Jed McCaleb and David Mazieres discuss founding Stellar, the consensus protocol, and the network's future at Meridian. They cover smart contracts, scalability, CBDCs, and the importance of execution over ideas.
At Meridian, Jed McCaleb (Stellar founder) and David Mazieres (SCP creator, SDF researcher) discuss how they met through peer-to-peer research, developed the Stellar Consensus Protocol, and built the network. They share founder insights on evaluating ideas, hiring, and the evolution of their roles. Key topics include Stellar's roadmap: smart contracts as a priority, scalability improvements, and continued focus on anchors and interoperability. They address CBDCs, validator incentives (Mazieres opposes payment-based incentives), and the role of lumens in transaction fees. Both emphasize execution over ideas and discuss the importance of ecosystem building. Mazieres also covers his dual role at Stanford and SDF, while McCaleb mentions his new venture, Vast, developing artificial gravity space stations.