Stellar Protocol 26, called Yardstick, went live on mainnet May 6, 2026. The upgrade introduces Quorum Freeze for governed incident response, checked arithmetic to prevent crashes on overflow, precise TTL control for state management, and improved cryptographic operations for zero-knowledge proofs.
Stellar Protocol 26, named Yardstick, launched on mainnet May 6, 2026 with five major improvements focused on precision and reliability. Quorum Freeze (CAP-0077) enables validators to freeze ledger keys through consensus-driven governance, providing the first protocol-native incident response mechanism in a major L1 blockchain. CAP-0082 adds checked 256-bit integer arithmetic that returns Void on overflow instead of crashing, letting contracts handle edge cases gracefully. CAP-0078 introduces precise TTL extension controls with explicit parameters for equitable rent policies. Additional improvements include cheaper zero-knowledge proof operations (CAP-0080), native muxed account support (CAP-0079), and Stellar Asset Contract enhancements for G-account creation (CAP-0073).
