Using Stellar (XLM) to trade Epic-Cash in decentralized and trustless way

blacktyger
4 min readApr 15, 2021

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Hey Freemans!

Today we will look closer at another great tool from Fastepic: NetTrader.

NetTrader is still in beta version, but fully functional

First, for those who are not familiar with Stellar platform - is a popular cryptocurrency that is accessible on most exchanges, with many fiat on-ramps and off-ramps. Transfers on the network take seconds and cost pennies. For Epic-Cash community it will be good to compare it to our beloved Vite.

Stellar is an open network for storing and moving money.

Same as Vite blockchain have their decentralized exchange Vitex.net, Stellarx.com is a platform to trade assets created on Stellar blockchain.

You may ask what is the difference between Vitex.net and Stellarx.com - at this point it is pretty much same thing - both are decentralized exchanges where you have to deposit your native chain assets, means you have to send them somewhere and unfortunately trust that platform. Recent MimbleWimble attacks show us that single point of failure. This is where NetTrader makes a difference - it is basically extending Stellarx DEX in a way there is no deposits required at all!

From now on you can trade Stellar representation of Epic-Cash (name it SEPIC) straight from your local wallet - no deposits, no sending - no trust needed.

Let’s jump in to it and see how to start using NetTrader.

  1. Go here for source code, here for windows binary
  2. Once installed, run it and you will see logging screen, app is running inside your default web browser:
Password is 1234, in advanced options you can turn on TOR tunnelling for improved privacy, that may need extra steps (out of scope of this tutorial)

3. It will automatically create new Stellar XLM wallet for you, private key is stored in app directory under stellarneverdelete.json file. This is only copy of your key, you should make a backup. Also, if you already have other Stellar wallet, you can change private key inside that file and use it as your NetTrader wallet - it is fully compatible.

4. At this point application itself is ready to use, but since we want to trade native EPIC on Stellar blockchain, first we have to swap native EPIC to SEPIC (Stellar Epic-Cash representation).

5. All you have to do in order to swap EPIC -> SEPIC is send your EPIC by HTTP method to https://fastepic.eu address with message contains your stellar address — it is automated process.If you use CLI wallet command will look something like:

epic-wallet send -d https://fastepic.eu 100 -g “STELLAR_ADDRRSS”

Swapping EPIC -> SEPIC also requires a small amount of XLM ( 1 or 2 coins) on your wallet to process transfers — it’s not a fee, and coins are only locked, you can redeem them later on.

6. Once swapped SEPICs appears on your NetTrader wallet you are good to go - out of the box you can trade SEPIC for XLM or USD, but you to trade your SEPIC to any other token on Stellar blockchain - it is working like Uniswap and Ethereum ERC20 tokens.

You can swap between any tokens on Stellar network, more details: https://medium.com/stellar-community/understanding-stellar-path-payments-5eefe55b071b

7. If you want swap your SEPIC back to native EPIC coins, again we have to use Fastepic gateway under withdraw button in NetTrader app. In addition you have to use new Epic-Cash GUI wallet or have Keybase.io account to receive native EPIC coins.

Address have to be either alias from new GUI wallet or Keybase.io username with prefix (example on image).

Of course it is just scratching the surface of Stellar and Epic-Cash possibilities. It is really important to remember:

  • SEPIC is not Epic-Cash — it’s token on Stellar blockchain, like EPIC-001 was a token on Vitex blockchain. 1 EPIC = 1 SEPIC minus transaction fees (Fastepic responsible for swapping is not taking any fees at the moment)
  • You are the only owner of private keys to your wallet — make copy and never share those
  • You can use SEPIC and Stellarx.com without NetTrader app, it will work same way as with Vitex — at some point you have to send your coins and keep them on exchange wallet, at your own risk
  • Some operation on Stellar network will need a small amounts of XLM coins to stake/lock, it’s usually 1 or 2 coins and it’s all redeemable.

Why it is worth to use Stellar / NetTrader:

  • Users of Keybase.io will find it really convenient, as communicator have built-in Stellar wallet, it allows to send SEPIC between users straight from chat window.
  • Transfers on Stellar network are fast and cheap — and I mean it, one of the biggest use case of Stellar platform is to wrap other assets and send them back and forth in a matter of seconds for pennies
  • Stellar is popular asset accessible on all major exchanges with direct FIAT conversions.
  • Having our Epic-Cash on much more popular platforms like Stellar will create awareness among other users, and providing liquidity on SEPIC pairs will bring more attention.

We are still developing and improving our tools, please feel free to join our Telegram or Keybase for support.

` blacktyger

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