Stellar, the blockchain network striving for innovation, has reached a significant milestone with the long-awaited deployment of smart contracts following a 16-month stint on testnet. The announcement, made by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) on Feb. 20, heralds a new chapter for the platform, marking the initiation of what it terms as “a new era” for its technological framework.
The “Protocol 20” upgrade, done by the people who keep Stellar working, now lets smart contracts join the platform. This also means Soroban, which is Stellar’s smart contract platform, will be added slowly. It’s made to help developers, especially those who use Rust and WebAssembly languages, to do their work more easily.
Soroban, which underwent testing on the Stellar testnet starting October 2022, boasts features tailored for scalability, including predictable fees and independent resource pricing mechanisms. With the launch of smart contracts, blockchain network anticipates fostering the development of decentralized applications (DApps), empowering creators to innovate novel protocols and applications within the network.
Stellar Overcomes Hurdles In Smart Contract Deployment
However, the road to this milestone was not without its hurdles. Earlier in January, the SDF encountered a setback when a bug was discovered in Stellar Core, prompting a temporary delay in the smart contract mainnet upgrade. Despite reassurances from the firm regarding the limited risk posed by the bug, caution prevailed to ensure the integrity of applications once the smart contract platform went live.
To incentivize developers to leverage the capabilities of Soroban, the SDF initiated a $100 million funding initiative in October 2022. This initiative underscores the foundation’s commitment to fostering a vibrant ecosystem around smart contract development within the blockchain network.
While the announcement of smart contract deployment signifies a significant leap forward for Stellar, the native Stellar token, XLM, has yet to witness a substantial uptick in its market performance. Current data indicates a marginal 1% decline in the past 24 hours, with XLM trading at $0.116. Despite the broader crypto market rally in 2024, XLM lags behind, registering an 87% decrease from its January 2018 all-time high of $0.875.
As blockchain network embarks on this new phase of innovation with smart contracts, stakeholders eagerly await the unfolding impact on the network’s ecosystem and its position within the broader cryptocurrency landscape.