Tori Samples, director of product at SDF, explores why trustlessness is a false narrative and how cultivating explicit trust models is essential for building Web3 ecosystems. She examines trust through personal, institutional, and technological lenses, then demonstrates how Stellar's proof-of-agreement consensus and real-world partnerships create trustworthy financial infrastructure for billions globally.
Tori Samples argues that eliminating trust is neither possible nor desirable, and that Web3 should focus on cultivating confident, intentional trust instead of pursuing trustlessness. She presents a framework of trust across three dimensions: environment (vertical), others (horizontal), and self (internal core). She explains how Stellar's proof-of-agreement consensus differs fundamentally from proof-of-work and proof-of-stake by building influence through earned reputation rather than computational power or token ownership, preventing attacks like the $25M MEV boost on Ethereum. Samples highlights Stellar's ecosystem strengths: 480,000 MoneyGram cash pickup locations across 170 countries, wallets designed for specific geographies and use cases, high-quality stablecoins from Circle and PayPal, and emerging DeFi innovation through protocols like Blend. She shares real-world impact stories including GIZ paying 1,000 hospital workers on-chain, Etherfuse tokenizing sovereign debt, and HoopSigurado using Stellar disbursement for international payments. She concludes that access, utility, and reliability are not buzzwords but lived reality for millions already using Stellar-based products.