Why Meridian
The problem
Inflation in many West African economies regularly exceeds 20% annually. Local savings accounts often yield less than inflation, eroding purchasing power for anyone holding domestic currency. USD-denominated savings accounts exist, but access requires extensive KYC, minimum balances, and geographic restrictions that exclude most of the region.
Crypto wallets remove the access barriers but introduce a different problem: yield is fragmented across protocols. A user who wants to put idle USDC to work must research Blend, DeFindex, and others separately, compare rates manually, and execute separate transactions for each. Most do not bother.
Why Stellar
Stellar is the right infrastructure layer for this use case:
- Fees below $0.01 per transaction. On-chain activity is economically viable for small savers, not just whales.
- 5-second finality. Deposits and withdrawals settle in a single block.
- Native USDC. Circle issues USDC natively on Stellar, avoiding bridge risk.
- Soroban smart contracts. Composable, auditable yield logic runs directly on-chain with Rust-level safety guarantees.
Why an aggregator
Yield rates on DeFi protocols are not static. A protocol offering 8% today may offer 5% next week as utilization changes. Without active monitoring, a depositor's funds sit in a suboptimal position indefinitely.
Meridian solves this by separating the routing decision (off-chain, by the API reading live rates) from the custody decision (on-chain, by the vault contract). Every deposit records which protocol was chosen, and the user signs off on that choice before any funds move.
The target user
Meridian is built for users in West Africa and other emerging markets who:
- Already hold USDC or are comfortable acquiring it through a local exchange
- Have a Freighter wallet or are willing to set one up
- Want dollar-denominated yield without navigating multiple protocols themselves
The UI is intentionally minimal. No charts to interpret, no liquidity pools to research. One number (APY), one action (deposit).