It has been quite a crazy few weeks for the now ninth largest cryptocurrency, Stellar (XLM). Just two days ago, the digital currency was competing for the fifth largest spot. Currently, XLM is trading at $0 .061 a coin, down -25% for the day. It is down, -32 % from its record high of $ .91 reached back on January 4th. Still, Stellar is up 454 % for the month and a crazy, 304,900 % for the year.

What Is It?

Stellar was founded back in 2014 by Ripple’s (XRP) creator, Jed McCaleb. McCaleb is also the founder of Mt. Gox, the major Bitcoin exchange, before he sold it in 2011. In 2013, Mt. Gox was responsible for 70 percent of all Bitcoin transactions at the time before it was hacked, which ultimately led to its downfall. McCaleb continuous focus is to update the global financial system.

Stellar (XLM), backed by Lumens, has started to become an internet level protocol for payments. The project is an open source blockchain that allows cross-border transactions with equal access for all of its participants. The blockchain also promises transaction times from two to five seconds and fees for these transactions at a fraction of a cent. This is significantly different than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain which has processing times from thirty minutes to over an hour and fees around $20.

Stellar Vs. Ripple

Just like Ripple, Stellar’s targets are financial corporations and institutions, and recently it just finalized a huge deal with IBM (NYSE:IBM). Both systems use a network of trusted validator nodes which make them not a truly decentralized cryptocurrency, however, anyone is able to host a node which makes it less centralized than Ripple. A big stand-out for Stellar is that it is not holding 60% of its total supply, like Ripple. Stellar Vs. Ripple, is the new Bitcoin Cash Vs. Bitcoin.

If Ripple can become a $3 coin, there is nothing stopping Stellar from reaching that as well. As Bitcoin reigned supreme for so long, it is clear that altcoin season has returned and they are all looking to replace it.

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