The Stellar Development Foundation has declared that the “Protocol 20” upgrade for the Stellar (XLM) blockchain network is currently operational. It marks Stellar’s official welcome to the mainnet for Soroban smart contracts.
The Stellar Development Foundation stated in a blog post that the Stellar smart contracts technology stack, which offers a safe, battery-included developer experience designed for scalability and practical application, entered a new era with the vote of Stellar network validators to upgrade Mainnet to Protocol 20.
The first smart contract is already operational on the mainnet, as per Stellar’s post.
For Stellar, the payments network looking to enhance its capabilities in the face of the global adoption of cryptocurrencies, this milestone is huge news.
The update was originally scheduled for January 30, but validators voted to defer Protocol 20 activation until a later time due to a bug event, as Invezz reported. According to an update from the SDF, validators had decided to begin a phased activation on February 20.
Steller said in September that it was getting close to implementing the Protocol 20 update, which will allow Soroban smart contracts on its network.
The Stellar Development Foundation also said, “The phased approach will give those validators, as well as other network participants, time to monitor smart contract functionality’s impact on the network and ensure performance, security, and stability at every step.”
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