Blockchain protocols must facilitate the seamless movement of financial assets across traditional and on-chain infrastructures in order to gain widespread adoption. Denelle Dixon, the CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), emphasized this crucial point during an interview with Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week. She explained that the goal of Stellar has always been to enable money to flow like email, but this requires the integration of both on- and off-ramps and cannot rely solely on volatile cryptocurrencies for transactions.
Dixon, a former trial lawyer who previously worked at Yahoo and Mozilla, credited Stellar founder Jed McCaleb for attracting her to the layer-1 protocol. She was drawn to Stellar’s focus on tokenization and its ability to facilitate fast, low-cost payments that can have a positive impact on developing economies.
The ability to tokenize assets on Stellar and seamlessly connect them to fiat payment systems and gateways has been crucial in enabling the protocol to offer utility to its users. Dixon’s experience at Mozilla has also influenced her work at Stellar, particularly in driving interoperability between different blockchain protocols.
Dixon highlighted the challenges faced by the blockchain ecosystem, including network outages and congestion issues, which can deter potential users from entering the space. She specifically mentioned recent issues with Solana and various Ethereum layer-2 protocols. Dixon believes that these challenges are detrimental to the overall blockchain ecosystem and discourage adoption.
The tribalism within the blockchain community, where supporters of different protocols often criticize one another, is perpetuated on social media platforms. However, Dixon believes that there is more collaboration and support within the industry than people realize. She stressed that the belief in a “winner-takes-all” market is not shared by those driving the adoption of decentralized protocols, as they understand the negative consequences of monopolies.
The Stellar Development Foundation launched smart contracts on the Stellar network in February 2024 with the introduction of the Soroban platform. This move was driven by the need for advanced programmability and to create new opportunities for developers on Stellar.
In conclusion, Dixon believes that maintaining a focus on utility is essential for the success of blockchain and cryptocurrency. She encourages stakeholders to approach the industry with a rational mindset in order to overcome challenges and drive widespread adoption.