Working draft for the 2026 Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator application.
Apply.
Sub Rosa is eligible and strategically aligned because it is:
- based in EMEA;
- already built natively on Stellar and Soroban;
- an early-stage project with a working product, testnet lifecycle, and mainnet proof;
- relevant to financial coordination through sealed auctions, procurement, RFPs, capital allocation, and other workflows where early information leakage creates unfair outcomes.
The accelerator is separate from the SCF path. The application should disclose that SCF #44 did not proceed to Community Vote and that the next SCF attempt is being narrowed to escrow-backed sealed auctions:
| Program | Proposed scope |
|---|---|
| Future SCF Build Award resubmission | Harden and package the open-source sealed-auction protocol, SDK, keeper, named pilot, external review, and capped mainnet beta |
| Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator | Validate the commercial wedge, secure design partners, develop GTM, and become investor-ready |
If both programs provide development funding, confirm the scopes and budgets with SDF before accepting funds so that no deliverable is funded twice.
- Application deadline: July 3, 2026
- Format: 12 weeks, remote-first
- Region: teams based in or building for EMEA
- Focus: DeFi, payments, and real-world assets
- In-person component: Cape Town, South Africa
- Demo Day: Stellar Meridian, Lisbon, October 2026
- Potential support: up to $150,000 in XLM from SDF, mentorship, ecosystem perks, and investor introductions
Funding and participation terms, including any equity or token rights, must be confirmed before acceptance.
Sub Rosa is sealed auction infrastructure for Stellar: financial applications can collect escrow-backed bids privately, reveal them simultaneously, and settle the winner payment and loser refunds transparently on-chain.
Public blockchains reveal information too early. In auctions, procurement, capital allocation, and competitive financial workflows, that leakage lets late participants react to earlier inputs and forces users to trust an operator.
Sub Rosa removes that operator from the trust path. Bidders submit timelock-encrypted bids and escrow to a Soroban contract. A future public Drand round unlocks every valid bid at the same time; the contract then verifies, clears, pays the operator from winner escrow, and refunds losers deterministically using Stellar assets.
Sub Rosa is delivered as an embeddable Soroban primitive, TypeScript SDK, tlock package, and permissionless keeper rather than only as a hosted application.
Start with sealed auctions and procurement/RFP workflows for Stellar ecosystem teams and asset issuers. These use cases have:
- an obvious cost of information leakage;
- measurable transaction and settlement activity;
- a clear buyer or integration partner;
- a natural path from a pilot to recurring infrastructure usage.
DAO voting, grant scoring, bounty judging, and token allocation can remain future integration templates, but they should not lead the accelerator pitch.
Transparent ledgers are valuable after a financial decision is finalized, but harmful while participants are still making competing bids. Visible bid books create strategic copying and unfair late-mover advantages. Existing systems avoid this by trusting a centralized operator to keep submissions secret.
Sub Rosa provides timed confidentiality with public settlement. Inputs remain unreadable until a predetermined deadline, then become simultaneously verifiable and settleable on Stellar without operator discretion.
Sub Rosa is a sealed auction protocol built on Soroban. Applications create a round with deadlines, a future Drand round, a clearing rule, and a Stellar asset for escrow. Bidders submit commitments and timelock-encrypted bids. When the chosen Drand round is published, anyone can open the reveal phase. The contract verifies the Drand BLS signature on-chain, validates reveals, clears the round, pays the operator from winner escrow, and refunds losing escrow deterministically.
Integrators use the protocol through a TypeScript SDK, tlock helpers, and a permissionless keeper service.
Stellar is part of the product's execution and settlement path:
- Soroban enforces the sealed-round lifecycle and verifies the unlock condition.
- Stellar Asset Contracts provide escrow, settlement, and refunds.
- Fast, low-cost finality makes repeated coordination rounds practical.
- Stellar's focus on real-world financial infrastructure creates a natural market for fair auctions, procurement, and allocation workflows.
Sub Rosa already has a Stellar mainnet contract and a settled mainnet proof using native XLM, plus full USDC and multi-agent lifecycle proofs on testnet.
- Won 1st Place in the Hack Privacy Track at the Build On Stellar Hackathon, IBW 2026.
- Built and open-sourced the Soroban round contract, TypeScript SDK, tlock package, permissionless keeper, multi-agent proof, and integration documentation.
- Completed a full two-bidder USDC lifecycle on Stellar testnet.
