Validators of the Stellar network voted Tuesday to upgrade the Stellar mainnet to “Protocol 20,” which introduces the Soroban smart contract platform.

The addition of smart contracts follows years of planning for Stellar — which has been known primarily for payments — as it seeks to compete with a plethora of smart contract ecosystems.

The Stellar community aims to differentiate Soroban by emphasizing a combination of its efficiency, focused use cases, and integration with Stellar’s existing infrastructure.

Soroban is expected to extend Stellar’s current strengths on cross-border transactions and interoperability between various fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies, with…

Read more on Blockworks