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Stellar Lumens (XLM): The Future of Fintech

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Stellar Lumens

Any time that someone mentions banking and cryptocurrency in the same breath, talk of the Ripple payment protocol follows. That’s apt, given their market share within that space – but the Stellar payment network is gaining ground. The two are not in direct competition, but there are certainly overlaps. Considering Stellar Lumens was originally a fork of the Ripple system, that isn’t surprising.

Where Ripple is the centralized, profit-seeking corporate banking cryptocurrency, Stellar is a non-profit. Ripple appeals to large banks and financial institutions, but Stellar aims to provide low-cost banking to developing nations. Integrating cryptocurrency with individual remittances will eliminate most fees associated with the practice.

An Upgrade to Ripple

Originally envisioned in 2014, Stellar was hard forked from the Ripple protocol. Over the initial phases of development and multiple changes to the code base, Stellar decided to split entirely. They created their own network with a new code base and a new algorithm. That network went live in 2015 and gained serious traction throughout 2017. Their partnership with IBM, in particular, has catapulted them to the forefront of the cryptocurrency spotlight.

All of this came about from the desire to create an altruistic ecosystem for financial access. Underbanked and unbanked people lack basic avenues for advancement. Even those that leave to find more lucrative work often find their remittances to home torn apart by fees. Easing these issues provides more capital at home, which creates an environment where the home nation can succeed. Ripple has similar plans, but their framework is entirely within the larger financial sector – they consider remittances as a potential revenue source, but the altruism is lacking.

Stellar’s Lumen currency is in a position to provide that friction-less, low fee transactions necessary for this ecosystem. As adoption increases, Lumens will be more easily accessed by the people of the developing world. This is good for them, through the free flow of remittances to home, but also for investors who are gaining value.

Cross-Border Exchange and the Bridge Currency

Traditional banking institutions face several hurdles in exchanging money across international borders. First, they need someone looking to sell the local currency. Second, they need to be willing to accept the currency that the institution possesses. Finally, the associated government agencies need to take their cut of the transaction. Combined, this creates an inefficient market where everyone except the individual is making a profit. In order for that to change, a system that removes those inefficiencies needs to be developed.

Stellar is looking to be just such a system, using the advantages of blockchain technology to step around the hurdles entirely. To a certain degree, the US Dollar acts as a bridge currency for much of the world. Most countries are willing to trade their local currency for USD. There are not nearly so many willing to spend USD to gain exotic fiat currencies. They solve this by the internal use of the Lumen cryptocurrency. The system benefits from holding a reserve of all currencies, and to that end, it maintains Lumen-Fiat trading pairs. Fiat can be traded through the bridge currency at will, ensuring rapid transactions. The inherent digital, consensus nature of blockchain use ensures a low fee and avoidance of government interference.

Banking the Unbanked

The phrase ‘banking the unbanked’ is a catch-all used to suggest that there is a massive, under-accessed group of potential investors. That isn’t necessarily true, but there is an untapped group that would benefit from financial access. While a corporation looking to gain revenue may falter in entering this market, the non-profit status of the Stellar Foundation can make great strides. As they are not searching to maximize their exploitation of the new market, they can focus instead on providing the greatest service for the user base.

Success in that endeavor will still reap great rewards. Stellar is heavily involved in the upcoming Tel Aviv 2018 conference, and most fans are expecting some major announcements. That can always cause some heavy volatility in the price of a cryptocurrency, but the strong support base at the current price may help to push Lumens up above recent highs.

FinTech and the Future of Blockchain

We tout Blockchain technology as a cure-all to every technological issue that plagues us. While that may not be completely true, the advantages in the financial sector are blatantly obvious. Distributed ledgers provide a much-needed level of transparency and trust that has been sorely lacking. The greater the distance and the more steps involved, the higher the associated cost and the greater the counterparty risk.

If Stellar can bring secure, reliable banking to the developing world, it would be a complete game changer. Areas that had previously been stagnant or regressing would see advancement and new opportunities. This could create a domino effect that would see greater adoption and market share for the Stellar Lumens cryptocurrency – making it very valuable for the average first world investor as well.

We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest on XLM, sign up below!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

Image courtesy of techinasia.com

Altcoins

XNO Token of Xeno NFT Hub listed on Bithumb Korea Exchange

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25th January, 2021, // ChainWire //

Xeno Holdings Limited (xno.live ), a blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong, has announced the listing of its ecosystem utility token XNO on the ‘Bithumb Korea’ cryptocurrency exchange on January 21st 2021.

Xeno NFT Hub (market.xno.live ), developed by Xeno Holdings, enables easy minting of digital items into NFTs while also providing a marketplace where anyone can securely trade NFTs.

The Xeno NFT Hub project team includes former members of the technology project Yosemite X based in San Francisco and professionals such as Gabby Dizon who is a games industry expert and NFT space influencer based in Southeast Asia.

NFT(Non-Fungible Token) technology has recently gained huge focus in the blockchain arena and beyond, making waves in the online gaming sector, the art world, and the digital copyrights industry in recent years. The strongest feature of NFTs is that “NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced or forged”. Unlike fungible tokens such as Bitcoin or Ether, NFTs are not interchangeable for other tokens of the same type but instead each NFT has a unique value and specific information that cannot be replaced. This fact makes NFTs the perfect solution to record and prove ownership of digital and real-world items like works of art, game items, limited-edition collectibles, and more. One of the ways to have a successful…

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Altcoins

Should Crypto Projects Devote Resources to Community Growth and Marketing?

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2020 has been an incredible year for crypto as investors have generated windfall profits and crypto projects have seen their businesses gain the spotlight they’ve been looking for.  While Bitcoin has received most of the attention after major institutional investors announced they were accumulating the increasingly scarce asset, many altcoins have also seen their fair share of glory.  When looking at all the big winners of the past year, the first project that probably comes to mind is Chainlink, having appreciated by more than 550% YTD and now valued at over $4.5 billion.  But, the actual biggest winner of the year is HEX with a YTD return of over 5,000%.

I mention both of the above projects as they have each taken slightly different paths to achieve greatness.  Chainlink has devoted resources toward building a fundamentally sound business with many strategic partnerships while HEX has spent vast sums of money on marketing and promotion.  Both approaches are valid, but one thing is certain, it is absolutely imperative for crypto projects to let the crypto community know what makes them special.  Of course, one of the reasons that makes crypto so valuable is the powerful blockchain technology that most projects are utilizing.

Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Technology

It’s important to make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.  Although they are often used interchangeably, they are different.  Blockchain technology and crypto were both created after the 2008 financial crisis, but cryptocurrency…

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Altcoins

XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //

The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.

As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021. 

“NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.

He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”

Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”

Mr. Yamagata has…

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