Stellar Foundation leaders discuss the future of the DEX, validator decentralization, Soroban adoption, and ecosystem security at Meridian 2024. Key topics include replacing the classic order book with AMMs and liquidity aggregators, growing tier-one validator participation, and expanding DeFi protocols on Soroban.
At Meridian 2024's closing session, Jed McCaleb, Tomer Weller, and Justin Rice discuss Stellar's evolution. Tomer predicts the classic DEX will be replaced by Soroban-based AMMs and liquidity aggregators, while Jed emphasizes the need for a replacement rather than elimination. They address validator decentralization, noting that tier-one validator participation has grown to 10 qualifying organizations for the first time. Security remains critical as the ecosystem matures; the audit bank sponsors protocol audits and new bounty programs with Certora are launching. Soroban is now feature-complete for the protocol, with focus shifting to non-functional improvements like latency, throughput, and decentralization. The team discusses privacy primitives being added to enable zero-knowledge constructions and regulatory compliance. Mass adoption is expected within one to two years as products mature.