No matter what kind of cryptocurrency you are interested in, you always need a reliable trading platform to make transactions. Among other things, you can find a candidate of this type through platforms that give you access to cryptocurrency trading. Platforms use a variety of specialized partners that allow you to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

With that trading partner on your side, the next step can be initiated: buying the cryptocurrency itself. It should also be noted that not every cryptocurrency is directly available. Many, especially small options, are only available through other cryptocurrencies. You should plan for this before choosing a cryptocurrency that can only be reached through devious paths to invest in.

Stellar Lumens – Overview

Lumens characterizes the Stellar network. Without Lumen’s active participation, the crypto network would not function at all. Lumen itself is comparable to Bitcoin. Ultimately, Lumens represents the actual cryptocurrency of Stellar Lumens. For example, with Cardano, you can also see that ADA is an actual linked cryptocurrency. On the other hand, Cardano itself is a system or network that serves as the basis for all transactions.

With a market capitalization approaching $5.8 billion and 25.58 billion XLMs in circulation, Stellar Lumens stands out as an altcoin candidate worth watching.

The primary goal of the Stellar payment network has always been to connect banks, payment systems and individuals faster and more reliably than was possible with conventional channels.

The lumens serve two important roles:

• On the one hand, they are responsible for making sure there is no “spam.” Accordingly, commissions are charged for each transaction.
• On the other hand, lumens help with payment transactions between certain currencies. For example, lumens can be used to exchange U.S. dollars for euros in order to make exchanges more efficiently and with lower fees.

Ultimately, both of these basic functions are not great miracles, so the principles associated with them are known for other cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the exact interpretation of these principles differs between the cryptocurrencies involved.

Stellar Lumens as a recommended investment?

As with almost all other altcoins, the degree to which Stellar Lumens can dominate Bitcoins matters. The cryptocurrency is not currently the smallest of its kind, with a market capitalization of about $5.8 billion, but it is equally unrewarding for its size. First and foremost, true fans and those interested in cryptocurrency should be interested in speculating with Stellar Lumens.

Along the way, you might want to keep an eye on what roadmap Stellar Lumens comes up with for 2023. Based on the goals presented therein, you can better assess what kind of attention this particular cryptocurrency might get next year.

In addition to these individual characteristics and accomplishments, watching the cryptocurrency market as such is undoubtedly also crucial. With the overall growth of bitcoins, many of the larger crypto representatives are also benefiting. If this is the case, you may find that many new investors are entering the cryptocurrency market. Such situations are worth their weight in gold for traders who are already active, and it only takes attention to jump in on time.

If Stellar Lumens continues to successfully meet its goals and if the general attitude toward cryptocurrencies does not deteriorate too much, XLM should probably offer a good opportunity for speculation if you also want to bet on the smaller cryptocurrency representatives.

Likewise, success cannot be guaranteed. Thus, the fact is that Stellar Lumens has struggled to set a reasonable rate in the recent past. The cryptocurrency has been in a downward spiral since its last major high in 2021. Crypto traders who were already involved may have found it painful. If you haven’t already invested, such huge recovery phases also provide an opportunity to enter at a relatively low price.

No direct recommendation to buy Stellar Lumens can be made – such recommendations are often invalid and misleading in any case. Nevertheless, you could benefit from keeping this cryptocurrency in sight, at least as a secondary to be able to intervene in time when in doubt.

Conclusion

Finally, Stellar Lumens offers an interesting technical network that could offer real added value to the real economy in the future. Until then, however, cryptocurrency speculators should remain calm, at least temporarily. Because of the subdued price dynamics, Stellar Lumens has been virtually unable to move in a positive direction lately, which puts possible investment projects at a disadvantage. Be careful not to enter this cryptocurrency too early, and don’t miss the chance to enter at the bottom.

The Stellar consensus model was developed to meet the needs of the real world

A few years ago, Stanford University professor David Mazires developed a blockchain system that is a faster, more flexible and secure counterpart to Bitcoin. The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) fits well into the existing model of business agreements.

In the Stellar blockchain, as in the real world, each participant chooses who to entrust the information to. Participants in a transaction don’t need to use the entire network to validate it. Instead, each transaction participant and trusted users form what is known as a quorum slice.

Nevertheless, participants can belong to an unlimited number of different “quorum slices”, the intersections of which are called “quorum intersections”. Such quorums allow for stable and safe system-wide agreement.

