Roadmap

Stellar Core is the software that nodes on the network use to achieve consensus and validate transactions. It’s the backbone of Stellar, and SDF is continually working to make it more efficient, more responsive, and easier to install and maintain. In addition to improving the protocol itself, the Core team is also building tooling and resources to ensure the continued health and scalability of the network overall.

Horizon is a client-facing API server for the Stellar ecosystem. It’s how developers connect their applications to Stellar Core. In addition to keeping Horizon up-to-date, accurate, and efficient, the Horizon team is working on a new ingestion system that will make it easier to install and maintain a Horizon instance.

Platform encompasses a suite of SDF-created open-source tools that make Stellar more powerful and easier to use. In addition to maintaining three Horizon SDKs — Javascript, Java, and Go — the Platform team is also working on a ticker for the Stellar decentralized exchange, reference implementations of servers for anchors, a trading bot, and an experimental architecture for scalable confidential smart contracts.

Product at SDF handles the brand, messaging, and web presence for Stellar and builds consumer-facing interfaces and apps that help realize the potential of the network. In addition to overhauling stellar.org and the developer documentation, the Product team is also working on a dollar savings and payment app, and coordinating with Latin American anchors to create frictionless on and off ramps to ensure that app is accessible and useful to real-world users.

In addition to maintaining code and creating products, SDF also conducts research to improve the security, utility, and scalability of Stellar, and of blockchain in general. Right now, those efforts are focused on an experimental multi-asset blockchain architecture for scalable and confidential smart contracts called ZkVM, the zero-knowledge virtual machine.

Stellar’s social and developer communities are among the most active in fintech, and one of SDF’s primary roles is to support the people and teams who build on and talk about the Stellar network. In addition to publishing more content and focusing on SDF’s commitment to openness and transparency, the ecosystem team is working closely with the community and vital infrastructure projects to leverage XLM grants so they have the maximum benefit for the network as a whole. We’re also planning a big conference this November!