Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon published an essay warning that the blockchain industry risks repeating historical monopolies if private companies continue building closed, vertically integrated networks. She argues for open, permissionless infrastructure like Stellar over proprietary blockchains controlled by financial institutions.
In an essay titled "Let's Build Open Highways, Not Railroads," Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon draws parallels between 19th-century railroad monopolies and today's corporate-controlled blockchains. She warns that major financial firms like Coinbase, JPMorgan, and Stripe are building proprietary platforms that could create centralized chokepoints in global finance. Dixon references her experience at Mozilla, where Firefox succeeded by offering users real choice against Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominance. She contrasts these closed systems with Stellar's open, permissionless network where cross-border transactions cost fractions of a cent versus 6.35% on traditional rails. Dixon urges developers, policymakers, and institutions to choose open, collaborative infrastructure before the window of choice closes, arguing that architecture decisions made today will shape financial infrastructure for decades.
