Blockchain, Stellar striving to become ‘internet’ of payment world

[THE INVESTOR] Open payment platform by way of blockchain, operator Stellar Development Foundation is hoping to become the industry’s “internet” to help people make payments more easily online, according to its chief technology officer.

“Stellar is a universal payment network,” Stellar co-founder and CTO Jed McCaleb told The Investor in Seoul last week, during SparkLabs Demoday. “Just like how internet has democratized information and allowed easy access to everyone, that’s what we are trying to do. Our open payment platform can be used by anyone in the world and is beneficial to everybody. It doesn’t matter what kind of financial institution or service you use, it will all work seamlessly together.”

Stellar is a US-based nonprofit organization running a blockchain-based payment platform based on a low-cost network that enables direct, cross-border money transfers that are as easy sending e-mails, and without depending on traditional financial institutions and banks.

Source: theinvestor.co.kr

By doing so, Stellar hopes to tackle poverty and inequality especially in developing countries that are deprived of access to financial services.

“While it is easy to send money in countries like Korea and the US, it is still difficult to send money in countries like Nigeria, because 60 percent of the people don’t have bank accounts. The remittance fees are also expensive. I believe our open-source payment platform will help everyone, especially the unbanked population that is left out from the current system.”

The CTO, known for creating eDonkey file-sharing platform and Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange in the past, believes blockchain technology will make the world a bit…

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