Stellar - Executive Director Message 

Hello Stellar Ecosystem!

From launching new features on the website, joining the Blockchain Association, making our first investment from our enterprise fund, to launching Horizon 1.0, it’s been an exciting couple of months at the SDF. We’ve started the year off going after our big goals for 2020 -- supporting the robustness and usability of Stellar, being the blockchain people know and trust, and fostering real, sustainable Stellar use-cases. Every month, every week, every day, our work on these goals brings us closer to setting the standard for payments. I look forward to sharing more with this incredible community as the year progresses.

Denelle

(ICYMI: I shared a quick overview of our 2020 strategy a few weeks ago.)

‍

‍Stellar Ecosystem News 

‍

‍SDF Announces Strategic Investment in DSTOQ
Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced the closing of a strategic investment in DSTOQ Group AG. The investment of $715K, paid in lumens, is the first made by SDF through their new Enterprise Fund.

Stellar Community Fund: Now Accepting Proposals!
Season 2 of the Stellar Community Fund has just begun! Season 2 has just begun! Participants have the chance to win and split 3 million lumens by building awesome stuff for the Stellar ecosystem!

Introducing Horizon 1.0
In honor of the first major Horizon release, we explain what it is, what it does, and how fundamental changes introduced today make it easier than ever to build on Stellar.

SDF Joins the Blockchain Association
The Stellar Development Foundation has joined the Blockchain Association to ensure the vision for Stellar and its ecosystem has a central place in the public dialogue.

Bitbond
Bitbond announces their collaboration with Munich-based Bankhaus von der Heydt.

Revamped Stellar.org
Stellar.org has launched a plethora of new features—making it easier than ever to explore the Stellar ecosystem.

‍
Saldo Case Study
Marco Neri talks about how Saldo is using Stellar to provide a way for migrant workers to support their families with cross-border payments.

‍Stellar Developer News

‍

Horizon 1.0.0 SDK Updates
Upgrade your SDK of choice to avoid any issues when Horizon v1.0.0 gets deployed to the public network. The following SDKs are ready to go: Go, Javascript, Python, Qt, .NET, iOS, Scala

‍

Kelp v1.8.1 released

• Upgrade to this version of Kelp by February 29th for uninterrupted use of Kelp on the Stellar Network.
• All prior versions of Kelp are deprecated immediately because they will not work with the latest Horizon API.

‍

Did you know that we publish weekly updates of what's happening in the Stellar Ecosystem? Issue #32 is out now. Subscribe to the mailing list to get it direct to your inbox!

‍Events

‍WEBINAR: Cowrie’s cross-border payment services for Nigeria powered by Stellar

Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 8:00 am PT // 5:00 pm WAT

The Stellar network is designed so all the world’s financial systems can work together on a single network -- that’s why it’s perfect for cross-border payments. 

Join us for a webinar to learn about the cross-border payment services that Cowrie Integrated Systems has built for the Nigerian market on the Stellar network. The Cowrie team will share how they’ve developed payment rails that enable low-cost and instant payments into and out of Nigerian bank accounts. We’ll also provide an overview of Stellar and take questions from attendees. Click here to register. 

Stellar Development Foundation @ HackNYU - March 6, 2020

‍

Lindsay Lin @ MIT Bitcoin Expo - March 7-8, 2020

Denelle Dixon @ Paris Blockchain Week Summit - March 31, 2020

‍

‍Jed McCaleb @ Money 20/20 Asia - August 25, 2020

Past

Workshop: Build Your Own Stellar Wallet - Feb 19, 2020

SDF New Hires

Jake Urban, Software Engineer

Jake recently joined the Integration team and is responsible for building open source software applications used by partner organizations. While in school, Jake worked for Intel AI on their deep learning platform. After graduating from the University of Oregon in 2018, he built HR recruiting and management software for AllyO.

‍

Marcelo Salloum, Software Engineer

As a new member of the Nebula team, Marcelo is responsible for writing applications for SDF and the Stellar community. He started his software development career in 2007 and later on co-managed Cheesecake Labs for 5 years, where he developed most of his T-shaped background in software development.

‍

We are hiring! Apply today.

‍

Reminder: Beware of “Hard Fork” Scams, Impersonators, and “Giveaway Scams”. We will never ask for your private keys 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.

‍

‍