“We will create mechanisms that will be of interest to both the market and the state”

In April, the founder of the bitcoin agency KUNA talked about all the benefits of implementing blockchain technology in the automotive industry. Even now, blockchain technology is being actively incorporated into government mechanisms and processes of large enterprises, which is having a tangible effect at some stages of operational management. They also talked about the practical application of cryptocurrencies in the banking sector and the reasons for issuing national digital currencies, as well as the use of digital money.  

These are undoubtedly big steps forward for the cryptocurrency world, and undoubtedly the introduction of the blockchain in the automotive sphere will bring significant benefits to both manufacturers and their customers.

Stellar: a peaceful revolution in the financial ecosystem

What is Stellar: a decentralized payment system, a platform for ICOs, smart contracts management, or a habitat for central banks’ own cryptocurrencies? One can only envy the ambitions of a project supported by IBM and ready to compete with the financial giant SWIFT. But these aren’t just words, today the Stellar platform already operates digital national currencies, and the system is used by a huge number of private users and businesses. 

The day is not far off when automakers will start adopting blockchain technology one by one, and Stellar is currently the most promising candidate to meet business needs. 

Is e-money licensing a key attribute for a competitive business space?

Economists’ opinions are divided when it comes to cryptocurrencies in the global economy and the real sector. Many see no future in digital money and predict the collapse of cryptocurrencies, believing that the economy can only exist on established canons. 

And others are keeping up with the times and not only accept changes but also contribute in every way to the development of blockchain technology – consulting with developers, speaking at conferences and explaining to the world why cryptocurrencies have a huge future.

Despite this, experts believe that we should not rush with government regulation and let the crypto world develop in a free space. After all, any regulation generates restrictions that can hinder the evolution of technology.

Conclusion

We are now witnessing a massive expansion of blockchain, and very soon we may see crypto technology in the auto industry. When that time comes, we will laughingly remember how skeptical we were about blockchain a few years ago, sometimes just not understanding what it is.

DeFi platform on Stellar impresses with new update

Stellar refers to the native DEX (decentralized exchange) Lumenswap. Lumenswap (LSP) is the first fully decentralized AMM trading platform on the altcoin blockchain. The LSP’s own DEX token is used to control the platform, for example with a DAO.

In an official tweet, DEX announced the launch of a new protocol called Smart Order Routing, or SOR for short. This should further increase the profitability of the crypto exchange. As a rule, the protocols in Stellar Lumens rely on Horizon API. Its task is to find the best prices for token swaps and profitable mining, but it isn’t entirely efficient in this respect. Automated market makers on Stellar (XLM) should achieve much better results with this new protocol.

To achieve this goal, the protocol analyzes the liquidity statistics of all pools on Lumenswap (LSP), trying to find the most profitable exchange pairs. It then reroutes this order to several pools, which may contain other swap pairs. What this is can be read in the swap details. A simple click on the rainbow SOR button is enough.

For a while, the rate of XLM reacted positively to this news, but soon the price of XLM coin dropped due to the overall bad mood in the market. At the time of writing, the value of one coin is $0.11.

Ledger Live is a unique platform for managing funds stored on Ledger devices. With the advent of this platform, it has become much more convenient for device owners to use their funds. Note that the security of funds has remained at the same level and today it is the safest way to store cryptocurrency.

This is a big step for SDF in popularizing theirs network and the influx of new users. Now, every user who owns a Ledger hardware device can safely make transactions in the program’s online interface.

The reach of Ledger is tremendous and there is no doubt that with the integration of USDC, users are gaining unique benefits when transacting with USDC. One of the fastest growing digital coins combined with the uniqueness of the Stellar platform offer users:

• instant transfers

• international transfers with fees costing a penny
• support for a huge number of well-known projects

In addition to Ledger Live, USDC coins are supported by Ledger’s line of hardware devices:

• Ledger Nano S
•  Ledger Nano S plus
•  Ledger Nano X

Stellar evolution

The Stellar project never stops evolving and the SDF team is doing everything possible to ensure that users get as many benefits and advantages as possible.

Platform’s ecosystem has dozens of world-known projects and many small solutions used by tens of thousands of users every day, which makes Stellar one of the leaders in cryptocurrency transfers.

