The
Stellar
blockchain
could
be
facing
a
delay
of
its
much
anticipated
upgrade
to
add
Ethereum-style
smart
contracts,
after
a
bug
was
found
that
prompted
developers
and
validators
behind
the
project
to
reconsider
the
Jan.
30
target
date.
The
Stellar
Development
Foundation,
which
supports
the
blockchain’s
ecosystem,
found
a
bug
on
Jan.
25
in
the
Stellar
Core
v20.1.0
software,
according
to
a
draft
blog
post
shared
with
CoinDesk
on
Saturday.
The
bug
could
theoretically
affect
applications
and
services
on
the
new
“Soroban”
smart-contracts
transactions
once
the
upgrade
goes
through.
SDF
officials
“decided
that
the
bug
posed
little
risk
given
the
phased
rollout
plan,”
but
after
“robust
feedback”
from
the
developer
community,
the
foundation
is
now
planning
to
“disarm”
its
own
validators
to
prevent
them
from
voting
to
upgrade
the
network
on
Jan.
30,
according
to
the
post.
Other
validators
could
still
choose
to
push
ahead
with
the
“Protocol
20”
upgrade,
according
to
the
post.
Whatever
the
case,
a
fix
for
the
bug
should
be
available
within
the
next
two
weeks,
and
if
the
upgrade
ends
up
getting
postponed,
the
foundation
would
then
“coordinate
to
determine
a
future
vote
date.”
Stellar
is
one
of
the
oldest
blockchains,
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.
Traders
may
be
speculating
whether
the
facelift
could
put
fresh
energy
into
the
project’s
native
XLM
tokens.