The cryptocurrency Stellar Lumens is a platform very similar to Ripple. But it is improved, weaknesses were fixed and performance was increased. The developers’ goal is to make official non-cash payments between individuals and businesses as easy as possible.
This platform allows exchanging not only cryptocurrency, but also ordinary money and smart contracts. Since 2014, the tokens of the Stellar Lumens platform are called Lumen (before that, altcoins were called Stellar tokens). Due to the fact that the system uses distributed ledger technology, its tokens can be exchanged for goods, services and other cryptocurrencies (Lumen in this case will serve as a kind of bridge between selling one asset and receiving another in return). It is a good idea to use lumens also as a tool for long-term investments, hoping that the coin will only grow in value, not fall.
A brief history of creation.
The platform was founded as an offshoot of Ripple by developers Joyce Kim and Jed McCaleb. Ripple cryptocurrency has been quite successful since 2012, but it is not without flaws, so Kim and McCaleb decided to create Stellar Lumens and eliminate in this platform the weaknesses that do not suit Ripple users. Particularly the fact that Ripple’s code is closed, and only the owner of the system can manage the course and make changes to the platform.
The non-profit firm Stellar Development Foundation was created for development. The company has an official website where anyone can read about its activities. In the beginning, the Stellar Lumens platform worked on the Ripple protocol, but a year later it had its own, the code of which is available to all comers.
The creation of the cryptocurrency dates back to 2014, but only in 2017 the coin became available to users on the Poloniex exchange. From the winter to the spring of 2017, the value of Lumen fell six times. Representatives of the exchange believe that this was a consequence of a hacker attack on the resource. Already by October the value of the currency leveled off, and in December it even exceeded the previously known maximum.
At the beginning of 2018, when there was a collapse of the cryptocurrency market, Lumen did not lose its position, but even on the contrary rose in price, thanks to the competent policy of the developers to enter into contracts with major exchanges and cryptocurrency services.
Features of Stellar Lumens cryptocurrency
Differences and advantages:
- the database is distributed among users;
- open code and reporting available to all;
- the platform allows several thousand transactions every second;
- it takes no more than 5 seconds to confirm each transaction;
- Lumen can be used to exchange and transfer any assets, cryptocurrencies and monetary units;
- the platform operates on the open SCP protocol, which increases its performance;
- transaction cost is low;
- issuance and inflation are strictly fixed;
- the system allows the use of multi-signatures and smart contacts;
- Stellar is compatible with other representatives of the cryptocurrency market;
- high level of protection due to the use of cryptographic encryption;
- clients and plugins can be created on the basis of this platform;
- Lumen can be used for almost any type of cashless payments;
- owners of large amounts of tokens cannot manipulate the exchange rate, as there is a restrictive agreement obliging them not to sell this cryptocurrency for 5 years;
- A quarter of all available tokens are held by non-profit organizations, and another 5% are frozen to keep the system operational.
The computing power of the platform is distributed across multiple interchangeable servers, which allows the system to operate reliably even if some of the servers fail. This feature also allows the system to operate autonomously, eliminating external interference.
Ways to store – Stellar wallet
There are several versions of the official Stellar Wallet for storing digital coins. The desktop version is considered the most reliable. In addition to the official Stellar wallet, for storage are also suitable:
- desktop Stellar wallet – Ledger and Stargazer;
- mobile – Lobstr, Stargazer, Papaya, Centaurus;
- online services – Stellar Wallet, Ledger, Stronghold, LuPoEx, StellarTeam, Lobstr, Papaya, Saza.
But despite all this diversity, most owners of this cryptocurrency still prefer to store it on the desktop version of the official Stellar wallet, due to the high degree of protection of funds.
How to mine Stellar?
Talking about Stellar Lumens there isn’t any possibility to mine and it is not expected. For this system, it was not even conceived by the developers. It is possible to become the owner of tokens only by purchasing them. And this is logical, because any mining will have an impact on the internal economic model and will not allow the system to have a clearly fixed issue and inflation. Therefore, the only way to get this cryptocurrency is to buy it.
Prospects for project development
The developers managed to implement their idea, and they got a faster, cheaper, more reliable, and most importantly, a decentralized variation of Ripple. Therefore, lumens are gaining in popularity and, according to experts, will only grow in value. In addition, the Stellar platform allows you to instantly exchange any assets using lumens without the cost of commissions, which makes it unique among many competitors.
The Stellar Lumens technology itself is still very actively being refined to this day. It is already loved by many large corporations and is actively used by them, which attracts new investments in the development of the project. However, the potential for practical application of the platform is still high and has not yet been fully realized.
The world-renowned giant IBM also plans to use Stellar technology in the near future. After such a statement, there is no reason to doubt the reliability and success of this cryptocurrency. And the interest of investors, including financial investors, to the currency is growing quite rapidly, which also hints subtly that this digital unit will at least stay on the market for a long time, promising its holders a good profit.
Experts say, that now is a good time to invest in this cryptocurrency, while it is still not worth that much.
The main thing is not to panic when the price decreases slightly and patiently wait for a good moment. Although, as a long-term investment tool, these tokens are also quite suitable. The maximum risk of the investor in this case is just a small drop in the rate, which quickly leveled off and maybe even went up. But despite the very bright forecasts for the Stellar Lumens platform, in the long term, it is still worth remembering to monitor the market situation and be ready for any turn of events.
