Managing Stellar assets in LOBSTR

Get to know Stellar assets

The Stellar distributed network can be used to hold, transfer and trade any type of asset.

Stellar assets, known as tokens, can be used for representing value for nearly anything: US dollars, Euros, bitcoin, stocks, precious metals, ICO tokens or just about anything you like.

In fact, there are a lot of different tokens already issued on the network. You can buy and hold tokens redeemable for most of the popular cryptocurrencies, such as Ether, or real-world funds such as Chinese Yuan.

This ability to send and receive many varied types of tokens brings flexibility to the Stellar Network and is one of the most powerful features.

All assets issued on the network (with the exception of lumens) have

• Asset type: MOBI, USD or BTC

• Issuer: the account that created the asset, GCH...FMX 

Entities that issue assets are called anchors. Anchors can be run by individuals, small businesses, local communities, nonprofits, organizations, etc. Any financial institution can also be an anchor and issue assets. Each anchor has an issuing account from which it issues the asset. 

Types of assets

Several types of assets exist on the network:

• Stellar Lumens

Lumens (XLM) are the native currency of the network. A lumen is the only asset type that can be used on the Stellar network that doesn’t require an issuer or a trustline. Any account on the network can hold lumens. 

Lumens act as a spam-prevention mechanism by requiring a small fee for each transaction and base reserve for active accounts. Lumens also act as a bridge currency between different assets - you can trade lumens for other assets on the network.

• Non-anchored assets

These are assets that were initially created on the network and don’t represent any assets outside of the network.

For example, MOBI or TERN assets are non-anchored assets, also referred to as native tokens.

• Anchored assets

If an asset did not originate on the network, it is anchored on the network by an anchoring entity or anchor. For example, USD or bitcoin tokens issued on the network represent anchored (or tethered) assets. 

Trustlines

When you hold assets in your Stellar account, you’re actually holding credit from a particular issuer. The issuer has agreed that it will trade you its credit on the Stellar network for the corresponding asset outside of Stellar network.

To receive or hold an asset issued by an anchor in your Stellar account, you must establish (or create) a trustline to that anchor’s account first. By doing that, you signify that you trust the issuer to properly redeem its credit. Trustlines also protect you from having random and unwanted assets sent to you. 

Stellar assets in LOBSTR

You can receive, hold, send and trade any asset issued on Stellar network directly in LOBSTR wallet.

Stellar assets are fully supported both by the web interface and LOBSTR mobile apps.

With LOBSTR web and mobile apps, you can

• Add and hold assets

Visit the' Assets' page to establish trustlines for some of the popular or featured assets, view the asset details or deposit/withdraw tethered tokens.

Use the 'Add' button to establish a trustline and add custom assets by specifying the home domain.

• Keep up with the prices and charts

View the current asset balances for your Stellar account, the latest prices, and charts on the 'Home' page. 

Setup price alerts to be notified when the market moves and prices rise or fall using the 'Price Alerts' functionality in mobile apps.

• Trade on SDEX

LOBSTR provides direct access to the Stellar Decentralized Exchange.

Place orders, buy and sell assets using the simple yet powerful trading interface on the 'Trade' page.

• Send or receive assets

Send or receive any asset you hold on the fast Stellar network to any Stellar account, email or phone number of your choice or scan a QR code with the payment details.

Use 'Accept All addresses' function to receive any asset without manually adding trustlines.

Assets and network reserve

Every asset you add to your Stellar account (or equally every trustline you establish) adds 0.5 XLM to your network reserve (minimum balance). 

Trustlines persist even after you sell all your tokens. For example, even after you've sold all of your TERN, your trustline will remain open, and therefore additional 0.5 XLM will still be a part of your network reserve.

To remove an asset from your account and close the trustline, your asset balance should be zero.

To close the trustline and reduce the network reserve for your account by 0.5 XLM, open the asset details by choosing the required asset on the 'Assets' page and use the 'Remove' button.