Stellar Global Radio with Sam: Exploring the Stellar Blockchain and Beyond

Originating in 2018 in a cramped university apartment, Script3 sought to explore the possibilities of blockchain technology. Our team quickly focused on decentralized finance (before it had the catchy buzzword nickname DeFi). We gravitated toward it but also recognized its shortcomings: it was expensive and slow. Thus, it failed to realize its potential of providing equitable access to financial infrastructure.  “The promise of DeFi is the promise of financial inclusion because the current financial ecosystem fails to serve much of the world.” This quote from our co-founder, Markus Paulson-Luna embodies what we believe at Script3. DeFi is a powerful tool for the masses if utilized correctly and ethically. We're trying to help the world's people, using the best technology available to the world's people.  YieldBlox is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for lending and FX forwards built on Stellar using Stellar Turrets. The protocol has functions for lending, borrowing, margin accounts, FX forwards, and staking. Users carry out all protocol functions using YieldBlox's smart contracts.

Join Stellar Global: www.Stellar-Global.org    Follow Sam Conner on Twitter @samconnerone    Follow Sam Conner on YouTube YouTube.com/c/samconner   Follow Sam Conner on Twitch Twitch.tv/samconnerxlm  Learn more about Stellar and the Stellar Development Foundation: www.Stellar.Org and on Twitter at @StellarOrg

Fimi (pronounced “Fih-me”) is a Jamaican term that means "for me.” This pride in ownership is a thread that runs throughout the platform and is passed on to the burgeoning list of artists that have signed on. The Fimi Market NFT Platform exists to provide artists a space to showcase and sell their work as NFTs.   

Whitepaper for the project: https://fimi.market/pdf/whitepaper.pdf Social Media Account (Main): 

Twitter: @Fimi_Market  

Website: https://fimi.market 

Token Type: Utility  Token Build: Stellar     

Team: Miguel Adwin – CEO – Twitter: @migadwin Telegram: @cowrietrading              

Hannah Hodge – CPO – Twitter: @Hannathema_              

John Savoia – CBO – Twitter: @GiovaSavo Telegram: @GiovaNapoli              

Diana O’Gilvie – Communications Manager              

Rory Layne – Legal Advisor              

Andre Diah – Senior Developer/DevOps              

Mimi Lin – CMO   

Profiles can be found at: https://fimi.market/About 

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Introducing the Jpeg Dao:  The JPEG DAO was born out of a simple concept: People like NFTs. Let’s create a club where members receive free NFTs. The way our club is managed is the interesting, complex part. We are a DAO, or distributed autonomous organization, meaning we make decisions collaboratively and encode major decisions on public blockchains. DAOs are fairly common in the Ethereum ecosystem but they are new to Stellar. Stellar has all the tools needed for successful DAOs besides a “DAO Culture”. JPEG offers an opportunity to grow our DAO culture. We build in public. Members, supporters, and people performing tasks (there are no employees or equity) all work together to make decisions. Any code we produce, roadmaps we develop, or products we release will be built with very few details hidden from the public. Lastly, we will change. Our initial concept is simple. Become a member by buying 10,000 JPEG tokens on the Stellar DEX and receive free NFTs. If you would like to receive our first NFT, you must become a member by October 20th, 2021. Members will receive this first NFT on November 1st, 2021. However, this is only the beginning of our journey. We are working on a range of efforts including unique NFTs per member, a 3D NFT gallery, an innovation fund managed by new members, as well as iterative efforts to decentralize our treasury and utilize InstandDAO. If you want to join our club, I encourage you to buy 10,000 JPEG. If you want to participate in our evolving DAO, visit our Discord Server. Either way, we thank you for participating in our experiment, club, and community.

About HODL Assets, Inc.  HodlAssets.org (or, simply, HODL Assets) is a revolutionary NFT platform and marketplace that has led the way into the future by being the first to facilitate the creation, buying, and selling of non-fungible tokens on multiple blockchains. In contrast, most other NFT marketplaces support only Ethereum. HODL has also differentiated itself from its competitors by assessing no initial contract, listing, or auction settlement fees, but instead charging its users only a minting fee. The HODL platform is also the first NFT marketplace to offer Gaming and Social Networking components as part of its native ecosystem. With every new feature it adds to the platform, the HODL Assets team endeavors to further dispel the mystery and confusion that often surround these wonderfully innovative technologies by providing a safer, more user-friendly environment where people can come to learn, create, and confidently participate in blockchain-fueled e-commerce and networking. In short, HODL is a place where users are free to explore and enjoy the innovation of today's most sought-after technologies.

The CMO of The Stellar Development Foundation swings by the studio to bring the community an update and insight into their marketing strategy. Jordan comes from an extensive background that includes working with the famed video game franchise EA Madden Football.

DSTOQ makes use of tokenization and digital asset issuance on Stellar to provide US-grade securities like Tesla, Google, and Apple stock on their consumer-facing app and B2B API integration to make investing accessible, affordable, and available to anyone with a mobile phone.

Cross-border investing remains costly and largely unavailable to emerging markets. Without the ability to hold best-in-class assets for growing, diversifying, or protecting wealth, many of these populations are left holding onto money whose value diminishes over time, especially in high-inflation countries. These populations simply haven’t had access to the same financial services as those in high-income economies.

DSTOQ identified this problem and offered their own answer: increasing worldwide access to high-quality securities via tokens on Stellar and transacting these tokens on a borderless digital interface. On top of tokenization, DSTOQ focused on building a user app for retail consumers and API-integration functionality for third-party partners.

