline price tickers.

Downtime Detection Module

This can detect if the Osmosis system is recovering from downtime, then display this data as a query to the contract. This is useful in preventing improper liquidation in lending protocols that rely on Osmosis price data if Osmosis  goes down. The downtime detection module allows oracles to query how long the chain has been recovering from downtime, and the operator can choose a time frame after the restart at which they can return accurate price data.

IBC v4.2.0 Upgrade and Wasm Hooks

Osmosis is upgrading its IBC implementation to version 4.2.0. This will unlock the ability to repeatedly use wasm hooks across chains and launch outpost dexes on other chains to make cross-chain swaps using Osmosis liquidity. Outpost dexes will allow any chain that supports cosmwasm to have access to Osmosis liquidity without needing to transfer funds to Osmosis in a separate step.

Impact

This upgrade is important for the future deployment of the Mars protocol on the Osmosis blockchain. The improvement of the Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) will allow the transfer of Osmosis liquidity between other blockchains connected to IBC, which will benefit the entire CosmosHub.