How to create and fund a stellar account on live network?

Question

I have used the JS SDK to create a set of keys, and then send some money to it using friendbot cfr the docs to create an account (https://www.stellar.org/developers/guides/get-started/create-account.html)

However, this only creates an account on the testnet. When I try to listen for payments on that account on the live network, i get a 404.

Also I tried sending a small ammount of XLM to my newly created public key from my binance account, but there I get the error 'Address verification failed'.

So, how do I create a proper Stellar account using my own keys on the live network?

Answer 1

There is no friendbot for the public network, as that would be a way for people to get XLM for free - which wouldn't help the utility or the price.

Accounts are created when funds are sent to it in an explicit CreateAccount operation (as opposed to PaymentOperation). Some exchanges are erroneously not sophisticated enough to handle this case. They only attempt payment operations, which will fail in the case that there's no account established. Binance may be one of them (you might check with support).

After a very quick search I found that the Lobstr wallet will create your account with the minimum balance, which they then recover once you have received sufficient deposit. That may be one option for you to proceed. However, I have never used that wallet and cannot vouch for it.

Another option is to move your funds to an exchange that does support account creation on withdrawal. But then you incur extra fees for no benefit. Plus I could not find a list of which exchanges are doing the right thing.