Franklin Templeton, the UN, and now you? Why Stellar may be the future of finance originally appeared on TheStreet.
Imagine sending money across the globe in seconds for less than a penny — faster than an email, safer than a bank, and accessible to everyone, everywhere. That’s the power of Stellar, a blockchain built to revolutionize payments and financial inclusion.
Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, shares how Stellar’s low-cost, instant-settlement network is transforming lives and attracting heavyweights like Franklin Templeton and the United Nations. For high net-worth individuals and family offices, Stellar isn’t just a blockchain — it’s your ticket to a smarter, more inclusive financial future.
Raja Chakravorti’s journey to Stellar spans decades of financial innovation. “I started on Wall Street in the 2000s, working in structured finance and mortgage-backed securities at two of the largest financial institutions,” he shared. After eight years at PayPal and stints at fintechs, he joined Stellar, drawn by its mission to make money move at the speed of email.
“Stellar was designed 11 years ago by our founder, Jed McCaleb, to minimize transaction costs and settlement time,” Chakravorti explained. With transactions settling in 3-5 seconds at just 0.005 cents each, Stellar delivers a payment rail that outpaces traditional systems.
But speed isn’t the whole story. Stellar was built with tokenization and asset controls in mind, offering features like freeze and clawback for mistakes — perfect for traditional institutions. “We’re focused on where blockchain meets the real world,” Chakravorti said. From aiding the unbanked to powering investment funds, Stellar’s mission is financial inclusion at a global scale, ensuring technology serves people, not just profits.
Who uses Stellar? “I think about a consumer who wants an efficient payment rail,” Chakravorti said. While institutions like Franklin Templeton leverage Stellar’s infrastructure, the real end users are everyday people, especially in the Global South, where banking access is scarce.
“A lot of people don’t have a safe place to put their money or earn yield,” he noted. Stellar changes that by offering digital bank accounts and yield-bearing assets like tokenized Mexican sovereign debt through partners like Aave.
A standout use case is Stellar’s partnership with the United Nations to deliver aid in crisis zones like Argentina and Ukraine. “The UN approached us with a problem: delivering aid is tough when correspondent banking fails or people are unbanked,” Chakravorti recounted.
