Stellar co-founder Joyce Kim discusses the project's launch challenges, consensus protocol issues being addressed by Chief Scientist David Mazières, and efforts to drive developer adoption and financial inclusion in emerging markets like Nicaragua and Vietnam.
In a CoinDesk interview, Stellar Foundation co-founder Joyce Kim addresses early controversies surrounding Stellar's July 2014 launch, including gaming of the free distribution system on platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk. She downplays these issues as overblown and notes the foundation still has most Stellar to distribute. Kim discusses technical challenges, particularly an unintended ledger fork caused by issues with the Ripple consensus protocol that Stellar uses. Chief Scientist David Mazières is developing a new consensus methodology, with a white paper and code expected in months. On adoption, Kim highlights that Stellar developers differ from Bitcoin builders and value the non-profit structure, equitable distribution, and ability to run real money. Stripe hosted a hackathon with 120 participants, and venture capital is showing interest in Stellar-based projects. The foundation is exploring use cases in emerging markets, visiting Nicaragua and Vietnam to understand banking pain points and opportunities for financial inclusion.