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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.

Marcus from Script3 presented Blend Capital's five-month performance on Soroban, highlighting 237 unique wallets, $8.58M total deposits, and innovative auction-based liquidations. The team outlined future priorities: expanding wallet integrations, launching professionally risk-managed pools, and building an OTC lending framework for real-world use cases like remittance financing.

David Mazieres, Stellar co-founder, discusses the origins of the Stellar Consensus Protocol, drawing parallels between decentralized systems design and his earlier work on peer-to-peer file systems. He explains how the protocol was inspired by internet architecture and designed to prevent forks through network effects rather than proof-of-work.

Cheesecake Labs shares insights on building non-custodial wallets on Stellar, covering key storage using native mobile encryption, SEP-30 key recovery with multi-signature accounts, and challenges integrating with anchors via SEP-6 and SEP-24 standards.

Multiple Stellar ecosystem projects pitched at an event, including security tools (Almanax, Scout), oracles (Reflektor, Orly Network), a perpetual exchange (Hermes), DAO governance (Soroban Governor), and various infrastructure solutions for developers and users.

DeFi panel discussion on Stellar's Soroban featuring Axelar, Aquarius, and a yield-bearing stablecoin protocol. Speakers discuss strategies for attracting and retaining liquidity on Soroban through bridges, AMMs, lending protocols, and real-world asset tokenization.

Panel discussion on Pluralist Grants frameworks for ecosystem funding. Speakers from Stellar Development Foundation, Gitcoin, and Aura explore how decentralized, multi-program grant structures can better serve diverse ecosystem needs compared to single monolithic programs, with examples from Arbitrum and Stellar.

Tyler Vanderhoeven demonstrates Zafeguard, a stateful policy signer service for Stellar smart wallets that enables sub-accounts to spend from a parent account under customizable spending limits, showcasing composable authentication and account abstraction on Soroban.

Scout, a static code analysis tool for Soroban smart contracts, has detected 28 issues and reached 5,000 downloads. The team plans to integrate LLMs to improve detection capabilities over the next six months.

Danelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, discusses Stellar's mission to create equitable access to global financial services, emphasizing payments and asset issuance for underbanked populations. At Meridian conference in London, major announcements include Paxos launching USDL (yield-bearing stablecoin), MoneyGram's non-custodial wallet launch, and new partnerships with traditional financial institutions.

Yeli Badamozi (Nest Coin) and Guerra Kuwana (OnAfrique) discuss how blockchain and stablecoins are addressing Nigeria's currency crisis and enabling financial inclusion across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia through on-chain neobanking and payment infrastructure.

Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou discusses MasterCard's crypto credential network and Stellar-powered remittance solutions reducing Philippines remittance fees from 5-6% to under 1%, enabling instant cross-border payments through licensed exchange partnerships.

Circle's USDC secured the first EU stablecoin license under MiCA, staying listed while competitors delist. Dante Desparte and Candice Kelly discuss global regulatory frameworks, USDC adoption on Stellar for financial inclusion, and emerging harmonization across jurisdictions.

Stripe is integrating Stellar into its payouts product and expanding crypto payments globally with USDC support in 150+ countries. Head of crypto John Egan discussed the company's return to crypto after six years, focusing on stablecoins as the practical use case for global commerce and financial inclusion.

Lauren Thorbjørnsen, VP and Chief of Staff at the Stellar Development Foundation, discusses Stellar Meridian 2024 in London, highlighting the conference's 10-year anniversary theme of transformation, 800 expected attendees from 65 countries, and key sessions on financial inclusion, Soroban smart contracts, and emerging markets.

Paxos announced it will launch its family of stablecoins, including dollar and gold stablecoins, on the Stellar network. CEO Charles Cascarella discussed how stablecoins democratize access to dollars and yield for unbanked populations globally.

Danelle Dixon, SDF Executive Director, discusses Stellar Meridian Conference highlights including USDL launch, wallet ecosystem growth across MoneyGram, Tala, and Decaf, and Soroban's path to billion-dollar TVL through real-world asset tokenization and traditional finance partnerships.

MoneyGram CEO discusses the company's integration with Stellar blockchain for cross-border remittances, explaining how stablecoins like USDC enable faster, cheaper transfers while maintaining fiat interoperability. The company is launching a non-custodial MoneyGram wallet and expanding crypto rails across markets.

Speaker presents a boilerplate starter pack for the Easy A Stellar Hackathon (Oct 12, London), featuring a Soroban smart contract with key-value storage and a React dapp using the Stellar SDK. Also covers passkeys for passwordless authentication and the Anchor protocol for TradFi integration.

Tutorial on Blend Protocol, an over-collateralized lending platform on Stellar. Covers how the protocol works, testnet UI walkthrough, and how developers can build on top of it using Soroban smart contracts.

ClickPesa launches a DeFi debt fund on Stellar's Soroban to bridge the $421 billion financing gap for SMEs and women entrepreneurs in Africa, partnering with microfinance institutions to automate lending and expand capital access.

James Puccini demonstrates how to build passwordless smart wallets on Stellar using WebAuthn passkeys and Soroban contracts, enabling seamless biometric authentication without traditional wallet setup.

Alejo from Skyhitz demonstrated the platform's new smart contract launch on Stellar, enabling music NFT streaming with instant microtransactions, escrow-based revenue distribution, and email-based wallet authentication for seamless user onboarding.

Cyberball Alpha released a new update with multiple login options including MetaMask and Freighter wallet integration, plus account import from Lightmeat.io. Alpha testing continues for one more week with community feedback welcome.