DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
Balanced Network's Q2 2024 update details deployments on five new blockchains including Avalanche, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Base, and Havah, alongside smart contract audits and cross-chain preparations. Governance saw 19 proposals passed, with the DAO earning $33k in fees and burning ICX as part of economic enshrinement with ICON. Q3 plans include cross-chain loans and launches on Injective, Optimism, Polygon, and Stellar.
Pendulum's Q2 2024 roundup highlights the launch of their Forex AMM on Testnet powered by Nabla and progress on the Spacewalk bridge uniting Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems. Key developments include vDOT collateral from a successful Polkadot treasury proposal, stablecoin offramping to bank accounts, Soroswap integration, Subscan listing, and new liquidity pools on Zenlink for Stellar holders. Governance referendums advanced asset registrations and network upgrades.
Alterscope, a Stellar Community Fund featured project, offers a comprehensive risk dashboard for the Soroban ecosystem to enhance DeFi transparency and risk management. It provides real-time risk overviews, customizable frameworks, and metrics across security, liquidity, community, and governance. Integration benefits dApps by boosting credibility, attracting liquidity providers, and promoting regulatory compliance.
Alterscope introduces a comprehensive risk dashboard for the Stellar Soroban ecosystem, recently funded by the Stellar Community Fund. It provides real-time risk metrics, transparency, and customizable frameworks to help liquidity providers assess protocols. Integration benefits dApps by enhancing credibility, attracting investments, and promoting a safer DeFi environment.
The Stellar Development Foundation hosted a Cash-to-DeFi challenge track at Consensus X EasyA 2024 Hackathon in Austin, attracting global developers to build real-world financial solutions. Five winning projects were selected, including DeFindexes, Global Rupee, RampMeDaddy, Punch Starter, and Lumen Finance, each addressing financial inclusion and DeFi accessibility.
The Spacewalk bridge connects Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems, enabling Stellar users to access Polkadot's DeFi capabilities and Pendulum's fiat-DeFi infrastructure. This integration allows seamless asset transfers, forex DEX, yield farming with stablecoins, and cross-border payments. It expands opportunities for Stellar community in advanced blockchain applications.
Stellar's Protocol 21 upgrade, scheduled for a validator vote on June 18, 2024, introduces five Core Advancement Proposals including passkey signing support via secp256r1 verification, improved state archival functions, and three cost optimization CAPs for Soroban smart contracts.
Zebec Network recaps a transformative month featuring a full rebrand, migration to the new $ZBCN token now live on major exchanges, release of their V2 whitepaper, and product upgrades. They highlight a Stellar Foundation grant for WageLink's cross-border remittance integration, enhancements to Zebec Instant Card with new tokens and currencies, and community rewards via airdrops. The update also covers their 'Future of Money' interview series and upcoming events.
The development team shares updates from April 26, 2024, including bug fixes, new UI testing for the Custom Risk Framework, and live Governance and Tokenomics V2 dashboards. Key advancements feature Stellar Soroban nodes deployment, internal client readiness, and API support for circuit generators. Additional improvements cover data pipelines, price oracles for Optimism tokens, and Ethereum/NEAR analytics.
Script3 founder Markus Paulson-Luna discusses Blend Capital, a decentralized lending protocol on Stellar that lets users, DAOs, and institutions create customizable lending pools. The interview covers Blend's architecture, insurance mechanisms, and integration with Beans.
STOCKen CAPITAL has been awarded in Stellar Community Fund #24, marking a key milestone in integrating Soroban services. The funding enables enhancements in cryptocurrency payments via Stellar, smart contracts with Soroban, and oracle connections for secure legal processes. This advances their platform for capital acquisition and digital governance using blockchain.
Pendulum's Q1 2024 roundup highlights the launch of the Spacewalk bridge connecting Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems for seamless XLM and stablecoin transfers. Key developments include reward structures for bridge vaults, new liquidity pools on Zenlink and StellaSwap, and progress on Forex AMM powered by Nabla. Community engagement and governance updates further strengthen the ecosystem's growth.
A protocol on Stellar has deployed an airdrop of its governance token to early and super adopters, distributing 28.8 million out of 64 million total supply via claimable balances. Claim deadline is April 30, 2024, with unclaimed tokens returning to the DAO treasury. Future protocol fees will fund the DAO for community governance.
