Stellar was designed for interoperability, enabling low-cost transfers of all asset types across traditional finance, different blockchains, and web applications. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Stellar facilitates value movement between all systems rather than replacing them.
This article explains Stellar's core philosophy of interoperability by tracing the history of money and the internet. Stellar was built to connect traditional financial institutions, different asset types, and blockchain applications rather than serve as a singular replacement for money. The network enables this through anchors for fiat on/off ramps, asset issuance capabilities, APIs like Horizon, and Stellar Ecosystem Proposals that create open standards. Soroban smart contracts, launching later this year, will further enhance interoperability by allowing developers to customize asset behavior while bridging to Stellar without requiring the network to compromise its own standards.
