Stellar Ecosystem
News

DFS Lab is hosting a three-day Blockchain Bootcamp in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation for nine African startups building financial solutions on Stellar. Winners will receive prizes and pitch to investors at a demo day.

Stellar Development Foundation moved $150 million of USDC on-chain to provide debt financing and working capital loans to ecosystem projects, expanding financial support beyond grants to accelerate growth in cross-border payments and remittances.

Jason Chlipala, COO of Stellar Development Foundation, discusses how blockchain enables safer, more efficient payment systems on shared infrastructure. He highlights Stellar's advantages for asset issuance, cross-border transactions, and financial inclusion, particularly in remittances where fees could drop from 7-15% to fractions of pennies.

Wilhelm Wanecek's research study estimates Stellar network electricity consumption at 0.222 Wh per transaction, with network traffic accounting for 94% of power use. The findings demonstrate Stellar's energy efficiency compared to proof-of-work blockchains and highlight the protocol's successful decoupling of decentralization from extreme power consumption.

Stellar's Meridian 2021 conference (Nov 17-18) will showcase local builders creating financial inclusion solutions on the network. The event features ecosystem updates, debates on regulation and digital currencies, and community product demos under the theme Build Locally, Impact Globally.

Velo Labs, TEMPO Payments, and Bitazza have opened a remittance corridor between the EU and Thailand on Stellar, enabling fast cross-border transactions for a $17 billion market connecting 600 million customers.

Stellar Development Foundation and Advent International are reportedly considering acquiring MoneyGram, the global money transfer company. The move reflects growing interest in integrating blockchain technology with legacy cross-border payment infrastructure.

SDF released its Q2 2021 report highlighting network growth, two protocol upgrades, $18M in Enterprise Fund investments, and the approval of Automated Market Makers for Protocol 18. The network demonstrated resilience after a temporary validator outage in April.

Liquid exchange now offers Stellar USDC with fee-free withdrawals, enabling customers to save $12-15 per transaction and settle in seconds compared to Ethereum-based USDC.

Stellar Protocol 18 proposal to add automated market makers (AMMs) was approved for implementation on June 25, 2021. AMMs will provide an alternative liquidity source alongside the existing order book exchange, enabling easier participation in market making and improving cross-asset payment efficiency.

Stellar Development Foundation's Lisa Nestor discusses how USDC on Stellar enables fast, cheap cross-border payments and remittances, with transaction costs measured in fractions of a cent versus thousands on other networks.

This article explains how to use the Stellar network for everyday payments and remittances, emphasizing its speed, low cost, and ecological benefits over traditional banking. It covers wallet options like Keybase, Lobstr, Freighter, and hardware wallets, security best practices, and methods to spend XLM via exchanges or crypto debit cards. The author shares personal experiences sending XLM to family members.

Wyre launched a Savings API enabling fintechs to offer yield-earning savings accounts in Stellar USDC, with returns many times higher than traditional U.S. savings accounts. The service follows a $5 million SDF Enterprise Fund investment in Wyre and is already being used by fintech Airtm to serve Latin American users.

Stellar Development Foundation invested $15 million in Airtm, a Latin American digital wallet and P2P exchange platform, to expand financial access in underserved regions. The partnership will integrate Airtm with Stellar's network and USDC stablecoin to enable broader payment services.

Stellar Development Foundation invests $15 million in Airtm, a Mexican digital wallet and P2P exchange platform serving Latin America. The funds will support Airtm's integration with Stellar to enable faster, cheaper, and safer payment services across emerging markets.

The Stellar Development Foundation's Enterprise Fund invested $15 million in Airtm, a Mexico-based digital wallet and crypto exchange. This is SDF's largest investment on record and part of a broader strategy to expand cross-border payments and financial inclusion in Latin America.

USDC expansion on Stellar enables new money flows through anchors like Wyre, Stably, BitGo, and FinClusive, creating fast, low-cost cross-currency transactions and global financial interoperability.

Stably launched on/off ramp integration for USDC and USDS stablecoins on Stellar, enabling seamless deposits and withdrawals for Stellar wallets and anchors. The integration marks the next phase of Stably's partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation to expand borderless payment infrastructure.

Stellar Community Fund Seed Round finalists Leaf Global Fintech and Task.io are building wallet and NGO payment solutions on Stellar. Leaf enables cross-border remittances via USSD on basic phones; Task streamlines nonprofit operations with transparent payment tracking and donor accountability.

Two Stellar Community Fund finalists, COINQVEST and Anclap, are partnering to deliver inflation-free payment processing in Argentina. COINQVEST provides merchant payment solutions on Stellar, while Anclap offers anchor services and digital currency payments, demonstrating ecosystem network effects.

The Stellar Development Foundation invested $3 million in Tribal Credit, a fintech platform serving SMEs in emerging markets. Tribal will build blockchain products on Stellar to provide faster, cheaper cross-border payments and banking services across Latin America.

The article contrasts traditional payment apps like Venmo with Stellar's blockchain for low-cost, borderless remittances. It highlights Stellar's negligible transaction fees, decentralized exchange for fair rates, and adoption by Franklin Templeton. The author, a self-described no-coiner, expresses optimism about cryptocurrency's potential to empower the unbanked.