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FinClusive's mission is to bring secure, compliance-centered banking to the 2.5 to 3.5 billion people and businesses worldwide who are financially excluded or underserved.  FinClusive is using the open and inclusive Stellar network to deliver on this mission.Sam Conner and Amit Sharma (CEO of FinClusive) discuss Amit's background and how the United States' response to the September 11th attack ultimately resulted in excluding both good and bad people from the world's financial system.   Amit further explains how these new regulations disproportionally impacted low income and other groups of people and businesses as banks evaluated the cost of compliance and made the commercial choice to "derisk" - i.e., not do business with certain segments of the economy.Sam highlights Amit's statement that a quarter of the United States is either unbanked or underbanked - the plight of the unbanked or underbanked is not just a global poor phenomenon.Amit then explains how FinClusive provides compliance as a service to lower the cost of compliance and expand the number of entities able to provide compliant financial services to people and businesses.   The podcast ends on use cases and a future vision for which leaves Sam nearly speechless.  Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Clic.World is creating an end-to-end community centric financial based eco-system in Africa using the open and inclusive Stellar network.  Sam Conner and Andre van Zyl (co-founder of Clic.World) discuss Clic.World's six-year journey, from inception to big plans for 2021 - the year when Andre believes the handbrake will be released and everything is going to happen.  The discussion starts with a promise of sharing Uganda's Big Gorilla Coffee and a declaration from Andre that this coffee powers Clic and is not for amateurs. The discussion quickly moves to Africa and the need to bring technology that supports and makes more robust the African model of social banking rather than trying to force the monolithic banking model that works in other areas of the globe.  Andre explains his excitement when he first read the Bitcoin white paper and how he now believes Stellar built on that white paper and made possible a solution to the financial problems that Clic.World is working to solve.  The podcast ends with recent successes with African regulators and an exciting roadmap with partnerships that put Clic at the financial crossroad for modernizing social banking across all of Africa.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Brian and Daniel discuss the two exciting new features that went live on Stellar with the release of Stellar Core Protocol 15.  The features are claimable balances and sponsored reserves.  Brian and Daniel explain how these two features combine with the fee-bump feature that was released with Protocol 13 to provide developers the trifecta of tools needed to put the blockchain technology completely behind the scenes for users.Brian and Daniel discuss how these new features can streamline the rewards token use case, including making it easier to track the amount of fish Brian buys at his local farmers' market.  The discussion leads to the purpose of the Stellar lumen and how it is a facilitator of a healthy and liquid Stellar network, but, as Protocol 15 emphasizes, the lumen never needed to be the star of the show. Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Cowrie Exchange is a Nigerian based fiat to crypto gateway that provides a way to trade cryptos with local fiat currency in the region.Sam Conner and Ladi Okorodudu, from the Cowrie Exchange, discuss what the Cowrie Exchange has done so far for Nigeria and how it plans to be the leading African payment network using Stellar.  The discussion begins with Ladi explaining the current state of Africa and the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians.  Ladi then highlights how the Cowrie Exchange integrates directly with the Nigerian banking system - allowing payment in NGNT, an asset backed digital token pegged to the Nigerian Naira, to cash payout of Naira at the local brick and mortar bank in 60 seconds.  Ladi shares his experience with the people at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), including a recent heartfelt outreach from the SDF's CEO Denelle Dixon.  Ladi then provides insight into the Cowrie Exchange's decision to use the Stellar network as compared to Ethereum.  The discussion then moves to the End SARS movement where Ladi provides his perspective into that movement and the youth in Nigeria.  The podcast ends with big plans for the future with the Cowrie Exchange's planned expansion from Nigeria to several other countries in Africa.   Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Sam Conner and Tyler van der Hoeven from the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) discuss the current state of the Stellar Community Fund (SCF) and the robust launch of Stellar Quest.The interview begins with Tyler in his parents' basement picking apples and planting pumpkins.  It ends with Tyler's palpable excitement around Stellar Quest.   Tyler explains how he found Stellar and how he ultimately got hired by the SDF.  Sam and Tyler discuss the difference between the Seed Fund and the Lab Fund that are community funds available to help provide financial rewards to people building on Stellar. The discussion ends on Stellar Quest and how participation has far exceeded Tyler's expectations.  Tyler explains his vision for Stellar Quest to be the catalyst that onboards the next wave of Stellar developers.  Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

