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The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has declared the successful launch of smart contracts on its network, a milestone they anticipate will transform their technological framework.
In a blog entry published on Tuesday, the SDF disclosed that the validators of the Stellar (XLM) network had effectively executed the “Protocol 20” upgrade, which facilitates the activation of smart contracts and commences the gradual rollout of their smart contract platform, Soroban.
“Stellar network validators voted to upgrade Mainnet to Protocol 20, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the Stellar smart contracts technology stack, which offers a secure, comprehensive developer experience designed for scalability and practical application,” the announcement stated.
Smart Contracts to Improve Developer Experience on Stellar
The rollout of smart contracts on Stellar is intended to enhance the experience for developers, especially those working with the Rust and WebAssembly (WASM) programming languages.
This initiative is anticipated to create a more accessible environment for developers.
Smart Contracts are LIVE on Stellar! #XLM pic.twitter.com/7WNzxnqc5f
— Zach Rector (@ZachRector7) February 20, 2024
Soroban, the smart contract platform that was first launched on the Stellar testnet in October 2022, features scalability attributes such as predictable fees and independent resource pricing.
The SDF highlighted that this new smart contract ecosystem would facilitate the development of decentralized applications (DApps), allowing developers to create innovative protocols and applications on the Stellar network.
The mainnet deployment of smart contracts was postponed in January due to a bug identified in Stellar Core.
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While the SDF assured that the bug presented minimal risk, they opted to resolve it prior to launching the smart contract platform to guarantee the stability and security of applications developed on it.
Stellar’s $100 Million Funding Initiative
To motivate developers to adopt the Soroban smart contract platform, the SDF launched a $100 million funding initiative in October 2022.
Throughout the last two years, the SDF, in partnership with the Stellar community, has been focused on enhancing smart contract capabilities.
Nevertheless, despite these recent advancements, Stellar’s native token XLM did not experience a notable price increase.
In the last 24 hours, XLM has seen a 1% decrease, currently priced at $0.116.
XLM has struggled to align with the broader cryptocurrency market surge in 2024, remaining 87% below its peak of $0.875, achieved in January 2018.
This cryptocurrency is among the oldest and most established blockchain initiatives, having been established in 2014 by Jed McCaleb.
Prior to Stellar, McCaleb founded the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and was a co-creator of Ripple.
The post Smart Contracts Go Live on Stellar, Kicking Off a “New Era” for the Network appeared first on Cryptonews.