The Spacewalk Bridge is now live on the Pendulum network, enabling trust-minimized transfers of XLM and fiat-backed stablecoins like EURC, AUDD, NGNC, TZS, and BRL between Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems. Stellar users can trade XLM on Zenlink DEX and provide liquidity in pools such as XLM.s/PEN and XLM.s/DOT. Pendulum's Forex DEX powered by Nabla offers single-sided liquidity provision without impermanent loss, enhancing DeFi accessibility.
Creit protocol on Stellar celebrates over 200 domains registered with 130k+ XLM collateral after one month. They're launching DAO governance by distributing nearly half the governance token supply to early adopters as thanks. Upcoming features include domain buy/sell and full governance contract by end of April.
The Stellar Development Foundation commissioned PwC to develop a global financial inclusion framework to help assess how blockchain-based solutions can advance digital financial inclusion and enhance the social impact of financial service providers.
A new protocol launches its website as Soroban goes live on Stellar mainnet in phase 0. The protocol, developed in just 20 days since February 3rd, aims to become the de facto domain service on Soroban with free-to-use features and future DAO plans. It's been on testnet since February 4th, 2024, awaiting full deployment.
Protocol 20 is now live on Stellar Mainnet, enabling smart contracts through Soroban. Validators are coordinating a phased rollout with a Phase 1 vote scheduled for February 27, 2024, to gradually increase Soroban resource limits.
Stellar network validators voted to upgrade Mainnet to Protocol 20 on Feb. 20, enabling Soroban smart contracts with a phased rollout approach. The upgrade delivers a secure, scalable, and developer-friendly smart contract platform built on Rust and WASM, designed for real-world financial inclusion and low-cost transactions.
Stellar network validators postponed the Protocol 20 upgrade vote due to a bug discovered in Stellar Core v20.1.0. The SDF has outlined a new timeline with a bug fix release on February 2, testnet reset on February 6, and a target Protocol 20 upgrade vote on February 20.
Stellar Development Foundation delayed its Protocol 20 upgrade beyond Jan. 30 after discovering a bug in Soroban smart contracts software. Six of seven tier-1 validators signaled support for postponement, likely preventing the upgrade from reaching quorum.
The Stellar Development Foundation has decided to disarm its validators and postpone the Protocol 20 upgrade scheduled for January 30, 2024, following ecosystem concerns about a discovered bug in Stellar Core v20.1.0 affecting fee bumps for Soroban transactions.
The Stellar Development Foundation disclosed a bug in Stellar Core v20.1.0 affecting fee-bumped Soroban transactions, where refunds are incorrectly sent to the sponsored account instead of the sponsor. SDF decided to proceed with the Protocol 20 upgrade vote on January 30 as planned, citing low risk during early Soroban phases and the availability of mitigation best practices.
Educational explainer on Stellar's Proof-of-Agreement consensus mechanism, using real-world analogies to explain how quorums, slices, and topens enable decentralized agreement without proof-of-work or proof-of-stake.
Aquarius announces updates and 2024 plans for building AMMs on Stellar using Soroban smart contracts. They've developed CPMM and StableSwap models inspired by Uniswap and Curve, with AQUA rewards for liquidity providers. A new UI and integrations are planned post-Soroban mainnet launch on January 30, 2024.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced Protocol 20, which brings Soroban smart contracts to Stellar. The network will adopt a phased rollout approach to gradually increase smart contract capacity while monitoring network stability and performance.
The Stellar Development Foundation submitted comments to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on blockchain sustainability standards under the MiCA regulation, highlighting the Stellar network's environmental efficiencies and promoting the use of existing assessment methodologies like the Blockchain Sustainability Framework developed with PwC.
Stellar Community Fund launches SCF 5.0 with Neural Quorum Governance, a reputation-based voting mechanism built on Soroban. The fund deployed $10M to 130+ projects in 2023 and introduces streamlined Activation and Community Awards up to $50K and $100K respectively.
The Stellar Development Foundation published 'A Practical Framework for Decentralization,' a policy paper that provides a structured approach for evaluating and measuring decentralization in blockchain networks. The framework addresses how policymakers and regulators can assess decentralization across network structure, failure resistance, and decision-making processes.
Range partners with Oak Security to deliver end-to-end security for Cosmos projects, extending audits into continuous monitoring. This addresses limitations like dynamic codebases and third-party risks. Range, trusted by Stellar among others, provides customized real-time security tools.