Rank: 12
What is Stellar?
Stellar is a platform connecting banks, payment networks and individuals. It is based on an entirely open framework for consensus and is intended to embrace every sort of currency across all blockchains and networks.
Stellar runs on a decentralized network. This implies that no particular individual is contingent upon the Stellar network.
The concept is to make as many individual servers as possible participating in the Stellar network, meaning that even though any servers crash, the network can always operate efficiently.
What is the history of Stellar?
In 2014, Stellar was founded by Jed McCaleb, founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple. Before the formal launch, McCaleb developed a platform for alpha testers named “Secret Bitcoin Project.”
In conjunction with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation was created and the project formally relesed in July. Stellar obtained $3 million from Stripe in seed funding.
Stellar was launched with a native currency, Stellar, as a decentralized payment network and protocol. The network had 100 billion Stellar at its start. In return for its seed investment, 25 percent of those will be provided to other non-profits working for financial inclusion.
In return for its seed investment, Stripe received 2 percent or 2 billion of the initial stellar. The cryptocurrency, initially known as Stellar, was later renamed Lumens or XLM.
What Consensus Protocol Does Stellar use?
Rather than Proof of Work, Stellar uses the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) is a protocol achieving optimum protection against participants that are ill-behaved.
In order to guarantee the transactions are legitimate and are efficiently added to the global ledger, the Stellar servers interact and sync with each other.
What is XLM, the Stellar network token?
Lumens is the name assigned to the Stellar Network Token. They were first referred to as “stellars” back when the Stellar network debuted in 2014, but the name of the token shifted from stellar to lumen with the introduction of the updated network in 2015.
The built-in currency of the Stellar Network, lumen, provides protection on the network. Each purchase on the network has a small charge associated with it-0.00001 lumens. This charge prohibits people from overwhelming the network with harmful intentions (otherwise known as a DoS attack). Users are able to issue their own token on Stellar.
How is Stellar Being Used?
In 2015, an implementation into Vumi, the Praekelt Foundation’s open-source messaging framework, was revealed by Stellar. Vumi utilizes cellphone talk time as a currency utilizing the Stellar protocol.
In April 2015, Stellar collaborated with cloud-based banking software provider Oradian to incorporate Stellar into the banking platform of Oradian.
In 2016, Deloitte revealed its Stellar integration to create a cross-border payment application, Deloitte Digital Bank.
In December 2016, the payment network of Stellar was extended to include Coins.ph, a mobile payment start-up in the Philippines, ICICI Bank in India, African mobile payment firm Flutterwave, and Tempo Money Transfer in France
In October 2017, Stellar collaborated with IBM and KlickEx in the South Pacific area to promote cross-border transactions.
Partnerships with banks in the region include the cross-border payment mechanism established by IBM.
TechCrunch revealed Stellar’s collaboration with SureRemit, a non-cash remittance network located in Nigeria, in December 2017.