Stellar Development Foundation announced Bell, Protocol 30, the next network upgrade arriving in November. The three changes enable smart accounts to scale with muxed contract addresses, add post-quantum signature verification for smart contracts, and move the ledger to millisecond timing. Testnet voting begins November 3, mainnet November 23.
Protocol 30 includes three changes expanding smart account capabilities and building toward quantum-safe infrastructure. CAP-84 allows smart contracts to use muxed addresses starting with W, so a single contract can serve multiple customers while tracking them via transfer events—the same scalability pattern custodians and exchanges already use with muxed classic accounts. CAP-87 lets smart contracts verify ML-DSA signatures, the NIST post-quantum standard already shipping in OpenSSL, Java, and AWS key management. CAP-88 moves ledger close times to a millisecond clock, removing the technical floor that prevents sub-second block times in future upgrades. Validators vote on testnet November 3 at 1700 UTC and mainnet November 23, with preparation guides available for SDKs, validators, wallets, exchanges, and infrastructure operators.
