Decentralized payment network Stellar has announced the final round of its Bitcoin-Lumen Program, where Bitcoin holders can claim its lumen token for free.

The program, which began in April 2016, features 19 percent of the total lumen supply, which developers reserved at launch exclusively for Bitcoin users.

Of the 19 bln lumens on offer, only 3 bln formed the first round of the giveaway, that was concluded in October 2016. with release details of the remaining 16 bln to be officially announced on March 28.

The value of the remaining tokens is approximately $16 mln.

"On June 27th, 2017, we will make available these lumens to any bitcoin holder who wants them, including those that received lumens during the first giveaway round", says the company in its circular.

Communications Officer Kim Vu adds:

“Bitcoin acted as a profound inspiration for Stellar, which is why we created this program at our launch. The Bitcoin network was the first to show that it’s possible for a group of untrusted parties to agree on a common database, and the Bitcoin community still influences our understanding of this technology’s impact.”

Lumens were originally known as stellar tokens, the name changed to avoid confusion with both the network and the Stellar.org nonprofit organization.

Stellar aims to offer near-instantaneous international payments at a significantly lower cost than mainstream alternatives. Its latest technology links partner organizations in a similar idea to how SWIFT operates with fiat institutions.

“Given the diverse nature of global financial services today, this interoperability can substantially lower global remittance costs by making transactions that cross national boundaries, currencies and financial institutions much more efficient,” CEO Jed McCaleb told Cointelegraph at the launch in December.

How it will work

On June 26, 2017, Stellar will take a snapshot of the blockchain at the first block mined with a timestamp on June 26th (UTC/GMT). This snapshot will record the coin balances of all bitcoin accounts at that time. The next day it'll publish a claim page, allowing bitcoin holders to verify that they control a given bitcoin address. Then Stellar will send that address’s share of lumens to the provided Stellar account. On August 27th, 2017, the bitcoin lumen program will conclude. According to the company's sources, if there are unclaimed lumens, they’ll go to Stellar.org’s operational fund and to the Build Challenge.