Pundi X, a cryptocurrency point-of-sale (POS) solutions provider for retail stores, today announced that it has partnered with Stellar.org, a Silicon Valley non-profit organization that supports the Stellar network, an open-source blockchain network that provides interoperability between financial institutions and different payment systems.

“We hope to increase the volume of international trade settled in local currencies by leveraging the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency,” said Zac Cheah, CEO of Pundi X.

“Together with the Stellar Network, Pundi X can facilitate faster cross-border payment with lower costs and we aim to assist Bank Indonesia in increasing the use of the Indonesian Rupiah in international trade.”

Under the agreement, Pundi X will integrate with Stellar to become an Indonesian Rupiah anchor on the network. Also, Pundi X will support Stellar’s native currency Lumen (XLM) in its crypto POS platform.

Stellar’s distributed ledger provides an instant clearing and settlement platform, allowing money to move directly between people, companies, and financial institutions in real-time, as easily as sending an email message. Within the network, XLM serves as the bridge between pairs of different currencies. The network enables frictionless, scalable, and virtually-free cross-border payment transactions. It has been proven to securely process over 1,000 transactions per second and already has a billion unique user accounts. As a key partner, Pundi X will become the credit issuer to the Stellar network for deposits converted to or from Indonesian Rupiah.

Today, over 75% of Indonesian export and import activities are conducted in US dollars. However, Bank Indonesia plans to diversify the use of currencies in international trade. The partnership between Pundi X and Stellar.org will encourage businesses to send and receive payments in Indonesian Rupiah due to improved efficiency.

Pundi X aims to solve the last mile challenge for cryptocurrency transactions with its point-of-sale (POS) solutions. Every Pundi X POS device can be connected to the blockchain enabling consumers to easily buy or sell cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, XEM, LTC, XLM, PXS, QTUM tokens) using fiat money ( US Dollars, Rupiah, Baht, etc.), bank card, mobile wallet or with an NFC-enabled Pundi X Pass.

“We’re excited to welcome Pundi X as an anchor to the Stellar network and believe this collaboration can potentially scale the volume of Indonesian Rupiah settlements, especially among the many under-banked citizens and small businesses,” said Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Stellar.org.