Stellar Network Unveils Project Thruput: The Future of Blockchain Scaling

The Stellar network has officially introduced Project Thruput, an experimental transaction execution model now live on FutureNet. 

This new architecture aims to eliminate persistent blockchain performance bottlenecks by enabling parallel execution across multiple machines, pushing early benchmarks to unprecedented speeds.

Key Takeaways

• Project Thruput hit 7.02 million payments per second in early tests.
• The model scales compute by adding machines without using sharding.
• Transactions are gas-free but remain strictly capped by execution limits.

How Project Thruput Solves Scaling Bottlenecks

Traditional blockchains often struggle with data access conflicts. When multiple operations try to modify the same balance or liquidity pool simultaneously, transactions must wait in a single sequence.

Project Thruput takes a different approach. Within a single block, transactions start from the same ledger snapshot and execute in parallel, even if they modify the same state. 

Instead of writing a new absolute balance value, a transaction can include an operation that subtracts a specific amount. Compatible changes are merged when the block is committed, provided all defined constraints are respected.

Developers can use specialized storage types to set rules for transaction groups, such as limiting the total amount withdrawn per block. The system strictly prevents two payments from spending the same funds at the same time.

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Stellar Project Thruput Scaling Benchmarks

The early performance data is striking. In tests with high data contention, where transfers occurred only among one hundred accounts, throughput scaled efficiently with added hardware.

On a single validator machine, the system processed 1.18 million payments per second. By increasing the network to eight machines, performance rose to 7.02 million payments per second. 

The Stellar Development Foundation notes that this near sixfold increase demonstrates the ability to scale compute by adding hardware without sharding the blockchain. 

The benchmarks covered RV32 ERC-20 transfers and signature verification, though they do not yet measure end-to-end network throughput.

The Gas-Free Transaction Model

Project Thruput introduces a unique economic design by removing individual transaction fees. This is intended to enable free micropayments and complex computations, such as portfolio risk calculations.

However, unlimited computation is not allowed. Gas still measures and caps the amount of execution for each transaction. If network demand exceeds available capacity, an account's share of the scheduling queue depends on its unlocked balance of native tokens. 

These tokens are not spent during the scheduling process, meaning transactions do not compete for priority by paying higher fees. A similar mechanism applies to data storage, where part of the balance is locked for the duration of the storage and released after deletion.

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What This Means for the Stellar Network

It is important to note that Project Thruput is live on FutureNet, which is a test network. The preview does not change the capacity of the Stellar mainnet today.

For the Stellar network and its native token, this release provides a powerful new blockchain scaling narrative. 

The project is open source, and the technical documentation and reproducible benchmarks are publicly available. However, a definitive path toward mainnet deployment remains undefined.

FAQ

What is Project Thruput?

It is an experimental execution model for the Stellar network designed to remove blockchain performance bottlenecks by enabling parallel transaction execution.

How fast is Project Thruput?

Early benchmarks on FutureNet showed the system processing 7.02 million payments per second across eight machines.

Does the model use sharding?

No. The developers state that the model scales compute by adding hardware without requiring blockchain sharding.

Are there transaction fees?

There are no individual transaction fees. However, gas still measures and caps execution limits, and network priority is based on unlocked native token balances.

Is Project Thruput live on the mainnet?

No. It is currently live on FutureNet, which is a test network.

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