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Our third quarter at SDF just wrapped up on the tail end of some exciting announcements. Reflecting back on the SDF 2021 roadmap, I’m pleased to say that we’ve made significant progress along all three pillars supporting our roadmap. As a refresher, the three strategic pillars that guide us are:
For the first pillar – in early November, Stellar validators will vote on the public network upgrade to Protocol 18. If accepted, that upgrade will add the ability to create Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to Stellar which we believe will support liquidity needs on the network. Due to the enthusiasm regarding AMMs from the ecosystem, we are accelerating the rollout leading up to Protocol 18 by giving developers early access to first-wave resources. This way, users will have quality interfaces to interact with liquidity pools on day one.
For the second pillar – preparations for Meridian 2021 are ramping up, with newly updated information available on the sessions and speakers. Remember to register if you haven’t already! Additionally, we’ve recently launched a white paper on CBDCs on Stellar. I highly recommend giving this piece a read-through, as it presents a compelling case for why Stellar is ideal for issuing CBDCs, how issuing a CBDC would look on Stellar, and how the Stellar Consensus Protocol ties it all together.
Finally, the third pillar – a number of exciting ecosystem partnerships have solidified within the last month. Stablecorp and VersaBank will commercially launch VCAD, a Canadian stablecoin and also the first stablecoin to be issued by a North American bank, in the upcoming months. Tempo Payments and Arf have formally launched a payment corridor between Europe and the Philippines. Lastly, Spanish startup Vottun Payments has begun integrating their intra-company cross-border payments platform onto Stellar for the Spanish Regulatory Sandbox with support from PwC and SDF.
I want to give a special callout to our recently announced agreement with MoneyGram International to build a bridge between digital assets and local currencies for consumers. To work with a pioneer and global leader in digital P2P payments is nothing short of exhilarating.
Of course, there’s plenty more exciting news to cover, which is why you should join us for our Q3 webinar. On Thursday, October 14th at 9am PT, we will be going over the latest developments on Stellar – plus, we have a very special guest joining us for the call, so this is an event that you don’t want to miss out on.
denelle
This agreement enables digital wallets connected to the Stellar network to access MoneyGram’s global retail platform, providing a bridge between digital assets and local currencies for consumers. This will also revolutionize settlement flows by facilitating near-instant settlement in USDC.
There’s a new round of session and speaker updates to the Meridian 2021 program. Register to join us November 17-18! Meridian is virtual and free for everyone. Conversations will focus on the power of local solutions and how they can not only support the regions they originate from, but also scale beyond to deliver global impact.
SDF has moved $150 million of Stellar USDC on-chain, another step toward supporting the growth and development of the Stellar ecosystem. Leveraging on-chain assets to financially support the ecosystem is another way to show the value of Stellar. Many projects are building on Stellar and creating new pathways for expanding financial inclusion and SDF wants to be able to leverage those pathways.
Stellar was built with CBDCs in mind: to allow trusted issuers to create digital representations of their assets. Download our new white paper to learn what features make Stellar uniquely suited to issuing CBDC and how to implement a CBDC on the network.
As the blockchain industry matures and more financial use cases develop, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been top-of-mind for central banks. CBDCs possess the potential to substantially improve the lives of citizens, whether by encouraging innovation in financial services, easing distribution of social benefit payments, bringing safety and security to the unbanked, or more. Thus, central banks have a real opportunity to radically improve equitable access to financial services through CBDCs.
In early November, Stellar validators will vote on the public network upgrade to Protocol 18. If accepted, that upgrade will add a new feature to Stellar — the ability to create Automated Market Makers (AMMs). This AMM development process to-date has been a shining example of how our entire ecosystem can work together, anchored around Stellar's guiding open source principles, to further Stellar network development and sets a new bar on our collective collaboration.
DFS Lab hosted their inaugural Blockchain Bootcamp with support from the SDF. The virtual bootcamp gave early- to mid-stage startups in Africa an opportunity to build on Stellar over a three day period. The most promising solutions built on Stellar were awarded prizes to further pursue their vision.
Despite a few sources of uncertainty in the study, the results clearly indicate that Stellar has successfully decoupled extreme electricity usage from decentralization in its consensus algorithm.
