Although it was created in 2014, Stellar Lumens (XML) is still not as popular as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple. However, its price skyrocketed at the end of last year and now promises to be one of the cryptocurrencies with the highest growth for this 2018. But what does it propose or what makes this altcoin so special? This is their story.
Part of Stellar’s success is due to the developers behind it. Mainly Jed McCaleb, who is the programmer who developed Ripple in 2011 but then left the company in 2013. He is also known for having created eDonkey2000, one of the largest file-sharing networks of its time, and, later, Mt. Gox, the first Bitcoin exchange, which he then sold and ended up ceasing operations in 2014. Another of its co-creators is Matt Mullenweg, the web developer and creator of WordPress.What makes Stellar Lumens different from other cryptocurrencies and / or platforms?
Unlike Bitcoin, whose purpose is to replace the traditional financial system, the big difference of Stellar Lumens (XML) is that it was developed with the purpose of helping in the operations and financial transactions of any type of currency and with a much lower percentage. It is exclusively aimed at enabling both banks and individuals to transfer value or store assets. The company specifies on its website:
Stellar is a distributed, hybrid, completely open source blockchain. It is an infrastructure that exists to facilitate cross-asset value transfers, including payments.
This digital financial platform manages its own blockchain, the Stellar network. That allows you to offer lower commissions for transactions between cryptocurrencies, as well as make changes from dollars to Bitcoin extremely quickly and inexpensively.
To exchange dollars for Bitcoins, the most common thing is to have to perform a series of somewhat complicated steps. In Stellar’s case, these transactions can be made in a matter of two to five seconds on average given that the money entered into the platform is first converted into its own cryptocurrency, Lumens, and then into Bitcoins.
Investors have been looking for other profitable cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin, and one option has been Ripple. Considered the cryptocurrency of banks, it is currently the third most valuable digital currency on the market.
What is Ripple and why is it considered the cryptocurrency of banks?
Seeing Ripple’s growth, other investors looked for a similar cryptocurrency. Since Stellar is from the same developer, they share features like fast border transactions. In addition, the structure of Stellar’s network is very similar to Ripple’s network. Although one of the advantages of Stellar is that it not only provides a network for banks, but also for people. In addition, it allows you to launch initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Today, it has the backing of 10 companies specialized in sending money and the support of more than 30 banks in the world. One of them is IBM, which announced last October that it would use Stellar to partner with banks to provide cross-border payments between countries in the South Pacific. The company has indicated that up to 60% of “cross-border payments on retail forex brokers” in that region could be processed in this way this year.
In reality, it has barely skyrocketed since the end of last year. On January 3, 2018, it hit an all-time high of $0.913, according to Coinmarketcap. It is now among the top ten highly valued cryptocurrencies and has a market capitalization of over $7 billion. This is the graph of its price from December to March:
The real-time price of XML is shown below:Future
Last Monday, March 5, Jeb McCaleb gave a talk during Fintech Week in Tel Aviv. When asked about the fork with Ripple, according to the Finance Magnate, he replied: “I left Ripple in 2013. They didn’t take him in the right direction. What we wanted to improve is the way tokens are distributed. They also set it up as a for-profit company. Can you imagine the internet as a profit? it’s a mistake,” adding:
Therefore, Stellar was established as a non-profit organization. I want to deliver Stellar to as many people as possible. If you’re a developer, you can get tokens for a project, and if you have larger projects, you can get more tokens.
However, he acknowledged that the system is not yet ready at the technological level in terms of digital wallets, among other things. “We’re in a kind of bubble dot.com. We just want to make sure it’s real enough when the accident comes,” he concluded.
Is there really a Bitcoin bubble?
According to the monthly survey that the Finder.com personal finance website conducts to Fintech leaders and experts, its prediction is that the two cryptocurrencies that will become more popular this 2018 are Ethereum and Stellar Lumens and that Stellar’s market cap would rise to 183 billion dollars by the end of the year. Currently, Bitcoin has a market cap of $233 billion.
