The Neo4j 3.0 Milestone 1 release introduces Bolt, a new network protocol designed for high-performance access to graph databases, consolidating and refining existing ways of working with Neo4j. This milestone marks the start of a new major branch of development, bringing forward best features while leaving behind less useful ones, and is available for download as part of the Early Access Program. Bolt improves both performance and developer experience, using a compact binary encoding over TCP or web sockets, and provides uniform language drivers that encapsulate the protocol, freeing contributors to focus on unique integration. Cypher advances are also included, such as improved cost-based planning for queries mixing reads and writes, and expanded support for various Neo4j operations. The release includes additional features, notes about milestone 1, and a call for feedback from users.