Protocol 30 (Bell) upgrades the Stellar network with testnet vote November 3 and mainnet vote November 23. Developers must upgrade all Stellar SDKs before each vote. Key changes include new muxed contract addresses (W strkey type), millisecond-resolution ledger close times requiring XDR updates for ledger decoders, and new ML-DSA signature verification functions for smart contracts. Infrastructure operators and validators must also update Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC, and Galexie binaries.
Stellar Protocol 30 (Bell) goes to testnet vote November 3, 2026 and mainnet vote November 23, 2026. The upgrade is not backwards compatible at the SDK and ledger-data level, requiring mandatory action across multiple roles in the ecosystem. SDK users must upgrade before each vote—the upgrade changes the ledger header format and adds new address types. Infrastructure operators must deploy Protocol 30 releases of Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC, and Galexie. Validators must install Stellar Core v30.0.0 and submit arming commands ahead of the mainnet vote. Wallets, exchanges, issuers, and smart contract teams must add support for the new W address type (muxed contract addresses) and handle XDR changes in ledger data. Three CAPs deliver the changes: CAP-84 introduces muxed contract addresses and the W strkey; CAP-88 adds millisecond-resolution close times; CAP-87 adds post-quantum ML-DSA signature verification to Soroban.
