Stellar releases new version

     Developers can now build distributed networks on Stellar, and upgrading the codebase will also protect Stellar from forks.

     In an updated announcement, Jed McCaleb, founder of Stellar, said the upgraded network is relatively more secure, more scalable and more modular.

He added:

     “The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) optimizes for safety, not liveness — which means that forks are safer. Stellar core code is now more understandable and concise. It is less than half the size of the previous codebase. It runs faster and takes up less memory and disk space.”

     While McCaleb highlighted many important things about the new code — Stellar has been on the market for more than nine months now — he highlighted two features: one, allowing for the creation of simple contracts; and two, batching transactions onto the blockchain, and multi-signature accounts that allow multiple keys and signatories to sign.

     Stellar was forced to temporarily shut down its trading system after a network upgrade last December led to a fork of the blockchain. The news also sparked a debate over its integrity with the Ripple network, which uses the same open-source protocol and blockchain technology to broadcast transactions for fiat currencies.