Stellar Protocol 13 to bring fee bumps, fine-grained control of asset authorization and first-class multiplexed accounts

Stellar Development Foundation is working on next major upgrade of Stellar Core. A number of new features and enhancements will be introduced in the Protocol 13 changes.

So, Protocol 11 changed the way fees work and the way network capacity is measured and Protocol 12 ended inflation and introduced a new kind of path payment. The Protocol 13 adds three new features: fee bumps, fine-grained control of asset authorization, and first-class multiplexed accounts.

The fee bumps will allow applications to cover user fees. This means any non-custodial wallet will be able to cover transaction fees of user without controlling user’s account. So, with this feature, wallets will be able to cover fees without relying on sequence number. They won’t have to explain surge pricing to users.

The fee bumps would also allow one to increase fees for pre signed transactions.

Better, fine grained control of asset authorization would also be coming in Stellar Protocol 13. With fine-grained control of assets, issuer of a regulated asset can set the asset to require the new kind of authorization. If it is, the issuer sandwiches three operations into a single transaction:

* Authorize the account to use the asset (an operation the issuer signs)
* Make the payment or offer (an operation the user signs)
* Deauthorize the account to use the asset. (an operation the user signs)

Stellar Protocol 13 also brings first class multiplexed accounts. This will allow exchanges to use muxed accounts that will allow them to give each user their own account ID that routes to underlying crypto exchange’s stellar address.