Stellar Development Foundation Q4 2023 in Review

At the start of 2023, the Stellar Development Foundation said it would be relentlessly focused on utility to grow the network. Reflecting on the last quarter of the year, it is clear that we’ve made progress on this by working alongside an engaged and growing Stellar ecosystem.

The Q4 report outlines the achievements, structured within the 2023 roadmap’s building blocks: make innovation easy and scalable, win over builders, and focus on utility to build trust. Here are some highlights:

• SDF and the maintainers of key Stellar SDKs announced the release of a full suite of software that supports Protocol 20. Also announced were the phased rollout of Soroban to Mainnet, as well as a new anticipated timeline.
• Over 3 rounds this quarter, the Stellar Community Fund (SCF) awarded almost 4 million dollars worth of lumens to 88 projects. In 2023, SCF distributed over 13 million dollars worth of lumens to over 190 promising projects building the future of the ecosystem.
• Thanks in part to the support provided by SCF, and by the Stellar community as a whole, we have officially reached 100% of project types represented in the Soroban Minimum Viable Ecosystem!
• More Soroban adoption activities such as RPCiege, Sorobanathon, and Sorobounties provided new opportunities to learn and engage with the ecosystem. Check out the Stellar Developers Discord for the latest updates and discussions.
• SDF published a paper titled "The Case for Open Systems: Creating an Interoperable, Integrated World.” It is aimed at policy audiences and makes the case for the value of open systems, and advocating for further adoption of them.
• December marked the one year anniversary of the launch of Stellar Aid Assist, as well as UNHCR disbursing over $1 million (now $2 million to date) to more than 1,500 individuals via the Stellar Disbursement Platform. SDF executed an integrated marketing campaign to communicate the impact of Stellar Aid Assist and highlight the role that blockchain is playing in humanitarian aid today.

‍Read the Q4 report to learn more about these highlights and other strategic achievements from this quarter and the year as a whole. You can also watch the Q4-in-review webinar below, where Denelle Dixon (SDF CEO and Executive Director) was joined by Justin Rice (VP of Ecosystem) and Jordan Edelstein (Chief Marketing Officer) to cover growth metrics for the Stellar network and other highlights and accomplishments.