Stellar Ecosystem
News

Beans, a non-custodial wallet on the Stellar blockchain, announces a partnership with Kado to enable new deposit options including debit/credit cards, ACH in the USA, and PIX in Brazil. This integration offers users faster, cheaper ways to on-ramp fiat into Stellar for international transfers. The collaboration enhances accessibility and competitive rates for global remittances.

The Stellar Development Foundation disclosed a bug in Stellar Core v20.1.0 affecting fee-bumped Soroban transactions, where refunds are incorrectly sent to the sponsored account instead of the sponsor. SDF decided to proceed with the Protocol 20 upgrade vote on January 30 as planned, citing low risk during early Soroban phases and the availability of mitigation best practices.

An educational deep-dive into Stellar's Proof-of-Agreement (PoA) consensus algorithm, explaining how it differs from Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake through relatable examples of quorums, slices, and topens.

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to deploying a Soroban RPC server on DigitalOcean Kubernetes using Stellar Development Foundation Helm charts. It covers cluster creation, Helm repository setup, configuration for testnet, Nginx Ingress installation, DNS setup, and verification. Benefits include improved reliability, control, and performance for Stellar smart contract interactions.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to pilot a blockchain-powered cash assistance program in Ukraine using Stellar Aid Assist and the Stellar Disbursement Platform, reaching 167 households with digital aid delivery that achieved 100% recipient satisfaction.

Blend, a permissionless on-chain lending protocol, has launched on Stellar Testnet. Users can now test lending, borrowing, and backstopping features using browser wallets like Freighter. The protocol offers high capital efficiency, flexible pools, and risk mitigations for the Stellar DeFi ecosystem.

Eiger, a Rust-focused web3 engineering firm, published its first newsletter showcasing two years of growth to 40 people, recent blog posts on Soroban tooling (Nebula), privacy protocols, and partnerships with Fireblocks, plus updates on partner projects like Elusiv's private swaps on Solana.

Aquarius announces updates and 2024 plans for building AMMs on Stellar using Soroban smart contracts. They've developed CPMM and StableSwap models inspired by Uniswap and Curve, with AQUA rewards for liquidity providers. A new UI and integrations are planned post-Soroban mainnet launch on January 30, 2024.

Stellar Development Foundation announced Protocol 20 upgrade with Soroban smart contracts, scheduled for January 30 validator vote on Mainnet. The network will roll out smart contract functionality in three phased stages to ensure stability and performance.

This article explains how Stellar's blockchain technology enables fast, low-cost cross-border payments by combining a frictionless blockchain pathway with local anchor partners for currency conversion. It contrasts Stellar's approach with traditional SWIFT wire transfers and highlights key advantages including settlement in seconds, minimal transaction costs, and full transparency.

The Stellar Development Foundation released a comprehensive paper titled 'The Case for Open Systems: Creating an Interoperable, Integrated World,' exploring the historical context, principles, and real-world applications of open systems in fostering innovation and equitable technology access.

Velo Labs announced strategic partnerships with TransactCloud, FT Worldwide, and an unnamed fintech innovator to advance its Web3 Finance offerings. The collaborations aim to enhance liquidity, trading, and Web2-Web3 connectivity through Velo's Universe platform and Lightyear trading bot.

The Stellar Development Foundation published a comprehensive paper examining how blockchain-based solutions advance digital financial inclusion, addressing the 1.4 billion unbanked adults globally and highlighting blockchain's role in reducing cross-border transaction costs and enabling access to formal financial services.

Moody's rated the first tokenized fund on public blockchains, giving Singapore's FundBridge Capital's SGD Delta fund an AA rating. The fund will issue tokenized units on Ethereum and Stellar, investing in Singapore government securities for accredited investors.

Stablecoins are projected to reach $3 trillion by 2028, with major players like Circle, PayPal, Ripple, and JPMorgan expanding adoption through partnerships and regulatory clarity. MoneyGram is launching a Stellar blockchain wallet for cross-border payments in early 2024.

Stellar Aid Assist, launched one year ago in Ukraine with UNHCR, has successfully disbursed $1.1 million in aid to over 1,500 internally displaced people. The initiative's success led to the development and open-sourcing of the Stellar Disbursement Platform, enabling bulk payments across borders for governments, organizations, and companies.

This article explains asset tokenization on Stellar, covering what it is, who can tokenize assets, key benefits like operational efficiency and transparency, and the technical process for creating digital representations of real-world assets on the network.

The Stellar Development Foundation submitted comments to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on blockchain sustainability standards under the MiCA regulation, highlighting the Stellar network's environmental efficiencies and promoting the use of existing assessment methodologies like the Blockchain Sustainability Framework developed with PwC.

Beans collaborates with the Stellar Foundation and Friends With Benefits to support Casa Tochan's migrant shelter using the Stellar Disbursement Platform. The initiative leverages the Beans wallet for fee-free, instant fund disbursements, highlighting blockchain's humanitarian potential. This partnership demonstrates accessible financial services for global good.

Dropzey is a new platform revolutionizing airdrops on the Stellar blockchain. It leverages Stellar's Soroban smart contracts to automate eligibility verification, streamline token distributions, and enhance engagement for creators and participants. The platform addresses traditional airdrop challenges like verification complexities and limited visibility.

Stellar Community Fund launches SCF 5.0 with Neural Quorum Governance, a reputation-based voting mechanism built on Soroban. The fund deployed $10M to 130+ projects in 2023 and introduces streamlined Activation and Community Awards up to $50K and $100K respectively.

Stasis Euro (EURS), the top Euro stablecoin by market cap at $136M, is now live on Stellar Network. Despite leading in market cap, EURS ranks third in daily trading volume, with Stasis positioning it for DeFi use cases on Stellar.