Stellar is a platform designed to provide access to an affordable and open financial system making it easier for users to achieve financial independence. It's an inclusive initiative that's secure and easy to use. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) aims to enable access to the platform regardless of geographic location or income level. Stellar will achieve this objective through strategic partnerships and deploying state-of-the-art technology.

The foundation views the platform as the future of banking. It strives to provide a practical solution to key global issues, such as climate change and poverty. To ensure flexibility, users are allowed to transact in their preferred currency, including fiat and digital.

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The Basics of the Stellar Network

The Stellar Network enables users to leverage a variety of benefits, including low latency, decentralized control and asymptotic security. Stellar offers the choice of a cryptocurrency known as Lumens ($XLM) and fiat currencies for handling payments. Lumens help facilitate trades between currencies that are less liquid.

When it comes to integration, the platform offers a streamlined process that is straightforward. Users are required to identify use cases that are well suited to their venture. Once the use case has been identified, users can proceed to configure the system before testing the integration.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) operates as a non-profit entity. For this reason, institutions and individuals are not charged for conducting transactions on the network. The foundation accepts donations and sets aside at least 5 percent of the initial lumens to cover operational costs.

The community owns the technology that handles the transactions and the Stellar Core maintains the local copy of the network ledger.

Using Stellar as a Vehicle to Support Initial Coin Offerings

Reference: https://www.stellar.org/blog/using-stellar-for-ico/

Stellar provides robust security for supporting initial coin offerings (ICOs). It enables users to create custom ICOs by offering base abstractions like payments, tokens, and accounts. In addition, users can take advantage of the network's capacity to handle atomic transactions which is pretty remarkable. The built-in decentralized exchange supports efficient trading and eliminates the possibility of failing to list tokens, making this an option for ICO's issuing tokens who wish to stand apart from the crowd.

Handling ICOs through Stellar is significantly cheaper and faster than other networks. Digital currencies with high valuations, transaction frequencies, and computational requirements, lack the cost-effective benefits associated with the Stellar platform. Users can expect to pay a negligible transaction fee of only 0.00001 XLM.

The last key benefit, a decentralized network allows users to validate transactions by simply running a Stellar Core node.

Making Headlines: Partnership with IBM and KlickEx

The foundation recently announced a partnership with IBM and the KlickEx Group to develop and deploy a cross-border payment system. The solution is based on the blockchain technology. The initiative is aimed at drastically reducing transaction costs and supercharging transaction speeds. Individuals and institutions are expected to benefit from the technology through lower fees and improved system reliability.

The partnership between IBM and Stellar is widely viewed as a crucial validation of the blockchain technology. The two entities are committed to the development of breakthrough international payments technology that helps solve problems in both developed and developing countries. The media has done a fine job showcasing the partnership with coverage on Fortune.com.

A Stellar Team: Who's Who in the $XLM Zoo

Stellar is run by high-powered team of professionals with extensive experience in IT, digital currencies and business.

Advisors Include : Patrick Collison, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Stripe. He graduated from MIT and has vast experience in various business fields. Collison forms part of Stellar's advisory team, which also includes Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress.com), Sam Altman (President of Y Combinator) and Naval Ravikant (founder of Angelist). All around, an impressive advisory board.

Internal Team : Bartek Nowotarski is a developer at Stellar with a Master's in computer science. He brings a wealth of experience in the area of web applications security.

Fundamentals: Why Invest in Lumens or $XLM Tokens?

Investing in Lumens is a viable option for both individuals and organizations. The network offers Lumens through various programs, including the Giveaway program. Individuals receive up to 50 percent of the Lumens while non-profits receive 25 percent and 20 percent is given to bitcoin holders. The platform also offers some of the reserved Lumens via auctions. Employees, partners and anyone formally associated with the foundation are not allowed to participate in the auctions.

For investors looking to buy and trade the tokens using a path of less resistance, check out the list of markets and exchanges where $XLM tokens can be bought and sold.

For investors looking to purchase $XLM we suggest setting up an account with Coinbase first to purchase Bitcoin and transferring Bitcoin to Binance where it can be purchased. Binance has been one of the most reliable exchanges for alt-coin purchases.

Stay Connected with the Company

Interested parties can stay well-informed of new developments by visiting the Stellar network's social media pages. These include:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/stellarfoundation

Reddit – https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellar/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/stellarorg

GitHub – https://github.com/stellar

Stellar Lumens: The Bright Future Ahead

We find the Stellar platform impressive thanks to its robust security and decentralized network. Its features promote transparency and efficiency without inflating transaction costs or excluding non-conforming traditional banking customers. It offers a fixed, nominal inflation mechanism that is integrated into the network infrastructure.

In addition, we are impressed with its team of high-profile professionals, particularly it's advisory board members. The platform benefits from the team's comprehensive knowledge in various aspects, including blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, payment processing and Internet applications. The future undoubtedly looks bright for the Stellar network.

The platform's technology simplifies the process of initial coin offerings while improving transaction speed. On the other hand, the foundation's collaboration with technology giant, IBM is a demonstration of confidence in the team behind the project which is key factor when it comes to influencing our optimistic stance.