Stellar Ecosystem
News

Synced's February 2023 development log details progress on dashboard integration and familiarity with Stellar's Soroban platform via Hacka-Soroban-athon. March aims include adding description and chat features to dashboards, completing web redesign, and releasing to live app. Additional plans involve migrating from MongoDB.

The Stellar Development Foundation outlines its 2023 policy priorities, including advocating for robust blockchain regulation, pushing for bipartisan stablecoin legislation, and demonstrating real-world blockchain utility through projects like MoneyGram and Stellar Aid Assist.

BP Ventures announces sponsorship of Public Node's Stellar validator node, funding its uptime and monitoring. This supports the growth of the Stellar network and Public Node's mission for open blockchain infrastructure. The partnership highlights commitment to inclusive blockchain technology.

The Stellar Development Foundation outlines three active programs under the $100M Soroban Adoption Fund: Stellar Quest Live Series 6 for competitive learning, Sorobanathon: Equinox for experimentation and content creation, and the Stellar Community Fund for building full products. Each targets different developer skill levels with varying award structures.

Wirex has integrated XLM and USDC on Stellar into its non-custodial wallet, marking the first such wallet without seed phrase vulnerability to support Stellar. The integration expands Wirex Wallet's blockchain support to nine networks.

The Stellar Community Fund launches SCF Startup Camp, a quarterly 5-day virtual bootcamp supporting up to 40 teams building on Stellar and Soroban. The first camp runs April 17-21, 2023, with finalists competing for $30,000 in XLM prizes and access to $150,000 in SCF Awards funding.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced the deprecation of stellar-core Ubuntu 18.04 package support in favor of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, requiring users to either upgrade, switch to Docker images, or manually compile the software.

The Stellar Development Foundation and Cheesecake Labs showcased 14 Soroban smart contract projects from a week-long internal hackathon, including a naming service, DAO governance tool, recurring payments contract, and NFT implementation. The projects demonstrate Soroban's flexibility and are open for community collaboration ahead of mainnet launch.

Stellar Quest Live Series 6 launches February 15th with monthly Soroban-based challenges. Participants compete across three categories (Fast, Cheap, Out of Control) for USDC rewards and NFT badges, with leaderboards remaining open indefinitely.

BPV announces its Spring 2023 events schedule, highlighting attendance at major fintech and blockchain conferences in Stockholm and beyond. They promote their enterprise non-custodial Stellar wallet, Anchor in a Box, and invite meetings or demos. Events include STHLM Fintech Week, MONEY Live, Pay 360, and Paris Blockchain Week.

Stellar Development Foundation announced a $10 million Soroban-focused awards program through the Stellar Community Fund, offering developers up to $150,000 in XLM to build smart contracts, DeFi protocols, and dApps on Soroban ahead of its mainnet launch.

The Stellar Newsletter highlights the 2023 roadmap emphasizing utility through tools like Stellar Aid Assist and Soroban smart contracts. It introduces the Stellar Asset Sandbox for easy testnet asset issuance, reviews Q4 2022 achievements, and announces Sorobanathon: Equinox. Additional updates cover TASCOMBANK's blockchain pilot in Ukraine, SDF's CFTC involvement, network growth milestones, and developer resources.

The Stellar Development Foundation launched Sorobanathon: Equinox, the next phase of its $100M Soroban Adoption Fund. Running from February 3 to April 1, developers can earn 25 to 10,000 XLM for submitting Soroban tools, tutorials, bug reports, and content.

This article explains why Stellar requires rigorous testing of blockchain upgrades before deployment to mainnet, and details how Stellar Supercluster—an automated testing framework—enables developers to validate code changes in simulated network environments.

Stellar introduces asset tokenization capabilities with the Stellar Asset Sandbox, a testnet tool by Cheesecake Labs that enables issuers to create, manage, and control assets using native protocol features like minting, burning, freezing, and clawback operations.

The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q4 2022 report highlighting major achievements including Soroban smart contracts launching on Futurenet, the Sorobanathon program exceeding targets, Stellar Quest Live Series 5 reaching record participation with 2k+ new developers, and the introduction of regulated stablecoins GYEN and ZUSD to the network.

Stellar is introducing BucketListDB, a new unified storage mechanism that replaces its dual database system. The upgrade cuts disk usage by 45%, increases read speeds 400%, and halves validator startup time, preparing the network for Soroban's mainnet launch and continued growth.

Stellar Development Foundation explains why Soroban's initial release uses the WASMI interpreter instead of a JIT compiler, citing security concerns, simplicity, and the complexity of integrating JIT with blockchain-specific requirements like metering.

Stellar Development Foundation listed as creditor in Genesis bankruptcy with $13 million claim. SDF confirmed the loan but called it immaterial to its $200M+ treasury, stating it does not impact operations.

The Stellar Development Foundation joined the CFTC's Global Market Advisory Committee as the only blockchain representative, positioning itself to advocate for stablecoins, remittances, and blockchain-traditional finance integration in U.S. regulatory discussions.

Tommaso De Ponti, a Stellar developer since mid-2020, shares his journey from learning programming at age 11 to building Soroban smart contracts. His work includes DeFi projects and a zero-knowledge proof coin mixer built with his brother.

TASCOMBANK released findings from its electronic money pilot on Stellar, recommending blockchain adoption for Ukraine's payment system. The report highlights benefits including transparency, security, low costs, and high throughput for issuing hryvnia-nominated electronic money.

MYKOBO recaps its 2022 journey, from inception inspired by remittance challenges to launching Version 2 on the Stellar blockchain with EURC stablecoin. Key achievements include over 400 users, 155K EUR traded volume, and integration with Stellar protocols like SEP-6, SEP-24, and SEP-31. The company anticipates 2023 expansions like EURC swaps, new payment corridors, IBAN services, and debit cards.