Stellar announced Protocol 28, called Adapter, with a testnet vote scheduled for August 27 at 1700 UTC and a mainnet vote set for September 16 at 1700 UTC, according to a post on X.
Adapter is designed for builders on the Stellar network. The upgrade follows the organization's pattern of public voting on protocol changes, a mechanism that gives network participants a voice in major technical decisions before implementation on the live chain.
Stellar, the open-source payment protocol and network founded in 2014, operates under a decentralized governance model where validators and protocol participants vote on proposed upgrades. The testnet vote precedes mainnet implementation by roughly three weeks, allowing developers and validators to assess the upgrade's behavior in a test environment before committing to the production network.
Protocol versions on Stellar have historically shipped at intervals of several months. Testnet and mainnet votes are standard in the network's upgrade cycle; both votes must pass for a protocol to activate.
The specific technical capabilities of Adapter are detailed in Stellar's developer documentation. The organization published guidance on the upgrade alongside the vote announcement.
Two separate votes held three weeks apart allow the network to identify any issues during the testnet phase without blocking the mainnet timeline if the test deployment succeeds. If the August 27 testnet vote does not pass, Stellar has not announced contingency timing.
