Tomer Weller from SDF traces the six-year evolution of Stellar anchor interoperability standards, from 2014 gateways through SEP6, SEP24, and SEP31, explaining how anchors bridge traditional finance with Stellar and enable cross-border payments.
At Meridian's developer track, Tomer Weller, head of integration at the Stellar Development Foundation, delivered a comprehensive history of anchor interoperability standards from 2014 to 2021. He explained how anchors serve as the critical bridge between traditional finance and Stellar, using a cross-border payment example between Paris and Lagos. Key standards discussed include the 2016 trio of Stellar.toml, federation protocol, and compliance protocol; the 2017-2018 evolution with SEP6 (transfer server), SEP9 (KYC), SEP10 (authentication), and SEP24 (interactive flows); and the 2020 introduction of SEP31 for anchor-to-anchor payments. Weller emphasized lessons learned about backward compatibility, the challenges of evolving open standards in federated networks, and why pragmatism often trumps perfect design. He highlighted emerging trends including custodial wallet support, anchor-wallet attribution, and anchors using third-party assets.