Stellar protocol 23 introduces partial state archival (CAP 62) and in-memory Soroban state (CAP 66), separating live and archived contract data into distinct databases. Live Soroban state will be cached in memory with optimized fee structures, while automatic restore functionality eliminates the need for separate restore operations in most cases.
This technical discussion covers two major protocol 23 upgrades for Stellar's Soroban smart contract platform. CAP 62 proposes partial state archival, moving archived contract entries to a separate hot archive database while keeping all data on validators. This enables CAP 66's in-memory Soroban state optimization, which caches all live contract data in memory by fixing its maximum size through fee mechanisms. The changes introduce separate in-memory and on-disk read resources, eliminate read byte limits for live state, and implement automatic restore functionality that restores archived entries during contract invocation without explicit restore operations. Edge cases requiring manual restore operations exist when disk read limits are exceeded. Protocol upgrade configuration changes are needed to prevent DOS attacks during the transition.