Stellar (XLM) is an open-source blockchain platform designed to facilitate fast, low-cost, and cross-border transactions. Established in 2014, Stellar aims to provide a decentralized infrastructure for financial services and remittances, and supports a variety of financial services, including payments, remittances, and mobile money platforms, with the goal of making financial services more inclusive and accessible, particularly the unbanked and underbanked populations around the world.
The native cryptocurrency of the Stellar network, XLM, facilitates quick, low-cost multi-currency transactions, supporting cross-border payments and currency exchange globally. Each transaction on the Stellar network has a nominal fee, paid in Lumens, which helps deter spamming the network while ensuring its security and efficiency.
Stellar's user-centric approach extends to its intuitive payment systems, aiming to minimize friction in sending and receiving funds. The platform provides tools and resources for developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) and financial services that cater to underserved populations, including remittance platforms, micropayment solutions, and tokenization platforms.
Stellar employs a unique consensus mechanism called the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which enables fast and secure transaction processing without the need for mining or proof-of-stake algorithms. SCP relies on a network of decentralized nodes to reach consensus on the validity and ordering of transactions, ensuring the integrity and security of the network while maintaining high throughput and scalability.
