The Stellar Lumens (XLM) network, a prominent blockchain payment network that competes with Ripple and XRP in facilitating cross-border payments, is gearing up for a major upgrade to support Soroban smart contracts. The Stellar core development team has scheduled a testnet upgrade on September 20th, 1500 UTC, to roll out Soroban-based smart contracts for mass testing before finalizing the version. This upgrade, known as Protocol 20, will introduce new network settings included in the Stellar Core and Horizon.
The development of smart contracts using blockchain technology has revolutionized the global business environment and changed how governments perceive the cryptocurrency industry. The elimination of third parties in global transactions has greatly contributed to the adoption of decentralized financial (DeFi) protocols, which played a significant role in the 2021 crypto bull market. Consequently, many blockchains are now focused on supporting sustainable and scalable DeFi protocols to attract more developers. In line with this trend, the Stellar Lumens network has allocated considerable resources to building a next-generation smart contract environment in response to the increasing adoption of digital assets.
The Stellar development team underscores the need for an in-house built scalable smart contract platform that offers a consistent developer experience and high senstility. Enter Soroban, which has been designed to provide scalability from the start, allowing for concurrency. Soroban transactions include footprints or transaction dependencies, which enable the grouping and concurrent execution of transactions, taking advantage of modern multi-core hardware. This platform caters to DeFi developers who do not want to compromise between performance and simplicity. Extensive testing and research, including the ongoing Futurenet testnet, have been conducted to ensure the stability and functionality of Soroban.
The launch of the Protocol 20 testnet upgrade coincides with increased cryptocurrency volatility spurred by high-impact news from the United States and the United Kingdom. Market participants eagerly await economic outlook and interest rate announcements from the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and the Bank of England. Against this backdrop, the price of Stellar XLM has experienced a slight downturn in the past seven days, hovering around $0.117. However, the launch of the Soroban smart contracts presents a significant milestone that could potentially propel XLM’s price beyond 20 cents after the mainnet launch.
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In conclusion, the Stellar Lumens network is undergoing a major upgrade to support Soroban smart contracts. This upgrade, Protocol 20, will roll out on the testnet for mass testing before finalizing the version to be used in the mainnet. Soroban aims to provide a scalable and high-performance smart contract platform for developers in the DeFi space. The launch of this upgrade aligns with a volatile period in the cryptocurrency market, and market participants are eagerly awaiting the impact it may have on the price of Stellar XLM.
