New Protocol 20 Vote Targeted for February 20

We (the Stellar ecosystem at large) need to begin taking the next steps required to prepare for a new vote. And the first step is getting the new version ready. As we said this past weekend, the bug fix is already in the works, and the SDF anticipates that a new stable release with it will be available Friday, February 2. On Tuesday next week, February 6th we will deploy this version to our Testnet validators and perform a reset. Anyone who runs Stellar infrastructure will then have until February 20th to install the new version since validators, should they choose to do so, will arm their software to vote for Protocol 20 on that date.

This is a collective ecosystem effort so as we progress along this timeline, we will continue to communicate with all of you – the ecosystem, validators, and Soroban fans – as we make our way to Mainnet.

Now, for the timeline:

• February 2: Core 20.2 Release Candidate
• February 6: Testnet Reset + Upgrade
• February 9: Core 20.2 Stable Release
• February 20: Target Vote on Protocol 20 Upgrade Vote + Phase 0

Though the timeline may shift a bit, the overall plan for a phased rollout will remain the same. You can read more about that here. Each new phase will introduce expanded capacity and we will communicate before we enter a new phase to ensure the ecosystem is ready.

Soroban has been more than two years in the making, and the Protocol 20 upgrade remains the most significant protocol change Stellar has ever seen. Collaboration and communication have been integral throughout this entire process, and last weekend’s conversations were no different. We continue to be thankful for our community’s willingness to engage and provide valuable feedback and we hope that continues. Stay involved and join our dev discord or the dev-mailing list for updates.

Now, let’s get this done!