If Blockchain and crypto trading interest you, you might have come across Stellar and Stellar Lumens (XLM). PCEX Member sheds light on the subjects, starting from what they are, how they work, how they can solve real-world challenges in the finance and payment world, and how you can use them to grow your wealth through crypto trading. Stay glued to learn all.
What is Stellar?
Stellar is a decentralized database or ledger. It’s an open-source network for storing and moving currencies and payments without any border-restrictions. It makes the world’s financial systems to sync with one common network, thereby acting as a global exchange for crypto. Users can create, send, and trade in digital currencies using the Stellar network.
Through its technology innovation, it’s focusing on realizing three key missions: making money more fluid, markets more open, and people more empowered.
So, you can simply understand it from a given example where someone based in India wants to send money to someone in the US. If that person has to use SWIFT, it will simply take days to settle the transaction and get the money to their account in their local /fiat currency. Stellar Network simply takes away the hassle. The anchor on the network acts as a gateway for fund pooling.
So, you send your fiat to the Stellar Network using the anchor. The money is converted into XLM, if the region where you are sending money does not have XLM paired with the local currency. For example, Lira in Turkey, then multi-currency operations take place where anyone would buy the Stellar Lumens (XLM) Tokens Peer-to-Peer over the network and send fiat or local currency to the beneficiary on the network. As a result, settlements happen at a very faster rate on the Stellar Network.
What is Stellar Lumens (XLM)?
Stellar Lumens (XLM) is a popular cryptocurrency launched in 2014 by Stellar. It is available as a trading option with most of the popular crypto trading exchanges like PCEX Member, Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.
PCEX Member has emerged as the most convenient, secure and affordable platform for Lumens traders in India for three reasons:
First, it accepts INR as the fiat currency, meaning you can buy Stellar in INR on this site. There is flexibility to pay with bank transfer, credit or debit card, and you can liquidate it easily.
Second, after selling the asset, you can get the value transferred to your bank account with absolutely no fee if the amount is below INR 10,000- 50,000. INR 2 is applicable up to 1,00,000, and INR10 when the amount is in the bracket INR1,00,000- 2,00,000.
Third, it maintains a high liquidity thanks to its franchise business model.
We’ll elaborate the step-by-step guide on trading on PCEX Member at the end of this article.
Real-World Use Cases of Stellar Database
Building Global Payment Apps
Using Stellar’s API and SDKs, developers can create fast, secure and stable global payment apps matching the standards set for international banks. You can build apps with a few lines of code. Stellar boosts the fintech world and makes the banking sector competitive enough, which in turn benefits customers. Stellar powered payment apps are handling 3.54 million banking operations, USD7.04 million transaction volume across 18,019 active accounts every 24 hours (as of Jan 15, 2021).
Asset Exchanges
Using Stellar’s built-in decentralized exchange, users can issue assets and anchor assets. After issuing an asset, you can also release canonical information about it for wallets and consumers. You can control access to it by setting simple flags, and make it available for trade on the Stellar decentralized exchange.
Interestingly, you can handle transactions during asset transfer with crypto, forex, or securities. Users can swap between tokens using simple functions built into the protocol. As of Jan 15, 2021, Stellar exchanges were handling around 3.5462 million operations, USD6.9934 million trading asset volume, and 18,019 active accounts every 24 hour.
Micropayment Services
Stellar helps individuals and businesses to settle trade quickly, affordably and securely using its micropayment services. Users can create an account, send and receive payments, and follow received payments. In the last 24-hour as of Jan 15, 2021, Stellar’s micropayment services handled 3.5462 million operations, USD6.9934 million trade volume, and 18,019 active accounts.
Growing Wealth with Stellar Lumens
Here is a step-by-step guide on buying and selling Stellar Lumens on PCEX Member.
1. Log in or Sign up or Register
Log in to your PCEX Member Account or sign up if you are a new member. It’s a brief process. You just enter your name and email and confirm your email by clicking on the confirmation link received, and you are good to go.
2. KYC, Bank Account, and Security
When you click on the confirmation link received on your registered email, it takes you to the trading screen (shown below) with a graphical user-interface showing the ups and downs of different market pairs. Click on “deposit” now text that displays above (encircled in red) to get started.
Submit KYC Details: Once you click “deposit” (against the blue arrow in the above image), it takes you to the Assets page as shown below.
Under the Fiat Balance, click on “Deposit”. It opens a dialog box stating verification pending. Click “Verify Now” (as below). You will be navigated to a KYC Details page with some fields asking for name, address, ID proof, and photo. Complete the KYC, and click “Submit”. The details are sent for verification.
b. Add Bank details and Set up 2-Factor Authentication
After successful KYC verification, you receive an email alert. Next, add your bank details and set up a 2-factor authentication with your email and phone number. This enhances the safety of your account, and prevents it from getting compromised.
3. Make a Fiat Deposit (INR, USD)
Add funds to your account using Credit/debit cards, UPI, or net banking. PCEX Member accepts USD, USDT, INR and C2USD. To begin this process, click the “Deposit” tab given the top of the screen and then select the option which you wish in the left sidebar. There are no charges on deposit.
4. Start Trading
Click the “Market” tab in the top left corner. It opens up the exchange page as follows. Click INR. A list of market pairs appears with INR as fiat. Select the XLM/INR pair. It’s appearing at the bottom in this screenshot. The best bid is 23.5629 and best ask is 23.5961. The best bid is the highest value quoted by a seller, and the best ask is the highest value quoted by a buyer.
Place a Bid or Order (Buy or Sell)
Move to the right side on the trading window (accessed in the previous step) to buy or sell the asset. See a section with Buy and Sell tabs.
To place the order, fill in the options as per your investment plan. PCEX Member has options of Limit and Stop-Loss Order (drop-down under Type). Enter order quantity as per the lot-size, price, disclose quantity, INR to Pay to buy. Likewise, if you want to sell your asset, choose the Sell tab, and enter the desired details, and submit it. The request gets recorded in the order book of the exchange, which finds the pair for your order.
Withdrawal
Going back to the same screen that you used to access the KYC and Deposit, you will find the option “Withdrawal”. Transfer the amount to a particular bank account. You have two methods: Standard or Instant Withdrawal.
