Stellar Community Commends Stellar Development Fund’s Postponement of Soroban Upgrade
The anticipated Protocol 20 upgrade of the Stellar blockchain, originally scheduled for January 30, has been postponed by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF). This decision was made after a bug was discovered in Stellar Core v20.1.0. In order to prioritize network integrity, the SDF has chosen to “disarm” its validators and delay the Protocol 20 vote until the bug is resolved.
The bug, identified on January 25, specifically affects Soroban transactions, particularly those involving fee-bumped refunds. The issue arises from refunds being redirected to the source account of the inner transaction instead of the fee-bump’s source. Despite the bug being deemed low risk, the SDF is already working on a fix, demonstrating their proactive stance on network security.
By delaying the vote, the SDF is allowing other validators on the network, who are not governed by the SDF, to still have the option to vote for the Protocol 20 upgrade as originally planned.
In recognizing this, the SDF has expressed their willingness to “coordinate” with validators to set a new vote date once the bug fix is released, highlighting the collaborative decision-making process on the Stellar network. Currently, there are 43 validator nodes on the network, each playing a crucial role in upgrades like these.
The SDF has also played a significant role in enhancing the Stellar ecosystem, particularly through the launch of a $100 million fund in October 2022 to attract developers to Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract platform. Tyler van der Hoeven, a core developer at Stellar, has described Protocol 20 as a “phased rollout,” suggesting a careful and gradual implementation process.
The response from the Stellar community to the SDF’s decision to delay the Protocol 20 upgrade has been overwhelmingly supportive. Prominent community member Stellar Skull expressed their support, acknowledging the minimal risk of the bug and commending the decision to postpone the Soroban upgrade.
Despite these developments, the market response, particularly regarding Stellar’s native token XLM, has remained stable. XLM is currently trading at $0.1144, with only slight fluctuations, and maintains a market capitalization of around $3.29 billion. This stability demonstrates the market’s confidence in Stellar, even during significant technical updates.