To provide a global solution that allows for easy investing in world-class assets while cutting out the intermediaries, DSTOQ realized that blockchain technology would play a pivotal role. After exploring which blockchain to build their solution on top of, they settled on Stellar for the following reasons:

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For more on DStoq

Bidali is a new digital commerce experience that helps you keep more of your money. Businesses that use Bidali can increase sales, save on fees, get paid faster, and eliminate fraud.  Bidali and Gilded Finance worked with Canada Stablecorp Inc to launch its Canadian Dollar stablecoin "QCAD"  Gosling’s is working with Bidali, a Canadian fintech company, with support from the Bermuda Government’s fintech office and Penrose Partners, a Canadian and Bermudian technology consulting firm.  The rum company will accept touchless payment through the Stellar network.  

Learn more about Stellar and the Stellar Development Foundation: www.Stellar.Org and on Twitter at @StellarOrg  

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Task is a mobile application with a Stellar wallet embedded providing the ability to track team and community activities with a flexible ramp on/off integrations.  Let’s dig into what Task enables organizations and users to do.  

1. Economic communities Connecting people through economic communities is central to what Task does. Payments can be made when an activity is completed, they can be standard user-to-user payments, or they can be sent as an “Award” with a message.  We believe tokens can bring communities together - whether a stablecoin, a traded coin, or a private branded token with non-financial value, these exchanges between users create a place of reward and connectivity. 

 2. Token payments in exchange for verified activity Getting paid when an activity is completed has far-reaching ramifications - it allows funds and grants to “drip-feed” investment into projects, delivering micro-payments as work is done. Task allows optional verification of activity before payment is released to protect funds.  

3. Blockchain ledger tracking of any event All the activity gathered using the Task mobile app uses a one-way hashing algorithm to represent this data in the Stellar transaction memo field. It means that data gathered via Task cannot be tampered with, and it increases the data veracity of the organizations using Task to gather and prove their impact.  Let’s look at a use case . Our customer ACTAsia tracks vet activity across China, providing pain-free operations to animals. We can see:  ACTAsia are using our IMPACT token to track and reward, and here we see the hashed data stored in the Stellar transaction history https://stellar.expert/explorer/public/tx/2adac78b558f1b8bf42406941d8c0d52ad8b7b75c7fe7ef56e7a4aa33ca83ea4 We use the blockchain to not only provide payments but also to build out the data story with critical proof points to see that the organizations and communities creating real impact are the ones who shine the most.  

4. Donor visibility into fund usage We also support the provision of donations to projects - and for donors, we use the Blockchain ledger tracking to provide ongoing proof of how their funds are being used.  They are able to log in to the Desktop version of Task and get a transaction history of how their donation money was utilized.  

5. Crowd voting and awards Awards were mentioned earlier - but it's worth adding that these subjective Stellar payments against the activities tracked means Task can provide decision mechanisms, letting the community vote with their tokens.  

Learn more about Stellar and the Stellar Development Foundation: www.Stellar.Org and on Twitter at @StellarOrg  

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Join in on the Stellar Conversation on Discord stellarglobal.chat

It's surreal to listen to this interview today as the beautiful country that is depicted is now in the midst of a bloody war. Filmed Sept. 2021, CEO Illia Obraztcov and Non-Executive Chairman Martin Birch sat down with me to discuss how their Smartlands Stellar-based token was on course to revolutionize tokenized investing forever.  

Smartlands is the next-generation Stellar blockchain-based global investment and digital banking ecosystem. The Company's proprietary technological solutions allow asset owners to turn the ownership right to a share of any asset in any asset class into a tradable digital token attributing it almost unlimited liquidity.  The President of Ukraine signed into law a decree that now allows the Ukrainian Central Bank, The National Bank of Ukraine, (NBU) to issue a CBDC or digital hryvnia. The law also enables the NBU to set up regulatory structures for testing payment services and other allied instruments based upon new and emerging technologies. 

It is worth noting that the legislation requires the NBU to form a close collaboration with local start-ups in the digital asset space to ensure that the end product of the e-hryvnia takes into account the needs of the private sector. In a further positive for Smartlands, the NBU announced earlier this year that it had chosen the Stellar blockchain network as the platform on which it will build the hryvnia CBDC. So it is instantly compatible with all aspects of the Smartlands platform immediately after it is launched.

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Stephen is a co-founder and partner at DFS Lab, leading its investments in early-stage digital commerce startups in Africa. He has also spent time advising global clients on the growth of fintech and ecommerce in frontier markets such as those in Africa, China, and Indonesia.   DFS Lab in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has launched a call for applicants for a Blockchain Bootcamp, designed to give early to mid-stage startups in Africa an opportunity to build on Stellar, an open-source blockchain network for financial services and products.  The bootcamp is a three-day design sprint allowing participating companies to answer critical business questions with hands-on technical support and guidance from DFS Lab and SDF. Companies will define a problem, storyboard a solution, and develop a rapid prototype of their innovation. This is an exciting opportunity to support the blockchain-oriented ideas of African developers and startups, equip them with practical tools and education, and provide support to create viable solutions that fit local needs.  The most promising solutions will be awarded prizes from 5,000 to 20,000 USDC. There will be opportunities for follow-on funding for additional grants, including potential investment from SDF’s Enterprise Fund and other investors who will be present at the demo day. Interested fintech companies, blockchain native companies, and crypto-curious companies operating in Africa and looking to advance existing services or embed digital asset solutions into their models for the first time are all encouraged to apply