Stellar Protocol 28 Upgrade to Boost Smart Contract Development
The Stellar network is preparing for a major upgrade called Protocol 28, also known as Adapter. This upgrade aims to make it easier for developers to write smart contracts on the blockchain while improving consensus performance under load.
Two of the three changes in the Protocol 28 upgrade are designed specifically for Soroban smart contracts. CAP-85 introduces atomic upgrades for fleets of contracts, allowing users to update multiple contracts with shared code simultaneously. CAP-86 aims to make contract data migrations easier by providing a way to handle missing or extra fields during migrations.
The third change, CAP-83, strengthens the consensus layer and helps the network scale faster. It improves performance under load and gives validators a way to keep consensus moving even when transaction data is slow to propagate.
Stellar has released a timeline for the upgrade, with key dates including August 13 (core stable release), August 27 (testnet vote), September 16 (mainnet vote). Operators of typical SDK-based integrations are urged to bump their SDK version before these dates.