Stellar Ecosystem
News

Puntored, a Colombian fintech serving low- and middle-income populations across Latin America, raised $2M from the Stellar Development Foundation's Enterprise Fund to expand its technological capabilities and enable cross-border transactions via the Stellar blockchain network.

Soroswap.Finance, the first DEX on the Soroban Blockchain in the Stellar ecosystem, announces the listing of $NGNC, a Naira-pegged stablecoin natively supported on Stellar. This enhances liquidity, FX utility, and cross-border payments for Nigerian users. Users can trade, add liquidity, and swap NGNC with assets like XLM, BTC, ETH, and USDC.

PaltaLabs and Soroswap hosted an educational event at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile on August 8, 2024, bringing together 50+ entrepreneurs and developers to explore blockchain, DeFi, and smart contracts on Stellar. The event featured presentations on Soroswap's decentralized exchange, USDC integration, regulatory considerations, and networking opportunities.

The Stellar Development Foundation released a documentary called 'The Onchain Effect' showcasing how blockchain technology is solving real-world financial problems. The film tells the story of an Australian entrepreneur in Colombia who uses Stellar and the Decaf wallet to safely pay his employees in USDC, eliminating the need to carry dangerous amounts of cash.

Fernanda Orduña Rangel, co-founder of Decaf, shares her journey from industrial engineer to blockchain developer building financial inclusion solutions on Stellar. Decaf enables users in Latin America and Africa to hold value in USDC and invest, addressing real-world financial exclusion and inflation protection.

This article explains the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), Stellar's unique approach to blockchain consensus that prioritizes speed, reliability, and decentralization without resource-intensive proof of work. It covers key concepts like quorum sets, voting mechanisms, quorum intersections, and the security benefits of using nodes operated by well-known organizations.

The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q2 2024 quarterly report, highlighting network growth to 8.4 million addresses, real-world asset supply exceeding $598 million, and significant progress in tokenization and Soroban adoption. The report showcases achievements including WisdomTree's expanded retail access, $7.8 million in enterprise investments, and $5 million in Stellar Community Fund awards to 107 projects.

This article explains the role and importance of Lumens, Stellar's native currency, detailing how they function as transaction fees, maintain network security through minimum balance requirements, and serve as a bridge currency for cross-border payments. It also highlights Stellar's unique consensus protocol (SCP) and its advantages over traditional blockchain networks.

Etherfuse, a tokenized real-world assets platform, raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by White Star Capital and North Island Ventures, with participation from the Stellar Development Foundation. The company is tokenizing emerging market government debt on Stellar and Solana blockchains, starting with Latin American sovereign bonds.

Huma Finance publishes a comprehensive overview of PayFi (Payment Finance), a new frontier in real-world assets that combines stablecoins with financing mechanisms to enable scalable, compliant payment solutions. The article introduces the PayFi Stack—a framework with six layers (Transaction, Currency, Custody, Financing, Compliance, Application)—and highlights Stellar's role alongside Solana in providing high-throughput, low-cost transaction infrastructure for payments.

This guide explains how Ugandan users can withdraw cryptocurrency from Binance to Ugandan Shillings (UGX) via Mobile Money or bank accounts using Bingtellar, a web3 payments platform. It provides a detailed step-by-step process, highlighting Bingtellar's advantages over P2P methods. The article mentions Stellar as one of the affordable blockchain networks for low-cost transfers.

The Stellar Development Foundation donated $250,000 to support Glo Dollar's integration into the Stellar ecosystem. Glo Dollar is a stablecoin that donates 100% of its profits to charitable causes, enabling users to support philanthropy without explicit donations through remittances and social payouts.

An educational article introducing Stellar's blockchain network, explaining its Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), and demonstrating real-world applications through IBM World Wire and ClickPesa for cross-border payments and financial inclusion.

This guide explores zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proofs) on the Stellar network, explaining how they enable privacy, scalability, and interoperability for financial applications. It covers ZK Proof fundamentals, implementations like zk-SNARKs and zk-STARKs, and their applications in DeFi, financial inclusion, and privacy-preserving systems.

MYKOBO is transitioning its EURC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain to Circle's EURC, affecting over 25K asset holders. This move supports MiCAR compliance and expands services to Ethereum, Avalanche, and Solana. Current services will continue uninterrupted during the transition.

Decentralife interviews Bernardo Garcia, co-founder of Félix, a WhatsApp-based payments platform using AI and blockchain to enable cheap remittances for U.S.-based Latino immigrants to Latin America. Celebrating 10 years of the Stellar ecosystem, Garcia shares his immigrant journey and motivation to solve high-fee cross-border payment issues. Félix simplifies sending money via chat, delivering fast and affordable transfers.

The Stellar Development Foundation announces its commitment to increasing gender diversity in the Stellar ecosystem and partnerships with SheFi to empower women builders. SDF will sponsor SheFi's Brussels summit in July, featuring keynotes on real-world blockchain use cases and an activation showcasing Stellar's new passkeys capability.

Stellar's foundational content explaining the network's vision for interoperability—enabling blockchain networks and applications to interact with real-world services. The article highlights Stellar's unique design for low-cost value transfers, asset creation, and financial inclusion, with sections on exchanges as on/off ramps and a video featuring Candace Kelly on interoperability.

This article introduces Stellar and its Soroban smart contract platform to Polkadot users, highlighting integration via the Spacewalk bridge by Pendulum. It covers asset transfers for Stellar's stablecoins, use cases in DeFi and payments, and provides a getting started guide. The synergy aims to enhance cross-chain financial inclusion and innovation.

Bingtellar has been awarded an Activation Grant from the Stellar Community Fund to enhance its global payments infrastructure on the Stellar network, targeting cross-border payments in Africa. The grant supports expanding features, stablecoin utility, and connecting underserved Africans to the global economy. Bingtellar leverages Stellar's blockchain for fast, low-cost remittances, akin to 'TransferWise on Web3'.

Stellar Aid Assist is a blockchain-powered aid disbursement system launched on the Stellar network that enables transparent and efficient delivery of cash assistance to vulnerable populations. The initiative, deployed with UNHCR in Ukraine, marks a year of impact in demonstrating Stellar's real-world humanitarian applications.