Stellar (XLM) Testnet Upgraded To Protocol 21, Will It Impact Price?

The Stellar Testnet protocol just got upgraded to Protocol 21 as one of the most important steps in the blockchain’s smart contract evolution. According to the update it shared on its official X account, with this testnet upgrade, Stellar is now well-positioned to actualize the rest of the milestones in its roadmap.

Stellar Protocol 21 Upgrade: Next Steps To Watch

Stellar was developed as a predominantly payment engine and after garnering a significant market share, it is choosing to pivot. The most renowned layer-1 blockchain protocols have full smart contract functionality and Stellar hopes to join the train through Protocol 21.

The grand proposal to adopt the smart contract capability gained approved by the network’s validators in February. This backing was vital as part of the roadmap to ushering in Protocol 21 update will involve the entire community. Following this Testnet update, Stellar has unveiled the next major timeline to watch its its updated roadmap. These dates include May 30, June 11 and June 18 respectively.

Network update: the Stellar Testnet has been upgraded to Protocol 21. Here's what comes next:

▪️ May 30: Stable releases of Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC
▪️ June 11: Testnet reset
▪️ June 18: Mainnet upgrade vote

Check the Protocol 21 Upgrade Guide for the most up-to-date…

— Stellar (@StellarOrg) May 14, 2024

On May 30, the blockchain said it will implement the Stable releases of Stellar Core, Horizon and RPC. The Stellar Core slated for May 30 remain the second candidate developed to support Protocol 21. On June 11, the protocol will implement a Testnet reset to guarantee all the changes and additions works optimally.

Just like the crucial vote featuring validators that official ushered in the Protocol 21 era, another vote is in view. On June 18, the entire Stellar ecosystem will implement a Mainnet upgrade vote, a result of which will determine the future of the network.

Should the plans work out, the blockchain will make the grand transition with intense upsides for XLM. As the native asset of the Stellar network, XLM will play a central role in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) set to emerge. Potentially, the price impact might turn out to be resounding in the long term.

While this is a major boost, at the time of writing, XLM is changing hands for $0.103, down by 1.33% in 24 hours.

Drastic L1 Upgrades In Web3

While Stellar is exploring a major upgrade, it will not be the first to chart such ambitious growth path. Filecoin (FIL), EOS, and Chainlink (LINK) have implemented smart contract functionality to connect with the EVM ecosystem.

Ethereum’s migration from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) through The Merge remains one of the most ambitious switches in the industry to date. As the biggest DeFi protocol, Ethereum has maintained related upgrades thus far.

Already, the Soroban smart contract upgrade on Stellar is gaining broad-ecosystem backing. After Protocol 21 integration was certified, the first sets of smart contracts has gone live on the protocol.

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