This would be an additional step that would allow all MoneyGram customers to use Stablecoin and convert them to fiat currency using the Stellar blockchain, which would deal a significant blow to Ripple.

Stellar and MoneyGram together

The case is relatively simple to understand. On the one hand, indeed, we have one of the most important companies in the world for transferring money, on the other hand, the Stellar network, which can offer logistical and technological support for cryptocurrency transfer.

All complemented by the ability to convert them into cash and back on demand. At least that’s what MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes confirmed to Bloomberg News in an interview. According to him, the world of crypto and fiat money are not yet fully compatible, and they would like to act as an intermediary to facilitate the transition from one world to the other for their customers.

Remittances that are typically transferred by migrants and sent to their home countries will be made in USDC, a stablecoin based on reserves rather than algorithmic-type mechanisms. This will be more than welcome, especially after the recent collapse of Terra Luna, which also has interesting legal implications when the Korean authorities summoned employees.

This is very good news and quite an interesting situation for Stellar, which in general is struggling with the excessive power of Ripple in this sector, in particular with the XRP coin, which has a great support from banks.

The importance of the news for Stellar?

This is great news because it is an additional partnership with a large group that will increase the volume of processing on its network. An important sign of strength, including trading, which could also affect the price of the token.

Let’s see how quickly the collaboration project between Stellar and Moneygram, which has already started with a pilot program and is adding updates to the collaboration today, will be developing.

The cryptocurrency world, despite the bearish market phase, is far from dead. We can see how cryptocurrency projects continue to evolve and explore new horizons.

MoneyGram representatives claim about quite a challenging aspect of transferring funds between the classic and new financial world. MoneyGram Access is being developed to simplify access for every person.

MoneyGram and the Stellar (XLM) platform have combined efforts to develop the technology and announced a collaboration to do so in October 2021.

MoneyGram is the second largest provider of international money transfers with approximately 347,000 offices in more than 200 countries. Thus, the existing infrastructure can be used profitably to promote cryptocurrency transfers.

MoneyGram recently announced that a project called MoneyGram Access is now available. By building a bridge between cash and digital currencies, they want to increase the utility of cryptocurrencies.

Denel Dixon, executive director of the Stellar Foundation, believes this offer is greatly needed as it allows more people to participate in the crypto market than ever before.

Nowadays, almost 2 billion people depend on cash and do not have access to the digital economy. At the same time, the withdrawal of cryptocurrency into fiat is an ongoing problem for crypto users.

No bank account or credit card is required to make a deposit or withdrawal, only a verified account and cash.

What is MoneyGram Access?

However, now there are some limitations. First, the service is available in some countries, but not worldwide. These include Canada, Kenya, the Philippines and the United States. In addition, the offer is currently limited to only the Fiat onramp. Offramp should be available by the end of June. Eventually, MoneyGram Access will be launched in other countries as well.

The new service is actually a big step for cryptocurrency adoption. The offer allows people to buy or sell cryptocurrency by cash. Previously, this was only possible through crypto ATMs or P2P trading.

However, those two options are not enough, and MoneyGram’s network of receiving offices is already well established.

To use MoneyGram Access, the user must create an account in the MoneyGram app and, as usual, complete the KYC process for identification. After that, go to the MoneyGram section and buy USDC by cash.

These USDC are logically Stellar Blockchain tokens.

What cryptocurrency can be bought with MoneyGram? USDC based on Stellar

For now, only USDC tokens can be purchased. Since Stellar Blockchain is an integral part of MoneyGram Access technology, other tokens may become available in the future. However, nothing more is known about this.

USDC can be sent to external wallets from the MoneyGram app, which simplifies exchanging for other cryptocurrencies. For more information, visit the official Stellar website.

There are no exchange fees for the first twelve months. What fees will be required thereafter have not yet been reported.

Reaction to collaboration between Stellar and Mercado Bitcoin

The site’s customers have gained access to a stable USD Coin token issued on Stellar’s blockchain. The network provides commissions in fractions of a cent on coin transactions pegged to the USD exchange rate.