- Completed an end-to-end multi-agent flow with x402 appraisal, sealed commits, keeper reveal, and settlement on Stellar testnet.
- Deployed and settled a live round on Stellar mainnet using native XLM.
- Received SCF #44 review feedback: engineering was considered strong, but the application needed a narrower use case and real pilot evidence. The resubmission path is now sealed auctions with named design-partner evidence.
Current traction is technical and ecosystem validation. The next objective is to convert it into design-partner pilots and repeat usage.
The core protocol and SDK will remain open source. The initial commercial model is managed infrastructure and integration support:
- hosted keeper and round-monitoring operations;
- usage-based fees for managed sealed-round execution;
- implementation and support packages for teams embedding Sub Rosa;
- enterprise features such as operational reporting, policy controls, and service-level agreements.
The accelerator will be used to validate pricing and identify which managed service creates the strongest recurring demand.
The initial customers are Stellar ecosystem applications, asset issuers, and financial platforms that run competitive allocation processes:
- auction and marketplace operators;
- procurement and RFP platforms;
- tokenized-asset and capital-allocation products;
- DeFi applications that need sealed order or intent collection;
- grant, bounty, and governance platforms requiring blind evaluation.
The first GTM target is a small set of Stellar-based design partners with a concrete sealed-auction or RFP workflow.
Sub Rosa combines timed confidentiality and deterministic Stellar settlement in one reusable integration layer. It does not require a trusted reveal operator, and it does not keep final outcomes private: early information stays hidden, while final outcomes remain public and verifiable.
The working implementation already includes the Soroban contract, on-chain Drand BLS verification, Stellar asset escrow, SDK, keeper, threat model, and mainnet proof. This reduces integration risk for partners compared with building the cryptography and operations themselves.
- Select and validate the strongest commercial wedge: sealed auctions, procurement/RFPs, or capital allocation.
- Secure at least three design partners and launch at least one live pilot.
- Define pricing and a repeatable managed-infrastructure offering.
- Improve partner onboarding, monitoring, and operational readiness.
- Complete a security review plan and production launch roadmap.
- Build an investor-ready narrative, data room, and fundraising strategy.
Sub Rosa has moved beyond concept risk: the protocol works on Stellar testnet and mainnet. Its largest remaining risk is market selection and distribution. The Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator directly addresses that gap through access to Stellar ecosystem teams, financial-use-case mentors, GTM support, design partners, and investors.
The program can help turn a technically validated Stellar primitive into adopted financial infrastructure.
Sub Rosa's SCF #44 Build Award submission did not proceed to Community Vote. The feedback was useful: the build was strong, but the use case was too broad and lacked a named pilot or usage signal. The next SCF path is a focused resubmission around escrow-backed sealed auctions, named pilot evidence, external funds-handling review, and a capped mainnet beta.
This accelerator application is focused on company-building: selecting a commercial wedge, securing design partners, validating pricing and GTM, and becoming investor-ready. If a future SCF resubmission is funded, scopes and budgets should be coordinated with SDF so the same deliverable is not funded twice.
- Repository: https://github.com/Sub-Rosa-Issue/sub-rosa-issue
- Mainnet contract: https://stellar.expert/explorer/public/contract/CA7KSDEYJEPGZEB2ZROTLUWKQQ6GIRIQNGG6Z745MZ34QHP4UJPWODEX
- SCF #44 round: https://communityfund.stellar.org/awards/rec4FnYypcsKpBRB4
- Accelerator: https://www.cvlabs.com/accelerator/stellar
Do not guess these fields:
- founder's preferred full name, title, email, phone, LinkedIn, and location;
- whether Sub Rosa has a legal entity and, if so, incorporation details and cap table;
- team members, roles, biographies, and time commitment;
- current users, pilot discussions, letters of intent, revenue, and usage metrics;
- fundraising history and current fundraising target;
- availability for the full 12-week program, Cape Town component, and Lisbon Demo Day;
- pitch deck URL and product demo/video URL;
- exact relationship to any other grants or funding received;
- confirmation of funding, equity, token, travel, and attendance terms.
- Confirm founder and company details
- Add real pilot/customer evidence and metrics
- Create or update a concise accelerator pitch deck
- Record a short product and founder video
- Disclose SCF #44 result and future resubmission plan
- Confirm participation and funding terms
- Submit before July 3, 2026