Launching Fiapay Testnet - an XDR anchor

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Greetings, everyone!

Today we are excited to announce the launch of Fiapay Testnet, a sandbox environment showcasing the use of XDR tokens. XDR, or Special Drawing Rights, are a unit of exchange of the IMF, designed to minimize currency volatility using the most frequently traded global currencies.

Our mission is two-fold: we want to enable people and businesses around the world to freely transact using a low-volatility currency (something the crypto-community would refer to as a 'stable-coin'), and we want them to be able to do it in a fast, transparent, and cost-efficient manner. Using XDR allows us to achieve the first goal while utilizing Stellar should help with the second.

We are inviting you to test-drive our hosted wallet today by registering at https://testnet.fiapay.com. Once registered, you should fund your account by sending Testnet Bitcoin. Fiapay will convert BTC for you - at an actual live exchange rate - into XDR tokens, which you can then send to others, taking full advantage of the speed and convenience of the Stellar network. For every XDR created using Fiapay, we will hold a standard basket of USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, and CNY in the same proportions as prescribed by the IMF. For our test environment, we simulate XDR, BTC, and other currencies using Testnets and brokers' sandboxes. However, in our upcoming live release, every XDR will be fully backed by the five constituent fiat currencies.

Our immediate goal is to engage with the broader Stellar community and to solicit your feedback to our idea and the app. Thus far we have only implemented basic functionality, designed to allow experimentation with the tokens. We also want to comprehensively test our trading algorithms that maintain a constant peg between the token and the basket of currencies constituting XDR. We will be very grateful for any feedback, whether on this forum or by contacting us directly at beta [at] fiapay [.] com.

As a bonus, everyone who signs up (you can use a pseudonym) for a Testnet account and makes at least three transactions before the 1st of September 2018, will be invited to an early release of the live XDR wallet in September.

To sign up: https://testnet.fiapay.com
More about us: https://www.fiapay.com
What is XDR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_drawing_rights

Denis @ Fiapay

fiapay

Testnet - Quick Reference

While we are working on proper documentation, it makes sense to post a quick reference guide to the current functionality of Fiapay Testnet.

Fiapay is a web application (an Android app also exists but runs on a centralized server), that manages user identities, allows to deposit and withdraw bitcoins, and facilitates XDR payments among its users.

Identity management. We currently allow one Fiapay account per individual customer. Business and organization accounts will be available later, once we have a clearer view on the legal implications of organizational KYC. We will screen individual customers through a third-party KYC provider in the live implementation of Fiapay, but this step is disabled in Testnet. As you may have noticed during the signup process, we are planning to serve a reasonably wide range of countries and will continue to expand that list as our capability to identify customers improves. Only one Stellar account is currently allowed per Fiapay customer, but that will change in the commercial release.
Bitcoin funding. To make our product accessible to a broader cryptocurrency community, we allow using bitcoin to fund our account (‘DEPOSIT BTC’ button). Once deposited, your Bitcoin will be automatically converted into XDR at the exchange rate at the time of conversion (at the time of writing, XDR/BTC is 4647.35). Conversely, you can use your XDR balance to withdraw BTC at any time (‘WITHDRAW BTC’ button) at the exchange rate displayed to you during the withdrawal process. We will show you the actual exchange rate, our withdrawal commission, and the blockchain fees, applicable to your BTC payment. Our withdrawal exchange rate is fixed (i.e., will not be recalculated post-transaction) and therefore is valid for one minute only; if no action is taken once the exchange rate has been displayed, it will be automatically updated every minute until you confirm or cancel the withdrawal.

To reiterate, in the Testnet environment we only accept Testnet Bitcoins. The naming convention in Testnet should preclude any accidental mix-ups between actual and Testnet bitcoins, but to save you the disappointment of delay, please make sure you fund your Fiapay Testnet account only using free Testnet Bitcoins!

You can read more about Testnet here:
- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet

We have tested, and are satisfied with, the following Testnet faucets:
- https://testnet.manu.backend.hamburg/faucet
- http://bitcoinfaucet.uo1.net/

XDR transfers. ‘SEND XDR’ is fairly self-explanatory; you can send your XDR to anyone else, using their Stellar address, email, or mobile number. If you attempt to send XDR to someone who is not on Fiapay yet, we will send them an email, inviting them to open an account with us. Currently, your funds will not be sent to a non-customer. ‘REQUEST XDR’ is a service function that allows you to ask to be paid by an existing customer (we will not send unsolicited requests for payments to non-customer nor will we notify you whether a customer with a particular email/mobile exists). We ask you to be prudent in your payment requests and to avoid sending unsolicited requests and/or requests to people who do not know you personally. More detailed guidance on that will be ready with the live implementation.

We hope you enjoy your Testnet account with us, and please share your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism here on the board or by contacting us directly at beta [at] fiapay [.] com.