Transferring money should be as easy as sending email

Stellar users can link their wallet address to their account ID. It turns out that instead of using a long, hard-to-remember wallet address, you can use an email address or some short word to send cryptocurrency A similar service exists in the Ethereum network and is called ENS, but unlike Ethereum, this Stellar service is completely free.

It won’t be long before you and I witness email providers integrate the Stellar payment system into their platforms, which in turn will allow cryptocurrency wallet addresses to be combined with users’ email names. Thus, in the near future, users will be able to send digital tokens in a simple and affordable way to anyone in the world who has email.

Transaction security

В свое время основатель блокчейна Litecoin Чарли Ли заявил следующее:

In his time, Litecoin blockchain founder Charlie Lee said the following:

“The fact that Gavin Wood, the creator of the Solidity programming language himself, is unable to create a secure cryptocurrency on Solidity confirms once again that the Ethereum blockchain is a ‘paradise’ for hackers.”

Most blockchain companies are not known to require complex smart contracts, which are at high risk of hacking. All transaction security measures must be respected when it comes to large corporations.

Stellar’s blockchain provides security by restricting access to untrusted users without the Turing-complete system. The developers of the network have given the payment system a broad functionality while reducing the threat of hacking.

Liquidity of network tokens

It is known that in order to ensure token liquidity, it is necessary to place it on several cryptocurrency exchanges, which in turn is very costly from a financial point of view. The Stellar platform has its own decentralized exchange, which is integrated into the platform.

This suggests that tokens created on the Stellar blockchain can be traded on that exchange the day they are created. Thus, this solution allows building a fairer ecosystem in general.

Documentation and technical support

One of the main developers stated that “the work with Stellar’s documentation was above and beyond praise. So it’s worth noting that the documentation, as well as the support from the community, is presented at a very high level. Everything is clear and simple.

The large number of Stellar blockchain developers and other community members makes it possible to resolve any issue that arises in no time, thanks to lively discussions and a desire to help. This explains the desire of banks and financial institutions to build a payment system based on the Stellar network.

A properly set goal

Stellar’s blockchain is an amazing combination of things like low fees, high performance, and constant improvement in technology, with transaction fees collected to keep the network running. According to blockchain testing, the Stellar network can safely process about 1,000 transactions per second. The average time to process a money transfer is 3 to 5 seconds.

Work is currently underway to improve and scale the network, which will eventually allow for more transactions per second, as well as a reduction in processing time.  It is important to note that ad technologies require high performance and scalability of the blockchain, which is why new product development teams choose the Stellar platform.

Also, the integration with Blockdaemon allowed the developers of Stellar to expand their toolkit, which further ensures the easy deployment and management of the blockchain-enabled platform.

Strong team

Platform’s team is composed of the best experts in cryptocurrency, fintech and security. For example, co-founder Jed McCaleb pioneered p2p file exchanges, created the first Bitcoin exchange, and co-founded Ripple. The list of other team members includes blockchain pioneers such as Greg Brockman, Sam Altman, Dan Kaminsky, Patrick Collison, Kate Rabois, and many others.

Stellar mission

The Stellar network is primarily aimed at moving into the global financial sector of the economy. The platform offers the latest innovations from the world of blockchain and fintech. While other blockchain startups take years to solve today’s problems, the Stellar platform already offers a ready-made, high-performance solution.

This would be an additional step that would allow all MoneyGram customers to use Stablecoin and convert them to fiat currency using the Stellar blockchain, which would deal a significant blow to Ripple.

Stellar and MoneyGram together

The case is relatively simple to understand. On the one hand, indeed, we have one of the most important companies in the world for transferring money, on the other hand, the Stellar network, which can offer logistical and technological support for cryptocurrency transfer.

All complemented by the ability to convert them into cash and back on demand. At least that’s what MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes confirmed to Bloomberg News in an interview. According to him, the world of crypto and fiat money are not yet fully compatible, and they would like to act as an intermediary to facilitate the transition from one world to the other for their customers.

Remittances that are typically transferred by migrants and sent to their home countries will be made in USDC, a stablecoin based on reserves rather than algorithmic-type mechanisms. This will be more than welcome, especially after the recent collapse of Terra Luna, which also has interesting legal implications when the Korean authorities summoned employees.

This is very good news and quite an interesting situation for Stellar, which in general is struggling with the excessive power of Ripple in this sector, in particular with the XRP coin, which has a great support from banks.

The importance of the news for Stellar?

This is great news because it is an additional partnership with a large group that will increase the volume of processing on its network. An important sign of strength, including trading, which could also affect the price of the token.

Let’s see how quickly the collaboration project between Stellar and Moneygram, which has already started with a pilot program and is adding updates to the collaboration today, will be developing.

