Tomer Weller, CPO at Stellar Development Foundation, discusses configurable privacy as the key to institutional blockchain adoption. Privacy pools and confidential tokens enable selective data protection while preserving transparency, with implementations like Stellar Private Payments now live and expected institutional adoption in 2026.
In this Block by Block episode, Tomer Weller explains Stellar's privacy strategy designed for institutional needs rather than retail users. The conversation covers two main privacy approaches: confidential tokens that encrypt balances and amounts, and privacy pools that provide anonymity within gated communities. Weller details how Stellar built zero-knowledge cryptography primitives into Soroban, including BLS12381 and BN254 curves plus Poseidon hash functions. Key projects include Stellar Private Payments (open-sourced by NetherMind) and confidential token work with OpenZeppelin. The strategy preserves base-layer transparency while enabling application-layer privacy through configurable administrative controls like allow lists and deny lists. Weller emphasizes that institutions don't yet know what privacy means to them, so Stellar is building opinionated solutions and a menu of options. Realistic adoption is expected in 2026 as wallets, exchanges, and off-ramps integrate these capabilities.