According to U.Today, the Stellar network is preparing for a significant upgrade, known as Protocol 21, which could redefine its ecosystem. This comes after the successful launch of Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform, on the mainnet following a validator vote on February 20, 2024. Now, nearly three months later, the Stellar network is gearing up for another protocol vote. On June 18, 2024, Stellar public network validators will decide whether to upgrade the network to Protocol 21. If approved, this will enable five new Core Advancement Proposals (CAPs) on Stellar’s Mainnet.
These five CAPs introduce several new features, including passkey signing support and an upgrade to state archives, as well as cost savings for smart contract transactions. These include CAP-0051, which enables secp256r1 verification of Stellar's smart contracts via the exported host interface. This will allow developers to create contracts that include passkeys to sign smart contract transactions. CAP-0053 allows for the extension of the time to live (TTL) for contract instances and contract code through independent Soroban smart contract host functions. The other three CAPs aim to keep Soroban transactions affordable. They include CAP-0054, which refines the cost model for virtual machine (VM) instantiation, CAP-0055, which reduces overall costs by linking to fewer host functions during VM instantiation, and CAP-0056, which reduces overall costs by caching parsed Wasm modules within Soroban transactions.
The Testnet upgrade to Protocol 21 is scheduled for May 14, 2024, with the Mainnet vote taking place on June 18, 2024. As the countdown to the upgrade continues, anticipation continues to mount within the Stellar community and beyond. The upcoming upgrade represents a pivotal moment in Stellar's journey and could pave the way for even greater achievements in the future.