The cryptocurrency world, despite the bearish market phase, is far from dead. We can see how cryptocurrency projects continue to evolve and explore new horizons.

Ripple is most often compared to Stellar, like David to Goliath. Ripple Labs is disliked because it is run by former financiers and bankers. Stellar is run by people from a non-profit organization called the Stellar Development Foundation.

• What is Ripple?
• What is Stellar?
• What is better to invest in
• What are the similarities between two projects
• Differences between Ripple and Stellar

What is Ripple?

Ripple Labs was founded back in 2011 by Jeb McCaleb. It is a financial company that makes its money by selling software to banking institutions around the world. It is trying to create a network through which payments move quickly, securely, and inexpensively. Equally important is the creation of a system for international transfers.

XRP cryptocurrency is a separate part of Ripple Labs. XRP is its native asset, which runs on the company’s network. When it comes to Ripple, we think they are interchangeable, but they are not.

Jeb created XRP to be able to deliver the product more efficiently, though it’s worth noting that XRP is not required to use the Ripple platform.

The protocol is based on the Ripple Protocol Consensus (RPC) algorithm. It contains a unique list of all active nodes in the network, which form a decentralized register. The nodes are constantly connected to each other and compare transaction data.

There is no point in going deeper into the technicalities, so we will go directly to Ripple Labs’ products. Its first solution is xCurrent, which allows financial institutions to transfer money across borders by relying on the Ripple network, which is blockchain, while XRP is left out.

Banks have made no secret of their interest in Jeb McCaleb’s software because it saves money and time.

The second solution, called xRapid, which helps financial institutions improve their liquidity as they transition to developing markets, but, unlike the previous one, it utilizes XRP.

The third and final product is called xVia, but it is still under development, and we don’t know everything yet. As for the timing of its release, the developers promise to release the final version in the near future. The way it works is similar to xCurrent, but with a few differences. This solution can be used not only by banks but also by businesses, and here too XRP is not needed.

Ripple representatives said that they have partnered with more than 100 banking institutions and uses xCurrent as its primary platform.

As for xRapid, this product is used by 4 or 5 companies in many countries.

What is Stellar?

Stellar Foundation was founded in 2014 by the same Jeb McCaleb, the man who was involved in the creation of Ripple Labs. Even earlier, namely in 2010, Jeb founded a digital asset exchange, but left the position of director the following year. In fact, Stellar appeared after the Ripple fork, but a lot has changed now.

Stellar co-founder Joyce Kim reported that she discovered a problem in the Ripple protocol, which led the Stellar Foundation to create a completely new code for the network, called Stellar Core. Thus, the claim that Stellar is a fork or clone of Ripple is no longer true.

Stellar platform fits the description of an open-source project with a protocol for exchanging digital funds. While Ripple establishes cooperation with financial institutions, Stellar works directly with consumers.

Lumens or XLM is a native asset of the Stellar network. Users can exchange the currency almost instantly and the commission is minimal.

This currency is built on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) algorithm, which was born out of an evolution of the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FDA). XLM is based on quorums, not blocks. They establish the nodes that are necessary to obtain an agreement. Quorums reach consensus in a secure way by exchanging signatures.

What it is better to invest in

If you look at both companies from the perspective of a typical investor, of course it is better to invest your time and money in Ripple. These guys make money from their own product, which they successfully sell to various financial institutions. But it’s not all that simple.

Large financiers are not trustworthy, and for this reason many choose Stellar as an investment target.

Although there is a lot of hype around Ripple right now, it seems to me that their competitors from Stellar have much more potential for growth.

In our opinion, Stellar Lumens are more open, decentralized, lower capitalization and generally attractive in the long term (than XRP).

What are the similarities between the two projects

The first and most obvious similarity is that both companies were founded by the same person, Jeb McCaleb. Both Stellar and Ripple act as bridges to simplify access to multi-currency payments between ordinary users and banking institutions.

Both projects offer nearly free transactions that are validated in a short period of time.

These cryptocurrencies cannot be mined, which means they have a fixed number of coins. This is where the similarities end, and we move on to the differences.

What are the differences between Ripple and Stellar

Ripple Labs claims to be able to process 1,500 transactions per second, while Stellar is 500 less, but according to tests, they can reach a theoretical figure of 3,000 transactions per second. Confirmation takes from 3 to 5 seconds, which is one of the best rates.

Ripple has frozen a certain amount of XRP coins and puts them into circulation in installments each year. Stellar does not support this tactic, but is also inflationary, and puts 1% of new coins into circulation each year. And all of the money from the commission goes back into use.