The stablecoin is issued by Circle, which publishes weekly reports on the composition of assets in the USDC security fund. The USD Coin token is 30% fiat covered, with 70% of the fund placed in US Treasury bonds eliminating the deprivation risks that brought to ruin the Terra ecosystem, where the UST stablecoin circulated, in May.

Investors’ strong reaction to the news related to Stellar and Mercado Bitcoin is due to plans for a long-term collaboration between the cryptocurrency’s developers and the exchange. Earlier they began working together on one of the digital real projects, under the auspices of the Central Bank of Brazil. The moment of cooperation launched a rising trend that has lifted XLM quotes by 22% within the last 2 weeks (27.05-06.06).

Bitcoin cash (BCH) – a growth indicator for the crypto market

The rise in Bitcoin Cash quotes for the period 29.05-01.06 has arbitrage reasons. The largest Bitcoin clone, as usual, showed a deeper drawdown relative to the main cryptocurrency in May.

Given the fact that the blockchain code is similar, investors view BCH as a relatively safe asset that is relatively widely traded on exchanges and retail payments. This gives arbitrageurs a reason to “buy back” the divergence by betting on dynamic flattening.

The emergence of stronger growth trends for BCH relative to BTC could be seen as an indirect signal of future growth in the cryptocurrency market. Otherwise, arbitrage trades are doomed to fail. When the market falls, BCH always outperforms Bitcoin in terms of value loss.

Will the Brazilian token be on the Stellar blockchain?

A statement from the Stellar Foundation team notes that the token is being created with the participation of the country’s largest crypto platform (Mercado Bitcoin) and Brazil’s Financial and Technology Innovation Laboratory (LIFT). The country’s central bank is spearheading the creation of a digital version of the real.

As early as last year, the moderator announced plans to create a CBDC and modernize the payment infrastructure based on the latest advances in blockchain technology.

Recently, Roberto Campos Neto, head of the Central Bank of Brazil, has said that a CBDC test version could appear as early as the second half of 2022. The central bank’s platform could be used both for digital real transactions and for launching stabelcoins with real collateral.

Stellar Foundation often invests in Latin American crypto projects. Last year, the Stellar Foundation invested $15 million in a Mexican cryptocurrency exchange.

Is the USA legalizing the crypto market?

US senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand plan to submit a bill to Congress in a month to regulate the cryptosphere. Both politicians advocate for sensible regulation of the industry so that it does not interfere with business development and promotes the attractiveness of the digital currency market.

Ripple cryptocurrency CEO Brad Garlinghouse also stands for transparency in cryptocurrency transactions and investor safety. In an interview with FOX Business, he said only regulation of the blockchain industry could protect investors.

A bill to regulate the digital currency market could be sent to the Senate as early as June. It was authored by Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand. They have been drafting the document for the past few months.

“We are really in favour of legislation that will allow us to regulate and grow the industry. It’s the best thing we can do for companies,” notes Gillibrand.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should be the key regulator for the industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would also get certain powers. However, the scope of its competence will only cover tokens, which can be classified as securities.

The bill also regulates mining and cryptocurrency brokers. According to the authors of the document, they plan to get the Senate’s approval no later than next year. In order for the upper house of Congress to support the bill, it must be approved by four Senate committees.

Ripple is also for crypto regulation

The crash of the UST Stablecoin in early May has severely shaken people’s confidence in digital currencies. Many have decided to get out of such instruments altogether. Therefore, the crypto market needs a regulator to control and prevent such situations

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is also in favour of sensible crypto regulation. In his opinion, it is necessary to protect investors and ensure transparency of token transactions – these are the first priorities for regulators.

Garlinghouse pointed to Ripple and the company’s XRP token as examples. These are transparent players that comply with legislation. He also touched on blockchain technology.

He said that decentralized technology reduces the cost of money transfers and speeds up cross-border payments. El Salvador did the right thing when it not only recognized bitcoin as a means of payment last year, but also used blockchain to modernize its financial infrastructure, Garlinghouse said.

In recent years, blockchain technology in Latin America has moved from being a concept and a potential idea to supporting companies and start-ups that are creating solutions with positive effects to deal with problems related to inflation, expensive remittances and financial exclusion in the region. 

