Stellar is an open-source network for peer-to-peer digital currency or asset transfers. Stellar Lumens is is the native digital currency designed to prevent and mitigate transaction spamming on the stellar network.
Stellar Lumens is an open-sourced dispersed framework that aims at simplifying transactions across the network. “Lumen” has numerous functions, but it is mainly used for settling cross-border transactions for both individuals and financial institutions.
The Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit based in the U.S., was established in 2014 to serve as the foundation of the Stellar open-source network. It was created with the aim to make international payments more efficient. Stellar has created a borderless payment infrastructure that enables users to avoid high transaction fees and conversion rates.
This review of Stellar – XLM was created for informational purposes. This article is not intended for promotion.
Stellar utilizes the Stellar Consensus Protocol, comparable to the Federated Byzantine Agreement – FBA. The most contrast is that the SCP does not require all nodes, or “Anchors” within the case of Stellar, to concur to reach an agreement.
The network comprises a large number of data servers spread across various geographical locations and owned by multiple individuals or groups of companies.
The stellar core software is installed on each server. The software maintains a copy of the blockchain ledger, which then communicates with other servers on the network to check and verify network transactions.
Stellar has evolved itself at the same rate the demand for blockchain technology has evolved.
First time users were required to run a Stellar Core node to deploy Horizon, which burdened them with heavy disk space requirements and careful configuration necessitated by Stellar Core.
However, this changed with the introduction of Horizon 2.0, which includes Captive Stellar Core that can completely process ledgers in memory and communicate via high-bandwidth OS mechanisms.
Companies using Horizon 2.0 can choose between running a validator or only Horizon. They should deploy the Stellar Core node if they want to become validators. Although, for businesses that only require Horizon, deploying an API server is sufficient.
A Basic Validator maintains the ledger and submits transactions, but it is not configured to publish an archived history. A Basic validator uses a secret key configured to participate in the consensus.
Full validator also performs similar tasks to that of Basic validator, but it also publishes a history archive containing the ledger’s snapshots. Despite the fact that it is expensive and difficult to maintain, it contributes to the network’s resilience and decentralization.
An archiver publishes network activity but does not participate in consensus. Its utility is relatively limited. If a Stellar-facing service, such as a blockchain explorer, is required, archives must be running.
An anchor allows Stellar to accept asset and currency deposits whereafter it issues new representations of these assets on the network.
Anchor services are offered as part of a more extensive portfolio of products and services. These services leverage Stellar’s efficiency to provide new, cost-effective financial services ranging from API-based Banking-as-a-Service offerings to cross-border B2B payments and invoicing, remittances, P2P payments, international payroll, or two-sided marketplace payments.
Stellar Lumen was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb & Joyce Kim. McCaleb was also the co-founder of Ripple, who left over disagreements on the future of Ripple. They have a diverse team with expertise in numerous sectors.
In their roadmap for 2022, they have outlined that they will be increasing network capacity to improve network scalability. They also plan to attract new partners to the ecosystem, particularly on and off-ramps domestically and internationally, critical to enabling financial access.
Bitt and the Stellar Development Foundation – SDF have been named one of 15 finalists for the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s – MAS, Global CBDC Challenge, which aims to develop and showcase retail central bank digital currency – CBDC solutions.
They aim to provide a comprehensive solution that allows central banks to create a digital currency, manage it, and safely enable transactions while controlling the functionality and interoperability of the CBDC with other assets.
Open Garden allows users to turn their phones into Wi-Fi hotspots, and in return, they get paid in Lumens for the data that has been used.
The project targets places where internet connectivity isn’t available to most people, but it is still under construction.
Sure Remit is a remittance gateway that can be used to send money abroad. It has branches in Kenya, Rwanda, and other African countries.
It is widely used in Africa, with billions of dollars sent home by Africans abroad every year.
Smartlands allows investors to participate in institutional-grade deals at a much lower cost than investing directly through the same sponsors. The project is tokenizing agricultural lands on the Stellar network.
It allows investors to invest in three categories: commercial, office, and residential.
Lumens – XLM is the native currency of the Stellar network. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Stellar Lumens cannot be mined. Instead, when the network went live in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation released 100 billion lumens. The foundation increased the supply by 1% per year for the next five years.
The network is powered by XLM, which facilitates the trade and transfer of any currency on the network. It also helps to protect the network from potential spam attacks by levying a network fee per transaction.
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Stellar Lumen has been at the forefront of innovation. It has partnered with well-known institutions in the market. In March 2019, IBM took the world by shock when it announced the launch of World Wire in partnership with Stellar network.
They have also partnered with the Ukrainian government to build a central bank digital currency – CBDC. Also, The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Stellar Development Foundation – SDF signed a Memorandum to build out a virtual assets ecosystem and a national digital currency of Ukraine.
Flutterwave, a mobile payment platform in Africa, uses Stellar to facilitate money transfers between certain African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. ICICI also uses stellar, one of the leading banks in India, to carry out local and international transactions at almost no cost.
Ripple, which has always been part of the controversy in the blockchain arena, is one of the major competitors of Stellar. Although Stellar entered the market after Ripple, it has collaborated with one of the prominent institutions globally. We believe that strong determination to explore areas by the team never explored before has contributed to Stellars growth.
Stellar Lumen, a project launched in 2014, has created and developed a network that penetrated various sectors of the economy. The Stellar vision will define the project’s future.
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