Stellar Development Foundation Q2 2022 in Review

It’s halfway through the year, and the Stellar Development Foundation is making steady progress on its 2022 roadmap, delivering on the three building blocks: increase scalability and network innovation, activate more network participation, and demand and promote inclusion.

Our Q2 report outlines what SDF has accomplished, measured against the three building blocks. Highlights include:

• Smart contracts continue to be a high priority for SDF, with VP of Tech Strategy Tomer Weller explaining in-depth why Project Jump Cannon is being built on a WebAssembly (WASM) runtime. WASM checks off all the major boxes: providing a robust execution environment for smart contracts, possessing a thriving ecosystem, and can be used to build a system that is safe, scalable, and promotes equitable access.
• Protocol 19 went live on June 6th after validators voted for the upgrade. Protocol 19 changes were designed to facilitate the creation of payment channels, which are Layer 2 protocols that support high-throughput use cases. Prior to implementing Protocol 19 changes in production, SDF engineers used a sandbox devnet to build a working payment channel prototype called Starlight.
• This quarter, MoneyGram International, in collaboration with SDF, rolled out MoneyGram Access, a first-of-its-kind global on/off-ramp service for digital wallets to increase the utility of digital assets by creating a bridge between cash and cryptocurrencies.
• SDF made a Matching Fund investment of $300k in Canadian fintech Stablecorp, in addition to a $10 million Enterprise Fund investment in a fintech company. More details regarding this company will be shared soon.
• Ever-greater access to USDC on Stellar continues, with exchanges WhiteBIT, CoinMe, and Mercado Bitcoin now enabling deposit and withdrawal of the USD-backed stablecoin in the countries they operate in.
• Leading fintech Novatti announced it will launch an Australian Dollar (AUD) backed stablecoin leveraging Stellar. AUDC will be integrated into Novatti’s existing suite of payment solutions, providing clients with even more choice in how they choose to pay and be paid, while creating new business use cases.
• SDF announced a new methodology co-developed with a global consultancy to measure the environmental impact of blockchain technology. Using this methodology, SDF was able to release its findings on how much electricity the Stellar network consumes.
• The Stellar Community Fund — a program that offers anyone building on Stellar the chance to secure support and funding from SDF based on community input — has concluded its 10th round, receiving a record number of 152 submissions across 47 countries. 44 projects were selected to participate as candidates. After 4 weeks of community discussion and deliberation, a panel of 52 judges drawn from both the SDF and the greater Stellar community and ecosystem voted to award 15 projects their requested budgets, and to give away a grand total of over 10.5M XLM.
• Gamified coding experience Stellar Quest is being split into two main components: Stellar Quest Live and Stellar Quest Learn. Stellar Quest Learn is evergreen, and people can complete challenges at their own pace while facing increasing difficulty. With Stellar Quest Live, SDF will continue to host live events periodically as a separate and supplemental experience to learn.
• Stellar Campus Experts is a community-driven program for students looking to grow their blockchain knowledge and support blockchain technology in their campus communities. The goal is to help individuals become experts no matter where they live and provide them with the tools, resources, and structure needed to cultivate interest in innovative technologies on their campuses.

‍Read the Q2 report to learn more about these highlights and other strategic achievements from this quarter. You can also watch the Q2-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 from the second quarter of 2022.