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By Moonlight Protocol
Brings private payments to Stellar Mainnet using a UTXO model and provider-mediated channels for compliance and control.
Before continuing, we strongly recommend watching this demonstration video.
Moonlight provides the full infrastructure and tooling required to enable compliant, privacy-preserving payments on Stellar. We deliver the complete protocol implementation, from smart contracts to SDKs and service frameworks, so ecosystem participants can build, operate, and integrate privacy-enabled services with reduced complexity. Our offering includes:
Privacy Channels: On-chain Soroban solutions that maintain private UTXO ledgers, support multi-party bundled transfers, and enforce channel-specific asset and provider policies.
Trusted Privacy Provider (TPP) Framework: A modular off-chain relayer service that handles authenticated bundle submission. Moonlight provides a compliant-ready base implementation that can be customized and extended to meet specific regulatory needs, such as KYC or sanctions screening.
Moonlight SDK: A TypeScript library that abstracts UTXO key derivation, balance fragmentation, provider integration, and transaction lifecycle management, simplifying development.
Reference Wallet: A minimal, open-source client that connects to privacy channels via selected TPPs, enabling users to send private, self-custodied transactions with a unified UX.
Protocol Governance Layer: Smart contract layer for channel configuration, provider quorum management, and compliance policy enforcement at the protocol level.
These components are delivered as open-source tools to reduce the entry curve for wallets, institutions, and service providers. Moonlight makes it easier to integrate privacy on Stellar while maintaining custody, composability, and regulatory flexibility.
Yes
$135.0K
Moonlight’s success will be judged on real usage, growing liquidity, and broadened asset coverage on Stellar Mainnet. We track four signals: provider count, daily transactions, private TVL, and supported assets.
By Month 3 after launch, the system should look alive, not lab-grade: at least 3 production Trusted Privacy Providers, 1 live wallet integration, 25–50 private transfers per day, and roughly $100 000 locked in a single XLM privacy channel.
By Month 6 after launch, we need clear traction: 6 active TPPs, 2 additional wallets or fintech partners, 150–200 daily transfers, over $250 000 held privately, and three assets (likely XLM, USDC, EURCV) flowing through multiple channels. These numbers show that users and liquidity stick around once the novelty wears off.
By Month 12 after launch, network effects should be visible: 10 or more TPPs including at least one regulated institution, 500-plus daily transfers, $1 million in private balances, and 5 assets serviced. Hitting these marks proves Moonlight can scale privacy without draining liquidity from Stellar’s public pools and sets the stage for private Soroban-based DeFi.
Moonlight’s launch strategy is built around one guiding principle: make privacy on Stellar feel like an overnight upgrade, not a multi-month integration project.
1- Positioning & Core Promise
Moonlight turns any wallet, exchange, or fintech running on Stellar into a privacy-enabled service—without forcing them to cede custody or rewrite their compliance stack. Everything is open source on day one, so the community can inspect, fork, and improve the code as it grows.
2- Early-Mover Focus
We will start with three launch partners already in our pipeline: xBull Wallet (retail users), Palta Labs (infrastructure), and one EU-based institution partner from Aha Labs (e.g. Société Générale, etc). Their combined user base gives us immediate real-world volume and a feedback loop to harden the product before broad release.
3- Three Phases, Twelve Months
Developer Preview (Month 1-3) – We maintain one testnet privacy channel (XLM) and publish a TypeScript SDK, reference wallet, and tutorial quests on Stellar Quest.
Mainnet Pilot (Month 3-4) – After the SDF audit, we deploy audited contracts, activate the first mainnet channel, and register a quorum of three Trusted Privacy Providers (TPPs). Aha Labs also runs its own TPP for redundancy during the launch phase.
Ecosystem Expansion (Month 4-12) – We add USDC, EURCV, and two regulated assets, invite additional TPPs, and launch a permissionless-provider beta.
4- Adoption Channels
We rely on three low-cost levers: (a) co-marketing with partners through blog posts, X Spaces, and Stellar Meridian workshops; (b) hackathon sponsorships (e.g. Dora hackathon style) that award bounties for the best Moonlight integrations; and (c) in-wallet prompts that encourage users to upgrade to private transfers in a single click.
With a tight, phased rollout and concrete early adopters, Moonlight positions itself to become Stellar’s default privacy layer.
Moonlight is already live on the Stellar testnet with a working proof of concept, including deployed Soroban contracts for UTXO-based transaction abstraction and off-chain components that support SEP-10-based authentication and bundle submission. This testnet implementation validates the core architecture and demonstrates the feasibility of compliant, private payments on Stellar. You can watch this demo video for more information.
Moonlight is developed by Aha Labs, a leading Stellar integration partner with a proven delivery record. The team helped Société Générale-FORGE launch the EURCV stablecoin on Stellar, designed key portions of the Soroban/Stellar CLI, and maintains Loam, a Soroban developer toolchain with over 40K downloads across its CLI and SDK (according to Crates.io). Loam is in production or active pilots at firms like EquitX, Ziriz, Société Générale, and others.
Moonlight has strong early interest from the ecosystem. xBull Wallet’s maintainer plans to integrate Moonlight privacy channels in its next release. Key SDF collaborators, including Tyler van der Hoeven and Tomer Weller, have reviewed and endorsed the architecture. Palta Labs has committed to integrating Moonlight once mainnet support is live.
As part of Station F since September 2024, Aha Labs has expanded its European institutional outreach and is already working with multiple financial institutions on tokenization and payments. Moonlight serves as a natural privacy and compliance extension to these ongoing engagements.
Moonlight is also part of the 2025 cohort of the DraperU X Stellar residency program.
