Stellar Prepares Major Upgrade to Smart Contract Platform

Stellar (XLM) is gearing up for its next major protocol upgrade, known as Adapter or Protocol 28. This update focuses on improving Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform, and enhancing network performance to handle increasingly complex applications.

The changes introduced in Adapter aim to simplify the process of writing smart contracts on Stellar by reducing friction for developers managing these contracts.

Two key features are being added: CAP-85, which allows developers to update groups of contracts sharing executable code through atomic upgrades, and CAP-86, which addresses contract data migrations without disrupting redesigns.

The upgrade also introduces AddressV2, a new authentication format replacing the older Soroban address credential format. This change is part of Stellar's broader effort to make Soroban more practical for financial applications.