Tomer, Stellar's CPO, discusses the launch of Soroban smart contracts, security-first development practices, and Stellar's focus on real-world utility and financial inclusion. He highlights the Audit Bank grant program and emphasizes prevention over mitigation in DeFi security.
In this interview from the DeFi Security Summit, Tomer, Chief Product Officer of Stellar, explains how Stellar differs from other blockchains by focusing on real-world utility, cross-border payments, and financial inclusion. He details Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform launched earlier in 2024, which eliminates common security vulnerabilities like re-entrancy attacks by design. Tomer outlines Stellar's multi-layered security approach: sensible protocol design, embedded testing infrastructure (unit, integration, fork, and fuzz testing), access to formal verification tools, and the Audit Bank program that sponsors audits for early-stage projects. He emphasizes that as regulatory barriers lower and new users enter crypto, preventing security issues is critical to building trust and retaining users. The conversation highlights Decaf as a successful wallet in rural Latin America communities, demonstrating how Stellar's on and off-ramps enable financial inclusion and access to dollar-denominated services.