The purpose of Songbird is to act as a canary network for Flare. As new functionality is being developed, smart contracts are first deployed on Songbird, and, once proven to operate well, only then are they deployed on Flare.

However, because the FIP.01 proposal required voting infrastructure to be available immediately after the Token Distribution Event, it was necessary for some smart contracts to be deployed directly on Flare without first testing on Songbird. 

If SIP.01 is approved by the community, the most recent version of some smart contracts like the FtsoRewardManager will be deployed on Songbird. The effects of this deployment are described in more detail on the Governance Proposals Repository. No changes will be made to Flare.

STP & SIP, what’s the difference?

An STP, or Songbird Test Proposal, is a governance proposal recommending new functionality for testing on Songbird prior to a potential launch on Flare. 

An SIP, or Songbird Improvement Proposal, simply recommends updates to the Songbird network only, with no effect on Flare.