Who isn’t aware of it yet – Techstars Blockchain Startup Weekend in Mexico City will take place the weekend of May 20-22. The SDF-sponsored event offers a unique opportunity for startups, entrepreneurs and developers to join forces with the blockchain community and drive innovation for businesses in Latin America. 

Stellar Development Foundation and other participants

Ahead of Startup Weekend, register here in time to join the next SDF event on May 6, featuring startup teams:

• AirTM, a Mexican financial services company (recall that Stellar Development Foundation invested $15 million in AirTM in 2021);

• Settle, which operates cryptocurrency payment infrastructure in several countries;
• Vibrant, a cryptocurrency wallet widely used by Argentines.

XRP has always been a cryptocurrency that has caused much debate, discussion and even mystical interpretations. Regardless of how you feel about it, there has been a lot of information coming out lately that makes you feel like you are part of a conspiracy theory.

The World Bank recently published a report naming Ripple and Stellar as stablecoins, and now members of the XRP community have turned their attention to another document.

Most recently, on January 26, 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a document, Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms, a primer for global supervisors. The gist of the document is that it describes the differences between PoW, PoS, DPoS and fBFT (Stellar and Ripple are given as examples), and provides guidance to supervisors.

The document was spotted by a Twitter user, and he went on to write the following important points about the document in his post.

Conclusions from the document that are noteworthy:

• Blockchain BTC. PoW is the most popular consensus mechanism, but it has significant drawbacks. A safe and resilient consensus generation method is PoW, but it consumes a significant amount of power and can be slow and expensive at times of high network traffic.
• Consensus mechanisms should not harm or interfere with the global goal of moving to a LOW-carbon economy. Energy-intensive methods pose an unacceptable risk to financial stability and societies.
• The IMF has stated that the financial sector plays an important role in combating climate change and seeks to support climate risk reduction and mitigation.
• The IMF states that PoW has the potential to lead to centralization. As mathematical puzzles become more complex, more computing power is required to solve them. Given the high costs, such technology is only available to certain individuals or entities or mining pools.
• IMF’s view of PoS: PoS is built as an outdated system for enriching the already wealthy.
• DPoS. The benefits of DPoS include energy savings, greater decentralization, and greater democratization. DPoS promotes greater democratization, decentralization, and can have positive results for regulated payment or trade finance activities.  
• FBFT is Fast Byzantine Fault Tolerance, which aims to solve centralization problems with greater scalability. Well-known use cases: Ripple and Stellar. Has the following characteristics: Membership is open and control is decentralized and provides high efficiency for retail payments, wholesale settlements and other functions.
• The IMF considers PoW to be too energy intensive. PoW’s significant energy consumption, branching nature, and attendant probabilistic settlement issues can cause friction with many regulatory frameworks, regulatory mandates, and (BFA).
• Regulators should consider the consequences of different consensus mechanisms in terms of regulation, oversight, and consider an INDEPENDENT approach to TECHNOLOGY.

Stellar platform in Ukraine.

Testing of the digital hryvnia began in Ukraine. The digital currency will work on the XLM platform (all information about the functionality of the platform you can find by clicking on the link). The first institutions to test CBDC were fintech startup Bitt and Tascombank – one of the oldest banks in the country, founded in 1989. One of the bank’s features is that it is the only financial market player allowed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to participate in the removal of insolvent banks from the market. Since 2019, Taskombank is included in the list of systemically important institutions. The owner is Serhiy Tigipko, former presidential candidate, head of the NBU in 2002-2004, and co-owner of Monobank online banking.

Startup Bitt acts as a solution provider for Tascombank’s secure storage and distribution of digital hryvnia.

The National Bank acts as the curator of the trials. The project is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The deputy head of the ministry – Oleksandr Bornyakov – confirms: a successful pilot will lay the foundation for the issue of electronic hryvnia, or eUAH.

The digital hryvnia is based on the Stellar (XLM) platform. Denelle Dixon – head of the Stellar Development Foundation – confirms: tests have already started. During the testing, salaries in eUAH will be accrued to employees of the “Dia” service, a Ukrainian platform for access to public and social services built on the blockchain.

The XLM exchange rate has not yet reacted to the news. The cryptocurrency is fluctuating within the normal range, which corresponds to the market average.