Stellar (XLM) – 3 Reasons Why the Downtrend Does Not Worry Me

Stellar (XLM) is down by -11% against the USD or 3.6% against BTC. Normally, this would be cause for alarm for any investor, especially in the money markets. Yet, we shouldn’t be overly nervous by such a drop because this is cryptocurrency.

It here that prices can take a nose dive towards the abyss in an hour, only to rebound with force a couple hours later.

Volatility and price fluctuations are so common in cryptocurrency that in a little over a month, Bitcoin lost over 50% of its value, which it recouped in a less than three weeks.

So, should you be worried about the price charts? Naturally, you should, but in the case of Stellar, I believe there’s the best yet to come. Here are four reasons why you should be optimistic about Stellar prospects in 2018 and beyond.

But first, how is XLM’s performance in the market? A brief summary

You have no cause to worry about your ROI with XLM

Price may be down but long-term, your ROI is still pretty much solid. If you calculate your ROI for the week or month ending today, then your returns are in the red by -16% and -20% respectively.

If you take it up to three months, then that goes green by +847%; if you have held it for a year, you have +20,401% and a still profitable +12,096% over a three year period.

But today’s outlook may worry some

The trading price Stellar is down at $0.35 down a massive 59.35% from its all-time high of $0.93 that it achieved on January 4th, 2018. The Stellar market cap is also down to stand at $6.59 billion.

These figures, however, should not be read in isolation. The whole market experienced a sharp dip overnight when news broke that a Japanese bitcoin exchange had experienced a glitch, leading to seven bitcoin users to get free bitcoin. The top 20 coins all were in the red by the time of writing this article. Bitcoin was down 8.8%, Ethereum 6.%, and Ripple 10%.

If that is how the market looks today, what does Stellar need to do to rebound on the market? The simplest answer would be that it needs to concentrate on its stated objectives in relation to achieving a decentralized financial system for cross-border money transfer applications.

Stellar may be winning the war with other open-source networks, including Ethereum.

Stellar’s aim is to make money transfers across nations be easy, faster and cheaper. It seeks to spearhead the future of blockchain with its unique partnership with eToro.

At its base, Stellar seeks to have a platform on which anyone can develop private low-cost applications to cater for their specialized financial needs.

A few days ago, MAD Network announced that it would be building on Stellar and not Ethereum. The MAD network is a decentralized startup ad tech platform that aims to use blockchain technology to make advertising valuable to those involved in it.

By choosing to develop their platform on Stellar and not the fancied Ethereum speaks volumes about Stellar’s capabilities.

On February 19, MAD network CEO Adam Helfgott outlined the reasons why they chose Stellar over Ethereum. He gave 8 reasons which I am going to summarize here.

But the overall reason implied that Stellar offered the best platform for their project. Without being overly dismissal of the way Ethereum has changed blockchain, I can safely say that Stellar represents the future.

Here are the reasons why the MAD network preferred Stellar over Ethereum. I’ll pick only three that I feel makes Stellar better.

Stellar’s protocol is designed for real-world use

The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) works seamlessly with the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) to bring about decentralization.

The platform is entirely open-source and anyone is free to participate on the Stellar network. The use of side chains called “quorum slice” makes the system stable and secure.

Stellar is focused

This is actually one of the main reasons MAD chose Stellar; the same reason I feel so many other projects will choose to build here too. Stellar has a laser-like focus on developing its technology to ensure the lowest fees (zero) and a faster network.

When fees are charged, it is to prevent DDoS attacks, yet they get redistributed across the network in a unique framework that involves stakeholder voting.

The Stellar team

A platform is as good as its team makes it. This statement sums up Stellar (XLM). It is the best team around, led by a focused Jed McCaleb.

He is a well-known Blockchain pioneer who created p2p file sharing, was a founder member of Ripple and the Mt Gox bitcoin exchange. With him are blockchain industry experts like Keith Rabois, Greg Brockman, and Sam Altman among others.

The Stellar team is a powerful combination of experts in fields like fintech, distributed systems, and blockchain security. Stellar can only get better with such a team.

You can get the other reasons Adam Helfgott outlined by visiting https://t.co/Mgnss8Nu1s

Do you think Stellar (XLM) will be bigger than Ethereum in the future? Let us know your opinion.