Stellar has announced the introduction of smart contracts as part of its Protocol 20 update, passed by a validator vote on Feb. 20. The upgrade introduces Soroban, the new smart contracts system, to mainnet, and initiates a phased rollout for validators to monitor the performance of these transactions before scaling them at a subsequent phase.
Stellar Kickstarts Its Smarts Contracts Native Platform With Protocol 20 Update
Stellar, a cryptocurrency project, has announced the debut of its new smart contracts system with the Protocol 20 update. The network-wide upgrade, passed by a validator vote on Feb. 20, comes after over two years of work and will facilitate the developer’s work of building decentralized finance applications on top of the Stellar blockchain.
The update was qualified by Justin Rice, VP of ecosystem at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), as a “significant leap forward” and “the most transformative update to the Stellar network to date.” The rollout of Soroban, the smart contracts platform, will be approached in various phases to safeguard the operativeness of the network.
During phase 0, the focus will be on monitoring Soroban’s performance and fine-tuning the network to support the increased number of transactions while maintaining its functionality for existing projects. Phase 1 will be kickstarted by an increase in the limit of these transactions so that Soroban-based applications can scale and be leveraged by more users.
Phase 3 will allow all users to deploy smart contracts-based applications on the Stellar mainnet. Stellar remarked that this update will become a tool to open the door for financial inclusion for people who have been barred from using other similar opportunities due to high transaction costs.
The SDF stated that this update will help developers “reach untapped markets around the globe” and give Stellar users “access to financial services and applications like never before—pioneering finance for every pocket.”
It also detailed that it will inform about the rollout of each phase and the complete Soroban platform implementation in the coming days.
Source : Bitcoin News by Sergio Goschenko / Feb 23, 2024