Stellar Blockchain Likely to Delay Upgrade Due to Bug Discovery

According to CoinDesk, the Stellar blockchain is expected to postpone its highly anticipated upgrade to incorporate Ethereum-style smart contracts. This comes after a bug was discovered, causing developers and validators behind the project to reconsider the initial target date of January 30. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), which supports the blockchain's ecosystem, found the bug in the Stellar Core v20.1.0 software on January 25. The bug could potentially impact applications and services on the new 'Soroban' smart-contracts transactions once the upgrade is implemented. Although SDF officials initially believed the bug posed little risk due to the phased rollout plan, they have now decided to 'disarm' their validators to prevent them from voting to upgrade the network on January 30, following feedback from the developer community. Other validators could still choose to proceed with the 'Protocol 20' upgrade. However, an SDF representative informed CoinDesk that six of the seven tier-1 validators, including SDF, Satoshipay, Blockdaemon, Public Node, Lobstr, and Whalestack, have now communicated plans to disarm. If less than five organizations vote for the upgrade, it will not have sufficient quorum to be accepted, effectively postponing the upgrade. A fix for the bug is expected to be available within the next two weeks, and if the upgrade is postponed, the foundation will coordinate to determine a future vote date. Stellar, one of the oldest blockchains, was created as a fork of the Ripple protocol in 2014, and the project is upgrading to add the programmability that Ethereum and its smart contracts are known for.