The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF)
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) published its plan outlining the distribution of its funds across various parameters of the project and detailed on how these funds will contribute towards making Stellar the global payment standard. Initially published in November this year and then updated today, the mandate is a detailed framework of the platform for the next ten years. The SDF is a non-profit organization which is responsible for developing the code base and promoting the Stellar network. The SDF aims to use its 30 billion Stellar lumens (amounting to $1.3 billion) to create equitable access to the global financial system through the Stellar technology.
The SDF plans to reduce lumen allocation and redirect funds to address the fundamental and most pressing issues within the company. Twelve billion lumens have been allocated towards Direct Development Funds to develop and advocate for Stellar. As of December 21st, 3 billion lumens have been released to be used in 2020, and the same amount is expected to be released every year for three years from 2021. The fund will facilitate policy-making around Stellar and block-chain technology, foster a community of individual participants and account for salaries and admin costs.
Two billion lumens is expected to be directed towards building an ecosystem that strengthens Stellar. It will be used to support developers and to focus on issuing more currency tokens in the network. This fund will also facilitate the creation of an Infrastructure Grant program that focuses on providing essential network utility and a Community Fund which will be spent on any project that deserves grants.
Around 10 billion lumens will be spent on identifying and fostering sustainable Stellar Use cases. This includes a New Product Fund to create products to fill in any gaps in the ecosystem and the Stellar Enterprise Fund which will be used to invest in or acquire businesses that have potential in the Stellar network. User Acquisition is one of the primary goals of the Stellar network, and 6 billion lumens will be spent for the same. SDF aims to increase individual users by investing in providing in-appp support and working on Marketing support through advertising and PR.
In November, Stellar reduced its holdings from 85 billion lumens to 30 billion lumens to increase the value of each token. The company has further stated its objective to use or disperse most of its remaining lumens in the next 10 years. SDF hopes to achieve the same through fulfilling the mandate with transparency and clarity. It further promises to provide a yearly public accounting and audit for all its programs.