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Stellar (XLM) outplays Ripple in the fight for the global adoption

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Stellar Ripple

Stellar’s week has been spectacular. The Tempo partnership announcement prompted a rise in its price of thirty percent at a time in which the general market is still going down (even if Bitcoin has had a good couple of days).

Stellar is making all the right moves to place XLM in a privileged position within the cryptocurrency world.

The Tempo partnership

Stellar’s XLM and Ripple’s XRP are two coins (and organizations) competing to conquer the same market (the international transfer market, which is worth trillions each year and keeps growing). To a lesser extent (at least for now) Litecoin is also entering the global banking industry.

The only way in which either organization and crypto-coin can make some headway into the global financial services industry is by securing strategic partnerships with some key players at the start and, ideally, with everybody in the long-term. 

Ripple had the advantage over Stellar with partners as Banco Santander, SBI Holdings or BBVA. But it seems that Stellar did them one better by partnering up with the French remittance service Tempo, which is huge in Europe and Latin America (not very well known in the USA, but still very relevant)

Tempo will use XLM as an intermediary currency to do international transference quickly and cheaply, and they expect this will revolutionize the industry at the global level. Tempo has chosen to use Stellar’s network and currency to achieve this. The news has already boosted XLM’s price, and the chances are that it will surge soon as use within Tempo’s environment increases the coin’s demand and usefulness.

While Ripple’s technology is superior to Stellar’s there’s one feature in this new partnership that can make all the difference: Ripple’s partners use the Ripplenet ledger to settle payments, but they don’t need (and for the most part it seems they don’t choose either) to use XRP as a mediating currency to settle payments, only for  transfer fees, which are ridiculously low anyway. 

Tempo, on the contrary, will be using Stellar’s XLM as a bridge between the origin and the target fiat currency. That will translate into increased transaction volume and demand driven by a single partner, a feat that still escapes Ripple.

Stellar is declared Muslim-friendly

In the Muslim world banks and finances work differently because the Prophet had a few things to say about money, lending, and related issues. 

So financial products and technology that seem commonplace or inoffensive in the West are not always so readily accepted in Islamic countries. Well, that won’t be a problem for Stellar nor XLM. Islamic scholars have certified this cryptocurrency to be compliant with Sharia law and have granted a certification.

This will grant Stellar access to about one-third of the world.

Prospective listing at Coinbase

Another piece of big news for Stellar was Coinbase’s announcement that it is considering to include it in its platform. The US-based exchange is every cryptocurrency wet dream, and it seems it could come true for XLM. Mind you, Coinbase’s announcement was exceedingly ambiguous, but at least it signals at a possibility, and the market has reacted enthusiastically.

IBM launches Stronghold USD on the Stellar network

IBM is backing Stellar and a new project called Stronghold USD which aims to produce a dollar-backed cryptocurrency. IBM chose to test the launch of a token of its own using the Stellar network and technology, and Stronghold USD will also use XLM to transact.

It’s anybody’s guess how this project will fare. But even if it doesn’t work, it shows the faith and commitment IBM has on Stellar as a blockchain, as an organization, and as a currency and that will inspire confidence to other big players and potential partners and investors.

Jesse Lund, IBM’s vice president of the global blockchain, had this to say about the new project,

“IBM will explore use cases with business networks that we have developed, as a user of the token. We see this as a way of bringing financial settlement into the transactional business network that we have been building.”

These are all meaningful milestones for the Stellar blockchain. Some of them are things that Ripple would like to do but hasn’t. So yes, Ripple’s tech is superior as is its expertise, and experience dealing with financial institutions. And yet, Stellar Lumens seems to be getting ahead.

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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 and read our full disclaimer.

Image courtesy of Maxpixel.net

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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