Stellar Ecosystem
News

Stellar RPC, formerly known as Soroban RPC, has been rebranded with Protocol 22 to serve as the unified data access layer for all Stellar developers. The rename reflects the tool's broader applicability beyond smart contracts and positions it as the recommended entry point for new builders, moving away from the increasingly impractical Horizon infrastructure.

DappLooker reviews its remarkable 2024 growth, highlighting 3x revenue increase, expansion to 25+ chains, and over 1000 protocols onboarded. Key launches include AI-powered Loky analyst and innovative tools like DataBots and AI Studio. Partnerships span Arbitrum, Stellar Community Fund, Manta, HAQQ, and others, with active participation in Web3 events.

Stellar-core 22.1 will drop SQL support for ledger state and transaction history tables. The release introduces a new high-throughput HTTP query server with the `getledgerentryraw` endpoint as the replacement for direct SQL access.

Protocol 22 is now live on Stellar Mainnet. This guide provides developers and businesses with upgrade instructions, key dates, release links for all Stellar infrastructure and SDKs, and important changes including the Soroban RPC rebrand to Stellar RPC and upcoming Horizon transaction meta defaults changes.

Hubble's Stellar ETL has been refactored to use the Composable Data Platform (CDP), replacing Captive Core with Galexie and a Ledger Metadata Store. This architectural change delivers 93% faster processing, 90% cost reduction, and significantly simplified maintenance.

The Stellar Development Foundation has launched an all-new Stellar Lab, a modernized web-based toolkit for developers to create accounts, test transactions, explore RPC methods and Horizon endpoints, and interact with the Stellar network. The redesigned interface includes mobile optimization, XDR-to-JSON conversion support, and the ability to save and share API requests.

xyclooLabs announces new community indexes and dashboards functionality for Mercury, their data platform for Stellar developers. The update includes improvements to the zephyr-sdk with DashboardBuilder, backend infrastructure for creating and discovering indexes/dashboards, and a community section in the Mercury webapp.

The Stellar Development Foundation introduces the Composable Data Platform (CDP), a new open-source architecture that decentralizes data access on Stellar by breaking down monolithic tools like Horizon and Hubble into modular, configurable components. CDP enables developers to customize their data consumption patterns and infrastructure based on specific application needs.

Validation Cloud announced support for Stellar Horizon, offering high-performance Node API infrastructure with archive node data access. The service enables developers to build wallets, DEXs, and other applications on Stellar with improved performance and historical data querying capabilities.

A technical tutorial on building a custom indexer and API for the YieldBlox blend pool using Mercury and Zephyr. The guide covers setting up a Rust-based indexer to track borrow, repay, and collateral actions on Stellar, with real-time data retrieval through a custom API.

BlockEden.xyz unveiled their Soroban Indexer and GraphQL at Stellar's Meridian conference in Madrid from September 26–28, 2023. The article shares their pitch deck with 13 slides showcasing the innovations. Contact details and source link are provided.

Goldsky announces the general availability of Mirror, its realtime crypto data streaming platform that syncs onchain data directly to user databases. It supports 40+ networks including Stellar, reducing costs and ETL complexity. The platform offers blazing-fast performance, dual interfaces, and is now accessible to everyone without a credit card.

Obsrvr provides blockchain infrastructure solutions tailored for the Stellar.org network and Soroban smart contracts platform. Their offerings include the Obsrvr Gateway, a managed service combining Horizon API and Soroban RPC servers, and Obsrvr Nodes for customizable, dedicated instances. These tools simplify blockchain adoption, enhance security, and enable businesses to integrate seamlessly with Stellar.

The Stellar Development Foundation launched Hubble, a BigQuery-based analytics dataset offering complete historical records of the Stellar blockchain. Hubble enables complex data analysis without maintaining full history databases, supporting large-scale computing and historical applications previously difficult to implement.

SEP-24 is a standardized API that enables anchors to offer hosted deposits and withdrawals directly within apps, eliminating the need for custom integrations and improving user access to on/off ramps for fiat and digital assets.

Stellar Development Foundation launched the Anchor Platform, a prepackaged API that enables businesses to connect to Stellar in three steps with reduced development time and cost. The platform simplifies fiat-to-digital asset integration for banks and money transfer operators.

Wyre launched a Savings API enabling FinTechs to offer yield-earning savings products using Stellar USDC, with returns far exceeding traditional U.S. savings accounts. The API provides easy on-ramps to Stellar assets and monthly compounding earnings with no ACH fees.

Stably launches a SEP-24 compliant fiat on/off ramp API for Stellar wallets, enabling seamless USDC integration. The fintech company also plans SEP-31 support for international bank transfers and highlights Stellar's protocol-level tokenization as simpler than smart-contract blockchains.

SDF validator nodes went offline around 1 am PDT, halting transaction validation. However, the Stellar network remained operational because other organizations' nodes continued functioning, demonstrating the network's decentralization.

Stellar public network upgraded to Protocol 15 at 1600 UTC, introducing Claimable Balances and Sponsored Reserves features to enable more user-friendly app development on the network.

Stellar Development Foundation launched redesigned developer documentation at developers.stellar.org, featuring improved navigation, updated content, and new learning paths for asset issuance, anchor services, and app development.

The Stellar Development Foundation released a daily-updated analytics dataset on Google BigQuery, enabling 10-100x faster queries across the entire history of Stellar network transactions. The dataset includes accounts, ledgers, operations, trades, and other ledger state information, with free trial access available through Google Cloud.

The Stellar Development Foundation's web products team is seeking community feedback on a redesigned version of the Stellar developer documentation and API reference. The new docs feature improved navigation, modular learning paths, and updated content while maintaining existing functionality.

Horizon 1.0, Stellar's open-source API, launches with a new ingestion engine that makes queries faster, more consistent, and less dependent on Stellar-Core. The major release includes breaking changes and new endpoints for asset trustlines, multi-sig account discovery, and network-wide offer filtering.

Stellar Development Foundation released Horizon v0.20.1 with a new ingestion system that addresses architectural issues by building a full copy of ledger state from history archives instead of relying on Stellar-Core's database. The update enables new features like "Accounts for Signers" and significantly improves path-finding performance by up to 10x.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced a new ticker API providing real-time market data about assets, markets, and issuers on the Stellar Network. The API offers enhanced functionality including OHLC values, orderbook statistics, and a GraphQL interface, with the previous SDF-hosted ticker instance decommissioned on January 3, 2024.

Stellar Core has been upgraded with significant code improvements, now 50% smaller and faster while maintaining security through the Stellar Consensus Protocol. Developers can upgrade their accounts and begin building financial services on the improved network.