Stellar Community Fund Drives Real-World Onchain Adoption Through Art and Festivals

• Stellar Community Fund-backed IRL check-ins let attendees create Stellar wallets via Privy or Meridian Pay and earn onchain IRL Points.
• IRL logged 1,320 Checkpoint photo booth portraits at Meridian 2025 in Rio with rewards tied to Stellar onboarding.

Stellar Community Fund (SCF) supported IRL during the SCF Build Award period to run cultural activations that linked in-person attendance to onchain rewards on the Stellar network. The work focused on venues and art-led events where fast entry, mobile use, and simple onboarding determine whether participants engage.

IRL operates across festivals, art spaces, nightlife venues, and community events, with a network that exceeds 73,000 people across multiple cultural hubs. The team targeted onboarding that would fit real-world event conditions, including long lines, limited time at entry points, and audiences that prefer non-technical language.

The activations used IRL Touchpoint check-ins to create wallets and record participation. Attendees either set up a wallet through Meridian Pay or created a Privy-powered Stellar account through an email or social login. The process had three steps as attendees scanned or tapped at the entrance, created an account, and then earned IRL Points recorded on Stellar. 

Also, the onboarding process took under 30 seconds, enabling usage without interrupting venue operations.

Earlier this year, we covered that Stellar launched SCF Growth Hack Cohort 1 to help mainnet teams run user acquisition campaigns aimed at real-world adoption. 

Stellar Check-ins to Onchain Rewards

At Meridian 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, IRL ran a photo-based activation with Checkpoint using Meridian Pay photo booths. The experience combined entry check-ins with artwork and a printed keepsake. IRL reported that attendees created a Meridian Pay account, took a portrait at a Future Primitive Checkpoint booth, received a physical print, and unlocked a small gift. 

Across three stations featuring artwork by Filipa Aurelio, IRL recorded 1,320 portraits during the event. Each portrait supported onboarding into IRL through Meridian Pay and Checkpoint.

In Miami during Art Basel, IRL ran a check-in and reward flow at Stellar House. Attendees created a Privy-powered Stellar account, checked in through the IRL Touchpoint, and earned IRL Points recorded on Stellar. The activation connected onboarding to a gallery experience curated by Refraction and to event programming for visitors on site. 

IRL also enabled artwork collection through Meridian Pay for event attendees, linking digital access to in-person participation through the same onboarding channel. It cited Stellar’s transaction speed, low fees, and reliability under higher traffic as operational reasons for selecting the network for venue-based onboarding and rewards. 

Additionally, IRL is expanding to other cities, including New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, Berlin, Singapore, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City.

CNF previously reported that the Stellar Development Foundation moved 2.7 billion XLM from its Growth 3 account to an Assets and Liquidity account under a new allocation framework. Growth accounts still hold 6.3 billion XLM, while product and innovation accounts hold 4.5 billion XLM.

At the time of writing, XLM price was trading at $0.1532, down 2% over 24 hours, with $123.2 million in trading volume.