The Stellar Development Foundation has enabled Protocol 20 and smart contracts on its network, improving scalability and efficiency and marking a growth milestone.
Mainnet upgrade to protocol 20
On February 20, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a major upgrade to the Stellar network with validators voting to adopt Protocol 20. This marks the introduction of smart contracts to the network, a technological advancement that is poised to enrich the Stellar ecosystem even further. specially.
Phased implementation of smart contracts
The implementation of smart contracts, known as Soroban, will be done in stages to ensure that performance, security and stability of the network are not compromised. This measured approach allows for a gradual increase in capacity for smart contract transactions, with network validators carefully monitoring each step.
The Soroban rollout follows extensive testing, with over 160 projects on Stellar’s Testnet and significant funding through the Stellar Community Fund to support developers. The transition from Testnet to Mainnet for these projects will signal the start of Phase 1, after which decentralized applications (dapps) will become available to the public.
Soroban’s advantage
Soroban is designed to be secure, scalable and cost-effective. It uses Rust and WebAssembly (WASM), which provides developers with familiar and reliable tools, lowering the barrier to entry when creating smart contracts. Soroban smart contracts aim to address common blockchain issues such as state bloat through a fee and metering structure that values individual resource consumption independently.
Impact on financial affordability
The introduction of smart contracts on Stellar is in line with the network’s decade-long mission to bring financial services to the world’s underserved population. Smart contracts are expected to open new doors for both builders and consumers, enabling a more inclusive financial landscape by bridging the gap for those without traditional banking access.
Stellar’s established ecosystem
Stellar’s established network of exchanges, on and off ramps, custody providers and wallets offer a solid foundation for developers and entrepreneurs. With a proven track record of reliability, Stellar positions itself as a solid starting point for projects leveraging new smart contract capabilities.
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