• Stellar has upgraded to Protocol 21, boosting efficiency and lowering costs.

• The update includes changes to how contracts manage their lifespan transaction fees calculations.

 According to a recent announcement, the Stellar network has implemented a major upgrade, Protocol 21, aimed at enhancing its security and efficiency. The update, which received approval from public network validators, introduces five Core Advancement Proposals (CAPs) to enhance the efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of the Stellar Mainnet.

Key Enhancements in Protocol 21

• CAP-0053: Enhanced Time to Live Management

CAP-0053 introduces two distinct host functions to manage the Time to Live (TTL) for both contract instances and contract code separately. This allows users to handle the TTL of contract components independently, improving rent fee distribution and state archival functionality. Developed by community member Tommaso De Ponti, this proposal is expected to optimize resource utilization and streamline contract management.

• CAP-0054: Refined VM Instantiation Cost Model

CAP-0054 overhauls the virtual machine (VM) instantiation cost model, which previously tied CPU costs to transaction fees. The updated model charges fees based on actual usage, providing a more accurate and cost-effective framework. This change aims to reduce overall transaction costs and enhance network scalability, allowing for more efficient resource allocation and better performance.

• CAP-0055: Streamlined Linking Process

CAP-0055 simplifies the linking process during VM instantiation by reducing the number of host functions linked to each contract. Prior to this update, all host functions were linked, increasing CPU costs per transaction. Now, only the functions explicitly imported by the contract are linked, lowering CPU costs and allowing more transactions per ledger. This improvement is set to enhance the overall network performance and efficiency.

• CAP-0056: Intra-Transaction Module Caching for Soroban

CAP-0056 introduces intra-transaction module caching for Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract platform. Previously, invoking the same contract multiple times within a single transaction required repeated parsing, which was resource-intensive. The new module cache ensures that contracts are parsed only once per transaction, regardless of the number of invocations. This improvement eliminates redundant parsing, significantly boosting throughput and performance.

Impact on the Stellar Network

These enhancements will significantly elevate the Stellar network’s efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and scalability. The refined VM instantiation cost model and streamlined linking process will reduce transaction costs and improve network throughput. The introduction of intra-transaction module caching for Soroban will further enhance performance by minimizing redundant operations.

By implementing these updates, Stellar aims to provide a more robust and performant blockchain ecosystem capable of supporting a higher volume of transactions with reduced costs. The independent management of TTL for contract components, as facilitated by CAP-0053, will also contribute to a more flexible and efficient contract lifecycle management.

Stellar (XLM) has shown resilience in the face of recent market volatility, maintaining a price of approximately $0.09248 with a slight 1.07% increase over the past 24 hours. The coin boasts a market cap of $2.68 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $92.4, registering a 25% decline. Despite its current stability, XLM is down significantly, approximately 90%, from its all-time high of $0.930121, which reached January 4, 2018. Since its peak, the lowest price it has dropped is $0.02766, while the highest rebound is $0.796465.