Stellar completes Protocol 20 upgrade, rolls out Soroban smart contract platform

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The Stellar Development Foundation has announced that it has deployed smart contracts on its Stellar Network, enabled by its Protocol 20 upgrade, which previously met delays due to bugs.

The Protocol 20 upgrade marks the phased rollout of its smart contract platform, Soroban. The organization hopes Soroban will enhance developer experience and attract them to build into its new ecosystem.

This smart contracts ecosystem will enable the development of decentralized applications (dApps), allowing builders to construct protocols and applications on the Stellar network.

Smart contracts are self-executing programs that automate required actions and calls for transactions. Once completed, the transactions become trackable on the blockchain and are irreversible. Due to their design, smart contracts allow for trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out without the need for a central authority, legal system, or any external enforcement mechanism.

Established in 2014 by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, the Stellar Network operates as a decentralized blockchain payments protocol. The protocol was designed to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of cross-border transfers.

Back in October 2022, around the same time that Soroban entered the Stellar testnet, the SDF launched a $100 million funding initiative to invite developers to build on the smart contract platform. The past two years saw the SDF collaborating with its community to develop and extend functionalities for Soroban.

Soroban and the deployment of smart contracts on the Stellar network are significant milestones for the organization and represent a move venturing beyond its current niche of payment and tokenization.

Despite the announcement of the long-awaited upgrade, Stellar’s native Lumens ($XLM) token seems to have failed at catching up with the hype as it is currently trading at $0.111 according to data from CoinGecko, down 6.1% over the past 24 hours. Stellar Lumens has yet to regain its all-time high of $0.87 from over six years ago.

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