Global fintech company, Bitt, and SDF have been announced as one of 15 finalists for the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Global CBDC Challenge to develop and showcase retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) solutions.
The work to create equitable access to financial services continues as ecosystem partners build more payment corridors and services on Stellar. Arf, a global stablecoin treasury, working capital financing provider, and cross-border settlement provider for licensed money service businesses (MSBs), has teamed up with Tempo Payments to introduce a new payment corridor via the Stellar network from Europe to the Philippines.
Digital banking leader VersaBank and Canadian blockchain fintech firm Stablecorp plan to commercially launch the VCAD token – a Canadian stablecoin that will be public and live on the Stellar network and the first to be issued by a North American bank. As a result of this pioneering partnership between VersaBank and Stablecorp, users will now have access to a high-quality, bank-issued stablecoin that has the same standing, security, and stability as bank deposits.
SDF has announced a grant of up to $850,000 to help Vottun showcase its Stellar-powered solution for intra-company cross-border payments as part of the Spanish Regulatory Sandbox. Vottun’s payments platform will enable corporate clients to tokenize intra-company payments using Stellar-based digital currencies to seamlessly execute and settle payments.
Submissions are open for the 9th round of the Stellar Community Fund! Through November 7, projects built on Stellar can be submitted to compete for the 3.5M XLM prize pool, awarded based on input from the Stellar community.
Connecting the DeFi ecosystem with Stellar’s broad range of fiat tokens opens many opportunities for both DeFi products and traditional fiat infrastructures.
You can now use LOBSTR to connect to StellarX and StellarTerm and other Stellar apps, just by scanning a QR code. This integration is a big step forward for creating great user experiences and improved interoperability between Stellar-based products.
In making Stellar USDC available to users, interoperability on Liquid grows stronger, solving issues arising from recent spikes in blockchain fees and improving the service we provide.
Check out the winning Stellar-based projects from Hack Africa. Hack Africa focused on developers based in Africa and on solutions dedicated to Africa. 8 finalists were chosen to compete for the top prizes.
Latin American stablecoin issuer Anclap is expanding its Stellar-based stablecoin network by launching a new stablecoin in Peru, Cointelegraph en Español reports.
NFT owners on Litemint can now run live, time limited auctions with reserve price to further engage with their potential buyers. Litemint auctions are fully decentralized, require no escrow, with full settlement on the Stellar DEX.
NFT owners on Litemint can now run live, time limited auctions with reserve price to further engage with their potential buyers. Litemint auctions are fully decentralized, require no escrow, with full settlement on the Stellar DEX.
In early November, validators will vote on whether to upgrade the Stellar network to Protocol 18, which implements a new feature first proposed in CAP-38, aptly titled Automated Market Makers.
This week we discussed CAP-21, which suggests a change to the Stellar Protocol that would lay the foundation for building payment channels on Stellar.
Denelle Dixon (SDF) on Bloomberg Radio
Denelle Dixon (SDF) on Cheddar News
Markus Paulson (Script3) on Sam Conner
Blockchain NYC virtual meetup: Understanding Stellar - Oct 12
Techstars Startup Weekend Blockchain Latam with Visa and Stellar - Oct 15
Past Events
Revolutionizing Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins - Oct 5
Reimagina las finanzas con blockchain - Oct 6
Blockchain Bootcamp with DFS Lab - Sept 28
Digital Asset and CBDC Compliance panel - Sept 27
Cryptocurrency and the Global Market panel - Sept 22
GBBC Blockchain Central UNGA Panel - Sept 17
Reminder: Beware of “Hard Fork” Scams, Impersonators, and “Giveaway Scams”. We will never ask for your private keys, and we will never ask you to send us cryptocurrency. Learn more about how to protect yourself and your accounts in our Security guide.
DISCLAIMER: Stellar.org does not endorse any third party organizations that are named in this and/or any other communication(s). Please conduct due diligence and interact with these organizations at your discretion.
Safety Policy: The Stellar team will NEVER ask you for your private keys. We will NEVER ask you to deposit funds to any wallet address. Read our Security Guide for more information.
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