COINQVEST provides cryptocurrency payment processing so that a business can accept and settle payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Stellar Lumens while also keeping accountants and tax authorities happy.  COINQVEST, in conjunction with the Stellar blockchain technology, also allows the business to receive national currencies like EUR, USD or NGN regardless of whether their customers choose to pay in Bitcoin, Ethereum or Stellar Lumens.Sam and Stefan (co-founder of COINQVEST) discuss the COINQVEST service and how it leverages the Stellar blockchain technology to provide digital cryptocurrency payment processing.  Stefan shares his appreciation for the funding received through the Stellar Community Fund (SCF) and how the SCF helps lengthen the runway for startups like COINQVEST.   He goes on to explain why COINQVEST chose the Stellar technology and provides a quick explanation of how Stellar's path-payment feature works.  The episode ends with an overview of how a shop owner can get started with COINQVEST to reach new customers and do so with plugins that work with the top e-commerce platforms - Wordpress, WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento.  Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Bitbond improves the issuance, settlement and custody of bonds with the help of Stellar blockchain technology and tokenization. Sam Conner and Radko Albrecht, CEO and founder of Bitbond, discuss Bitbond's early accomplishments, partnerships, regulations in Germany, and an exciting future of financial inclusion.  Radko explains that Bitbond Token (BB1) serves as a showcase for issuing a dematerialized security token in Europe using the Stellar blockchain network.  He also explains why Bitbond chose to use the Stellar protocol as compared to other blockchain protocols.  In addition, this episode includes a teaser of an upcoming announcement by a German bank and its plans to issue a Euro-denominated stable coin utilizing the open and inclusive Stellar blockchain network.  Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Saldo.mx aims to make it easier, less costly, and safer for migrant communities to make cross-border remittances to pay bills at home.Sam and Marco, the founder of Saldo.mx, discuss the tremendous need that exists in the remittance space and how Saldo.mx aims to solve the problem by offering a digital peso (also known as a stable coin or a peso anchor) on the open and inclusive Stellar network.  In addition to highlighting the real need for more efficient cross-border remittances, Marco explains regulations, why Saldo.mx ultimately picked the Stellar network, what the community can do to help drive network effect, and his ten-year ambition to be the most important fintech.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

TheFutbolApp by pandaHAUS is a social network for the world's football community (also know as the soccer community). TheFutbolApp leverages the open and inclusive Stellar payment network so that its participants can earn and spend the apps TFC token (TheFutbolCoin). In this podcast, Sam Conner interviews Steve Van Zutphen, the CEO and co-founder, where they discuss the apps success in Cyprus, how it aims to reward the entire football community from fans to players to advertisers, why TheFutbolApp chose the Stellar network, and plans for the future.The podcast ends with Steve considering a Stellar community meetup hosted by TheFutbolApp in Cyprus with Sam as a guest speaker and off time spent on Cyprus' spellbinding beaches.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Brian and Daniel discuss digital wallets on the open and inclusive Stellar network.  They explore the business cases for custodial and non-custodial wallet providers and highlight the opportunities and challenges particular to non-custodial wallets since non-custodial wallet providers do not hold any assets.Albedo.link is discussed and how it aims to streamline the management of wallet keys so that developers can focus on their primary Stellar-based business case.  Brian takes a guess at where key management will be in five years and his view that there will be a formation of three distinct layers of value.  Stellarmap.io receives an impromptu mention with Brian and Daniel both encouraging Stellar consumers and merchants to connect and start using Stellar to do what it was designed to do - make payments cheaply and efficiently.  Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

The Velo Protocol is a value transfer engine that will initially consist of two components: a Digital Credit Issuance Mechanism and the Digital Reserve System.  Sam and Michael discuss how blockchain technology will provide much needed modernization to remittances.In this interview, Michael explains the Seven Eleven connection to Velo Labs in Asia, Velo Lab's growing partnerships, why they picked the Stellar Network over other blockchain projects, the importance of regulators, and the prospects of being "on-track" as it relates to near-term future milestones announcements.  The podcast ends with Michael agreeing to do a future Ask Me Anything (AMA) with the Stellar community.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Sam Conner discusses the Kelp trading bot with Nikhil Saraf from the Stellar Development Foundation and Wouter Arkink from Stellarbattle.Kelp is a free, customizable, open-source trading bot for the Stellar universal marketplace.Topics include an overview of what the Kelp software can do, how it aims to provide liquidity to the Stellar Decentralized Exchange (DEX), how it can be used to trade any form of value on the Stellar network, and how it isn't just confined to the Stellar DEX but has the capability today to integrate seamlessly with hundreds of exchanges like Kraken.  All agree, the power of Kelp is mostly unknown and untapped with more features like a Graphical User Interface in development.There is currently a Stellar battle with a 20,000 XLM prize pool to be spit among three people that produce high quality educational content about Kelp.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Brian and Daniel discuss the cost to submit an operation to the public ledger on the open and inclusive Stellar network.  They provide their take on whether validators should approve an increase in the current minimum fee of 100 stroops - about one millionth of a dollar when XLM is valued at ten cents each.Fees on Stellar are used to economically discourage spamming the network so that the open network can remain healthy and efficient.  Read about the issue and pigeons in the Stellar Development Foundation's blog post "should we increase the minimum fee".Read the Google discussion on this issue here and the Reddit discussion here.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Sam Conner announces his partnership with Public Node as the newest content creator of Public Node community podcasts.  Sam introduces his vision for his podcast to provide breaking news, the background of that news, and his perspective on its importance in changing the Stellar ecosystem or even the world at large.  He has plans to host interviews and generally plans to stay nimble, see where the podcast goes, and have a lot of fun doing it.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)

Brian and Daniel discuss storing digital assets on Stellar with custodial and noncustodial wallet solutions.  They discuss the pros and the cons of both approaches and highlight that both solutions are getting better but still have more to solve before we can expect complete adoption of blockchain value storage and payment solutions.Brian and Daniel discuss how they use the multi-signature (multisig) feature of Stellar to protect their Stellar accounts, but in doing so, Brian inadvertently reveals a little too much information.Stellar Ecosystem Proposal 30 (SEP-0030) is discussed and how it is helping key management, specifically noncustodial key recovery, and how it is already in use in the Vibrant.cash application.  Mentions:  Stellarguard.me and Lobstr.co.Support the show (https://publicnode.org/#membership)