Stellar Votes Today on Bell Protocol, Paving the Way for More Precise Timing and Quantum-Resistant Smart Contracts
Key Facts
On November 3, 2026, Stellar validators will vote on the Bell upgrade, or Protocol 30, on its testnet, paving the way for changes to smart contracts and ledger timing. The Stellar Development Foundation said the vote is scheduled for 17:00 Coordinated Universal Time and that the upgrade will take effect only if validators approve it. A similar vote on the mainnet is scheduled for November 23 at the same time. The three proposals cover contract addresses with embedded identifiers, in-contract verification of quantum-resistant signatures, and timing precision down to milliseconds. The vote puts these features before validators, but does not mean the upgrade is already in effect.
Embedded addresses allow a 64-bit identifier to be added to a smart contract address using a new format that begins with the letter W, according to the foundation. This lets a shared contract distinguish payments directed to different clients, rather than requiring a separate contract for each user. The client’s identity is recorded in the transfer event so the application can identify which account a payment belongs to. This mechanism could serve businesses that manage client balances through a single smart account. The feature is optional; developers adopt it when rebuilding contracts with an updated version of the Soroban SDK.
The quantum computing component enables verification of ML-DSA signatures within smart contracts, allowing a custom account contract to require a quantum-resistant signature. But the change does not cover network transaction signatures, which remain based on Ed25519, according to the Stellar Development Foundation. The foundation describes this functionality as the first on-chain component of Stellar’s quantum-readiness plan. By the end of 2027, the plan aims to let every account add a quantum-resistant signer through a native protocol upgrade while preserving the account address and history. The foundation also expects institutional wallets to be able to move to quantum-resistant signing during 2026 through Soroban smart accounts.
Bell adds millisecond precision to ledger data, lifting a protocol constraint that prevented the interval between ledgers from being reduced to less than one second. The foundation said the change removes a previous minimum limit of one second, but does not automatically speed up ledger closes. It follows the Adapter update, or Protocol 28, which in September 2026 cut mainnet ledger close time from about 5.7 seconds to 5 seconds. More precise timing creates scope for future steps to reduce close times, but does not by itself determine when those steps will be taken. Bell therefore changes what the protocol allows in terms of timing, while actual close speeds remain dependent on later changes.
The upgrade requires application developers and infrastructure operators to prepare before voting on the network they use. Upgrade guidance recommends updating the SDK, as older versions may fail to decode Protocol 30 ledger records after a change to the ledger header format. Applications should also handle the new address type beginning with the letter W, while those that read raw ledger data should update their XDR definitions to avoid decoding failures. The foundation says contracts deployed before the upgrade will continue to work without changes, while developers can opt into the new features when rebuilding with the updated Soroban SDK. The stable Stellar Core v30.0.0 release became available on October 16, 2026, followed by additional stable infrastructure and SDK releases between October 16 and 23.
Mainnet validators are scheduled to vote on November 23, 2026, at 17:00 Coordinated Universal Time, after the testnet vote set for November 3. Adoption of the upgrade on each network depends on approval by its validators, according to the schedule announced by the foundation. The timetable gives network operators and developers time to prepare for changes to ledger formats and addresses. Use of ML-DSA verification and embedded addresses remains optional for contracts that are rebuilt. The validator vote will determine whether Protocol 30 is adopted on the mainnet on the announced date.