Brief description: Implement the core smart contracts required to operate a privacy channel on Stellar testnet. This includes the UTXO module, batch processing, liquidity tracking, and provider governance.
How to measure completion: Successful deployment of the privacy channel to testnet with working UTXO execution logic. Public release of contract source code.
Date of completion: 8/8/2025
Budget: $14,870
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Brief description: Develop the first release of the Moonlight TypeScript SDK, supporting deterministic key derivation and transaction bundle signing and core account abstraction.
How to measure completion: SDK published to GitHub with working implementation for fully interacting with the core protocol in Testnet. Includes documentation and test examples.
Date of completion: 8/15/2025
Budget: $13,960
Brief description: Implement and deploy the protocol management layer, enabling registration, configuration, and governance of privacy channels and provider quorums.
How to measure completion: Protocol management contracts deployed to testnet. Privacy channel registered and configured via governance interface.
Date of completion: 8/29/2025
Budget: $11,350
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Brief description: Develop and deploy the first production-grade Trusted Privacy Provider backend in a staging environment, integrated with the testnet channel.
How to measure completion: TPP server deployed with support for SEP-10 authentication, bundle relay, and logging. Live integration with testnet privacy channel.
Date of completion: 9/12/2025
Budget: $16,175
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Brief description: Extend the SDK to support full interaction with the privacy channel and TPPs. Finalize and publish testnet deployment with public documentation.
How to measure completion: SDK updated to support channel interaction, provider connection, and bundle submission. Public testnet environment released for developers.
Date of completion: 9/19/2025
Budget: $11,350
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Brief description: Launch a minimal, provider-agnostic wallet connected to the testnet privacy channel. The wallet will demonstrate the full transaction lifecycle from address derivation to UTXO submission.
How to measure completion: Wallet deployed and capable of sending and receiving private testnet transfers via a registered TPP. Includes provider selection, signing flow, and basic UI.
Date of completion: 9/26/2025
Budget:$14,235
Brief description: Conduct a third-party (free) audit of all core Moonlight contracts through SDF's Audit Program. Team resources will then be allocated to implement and verify fixes for any critical or high-priority findings prior to mainnet deployment.
How to measure completion: Formal audit report delivered. All critical and high findings resolved. Final audited contracts tagged for release.
Date of completion: 10/17/2025
Budget: $16,175
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Brief description: Deploy Moonlight Protocol V1 to Stellar Mainnet, including all audited contracts, the governance system, and the first asset-backed privacy channel (e.g. XLM). Register a quorum of production-grade TPPs.
How to measure completion: Contracts deployed and verified on Stellar Mainnet. Channel active with live asset. Operational quorum of registered TPPs.
Date of completion: 10/24/2025
Budget: $22,640
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Brief description: Release the mainnet-compatible version of the reference wallet with support for real asset transfers through live TPPs. Deploy monitoring tools and governance observability infrastructure to support operations and upgrades.
How to measure completion: Wallet connected to mainnet and publicly available. Monitoring dashboards deployed. Governance tooling in place for TPP and contract lifecycle management.
Date of completion: 10/24/2025
Budget: $14,235
Chad Ostrowski — Chief Executive Officer
A ten-year Web2 veteran (Ruby on Rails, React) before moving to Web3 in 2019, Chad joined NEAR Inc. as a core engineer and later co-founded Aha Labs (2021). He has designed much of Stellar’s modern developer workflow, including portions of the Soroban CLI and its JavaScript interaction layer.
Connect → GitHub | LinkedIn | Wellfound
Willem Wyndham — Chief Technology Officer
MSc CS (UNC Chapel Hill) and PhD-track research at the University of Maryland in programming languages and security. Former Contract Runtime Engineer at Pagoda (NEAR Inc.). Co-founded Aha Labs and leads all Rust/WebAssembly work, including SmartDeploy and Loam’s core runtime.
Connect → GitHub | LinkedIn
Fabricius Zatti — Principal Engineer/ Moonlight Lead
15 years in enterprise tech; designed blockchain systems for the Central Bank of Indonesia, MoneyGram, IOG, and the Stellar Development Foundation. Hyperledger Fabric & Besu certified; active contributor to Hyperledger Cacti interoperability. Brings deep Soroban, Ethereum, NEAR, Solana, and Cardano skills.
Connect → Github | LinkedIn
Pamela Selle — Principal Engineer
Former Senior Engineer II at HashiCorp (Terraform Core maintainer) and cloud-infrastructure lead at Comcast. Community organiser in the JavaScript ecosystem. At Aha Labs she shapes Loam and Moonlight’s production-grade architecture.
Connect → GitHub | LinkedIn
Elizabeth Engelman — Senior Engineer
A decade of consulting across healthcare, insurance, and finance; speaker at Clojure/West and SCNA. Joined Aha Labs in 2023 to advance Soroban tooling and documentation, bringing experience from Ethereum, Polygon, Stellar, and Flow.
Connect → GitHub | LinkedIn
Blaine Heffron — Senior Engineer
Physics PhD, 12+ years in C++, Rust, machine learning, and full-stack web. Leads EquitX’s Stellar workstream while contributing to Loam QA and Moonlight contract audits.
Connect → GitHub | LinkedIn
Enzo Soyer — Chief Operating Officer
Dual Master’s (ESSEC & CentraleSupélec), Enzo has worked in Denmark, Singapore, and France. He founded Fungible Strategy, advising Web 2 and Web 3 firms on blockchain adoption, and previously held roles at Brave Software and Thales Alenia Space. At Aha Labs he drives partnerships and market strategy.
Connect → LinkedIn
fazzatti
Enzo Soyer
Chad Ostrowski
Willem Neal Wyndham
No other submissions.