Stellar network also collects a base fee for each transaction and transfer. Once a week, these funds go into an inflation pool and the algorithm sends these XLMs to those who hold Stellar.

Ripple presents things differently. Funds resulting from the write-off of the commission are destroyed, which means that the number of all coins decreases over time.

Ripple Labs is often criticized for holding 61% of all coins, allowing them to manipulate the rate.

The Stellar Foundation has only 5 percent of XLM in its hands, and they are needed to pay off operating costs. At the same time, there is a page on the developer’s website where you can track the release of all of the currency’s coins.

Stellar also offers more freedom, allowing you to choose who you trust, whereas users of Ripple services have to settle for a limited list of nodes.

Unlike Stellar, the average user cannot become part of the Ripple network; all nodes are operated by banks and market makers. Because of this, the latter suffers from the lack of decentralization, that is why many players on the cryptocurrency market are wary.

The main difference is the fact that the XLM component in the Stellar network is more important than the XRP in Ripple.

Inexpensive coins can bring profit even more than investing in BTC and ETH over the same period.  A huge start-up capital is not required to work with them. The fairness of these words is confirmed by the exchange rate of Cardano (ADA), which increased by 300% over the year or Stellar (XLM) with growth almost ninety times in 2017-2018.

Let’s consider the peculiarities of making money on the cryptocurrency exchange in order. Let’s start with the basics. Digital currency, which includes bitcoin and altcoins, is still considered a high-risk asset. Until a couple of years ago, there were almost no large (institutional) investors in the market. Now, however, things have changed.

Despite the fact that in most countries the regulation of crypto-assets is not yet clear enough, and the projects themselves are considered by many to be obscure and high-risk, they are actively being invested in. Some people buy crypto and store it in cold wallets for the long term, while others put crypto into circulation and make money on the exchange.

Most investors are not intimidated by the lack of back up in digital assets (gold, commodities, etc.). On the contrary, experienced traders are well aware that in the sphere of digital assets there is practically no upper margin of profitability, the main thing is to choose the right digital asset.

Contents

• Stellar, Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few more coins to add to your portfolio in 2022
• Important points when investing in crypto-assets through exchanges
• Is it profitable to invest in cryptocurrencies on the exchange
• Prospects and risks of investing on exchange
• Are investments without investing available
• Choosing a cryptocurrency for investment
• What factors affect the value of a crypto-asset
• Where to start when investing on cryptocurrency exchange

Stellar, Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few more coins to add to your portfolio in 2022.

The cryptocurrency sector has experienced several ups and downs, the most significant of which began near the end of 2018 and caused a serious collapse in asset values. It was even dubbed the crypto winter. Despite this, the industry survived and recovered fairly quickly. The good prospects of digital currencies proved their high investment potential, so in 2021 bitcoin and altcoins experienced serious growth and set several new price highs (ATH).

Analysts believe that now is the right time for cryptocurrency investments. Therefore, if you don’t want to miss out on the opportunities that are opening up, you need to put funds on the exchange and buy crypto. According to experts, it is best to consider such coins, investments in which are more profitable and safer than in other digital assets. What is the best to acquire in your portfolio in 2022.

Stellar

A cryptocurrency that is a must be in your portfolio – 20% of your total portfolio would be an excellent indicator. The project is a “clone” of Ripple. At first it existed as a branch of that blockchain, but a year later Stellar switched to its own open-source blockchain. With its help it was possible to simplify international transactions and make them without intermediaries to any country in the world. XLM coin is used for transfers.

The project has many partnership agreements with various financial institutions: Tempo, ZED, Mobius. The high demand is based on the popularity of the original Ripple project and the refinements made by programmers for Stellar. The blockchain of this crypto has a high capacity. The danger of centralization, despite the presence of the developer – of Stellar Foundation is minimal, as this company owns only 5% of the total number of tokens.

Read more about the history of Stellar here.

Bitcoin

If you think you can’t buy BTC because of its high price, don’t worry. Bitcoins, unlike the U.S. dollar, contain eight decimal places, not a pair. So, you don’t have to have a huge starting capital to buy 1 BTC.  You can buy as little as 0.00000001 bitcoin.

And even if you have such a small amount in your wallet, there is nothing stopping you from replenishing it and increasing the funds in your account. Nowadays, when the prices of most coins show positive dynamics, you can expect a gradual increase in the value of crypto and, as a consequence, an increase in the return on investment.

Experts recommend investing 50-60% of your starting capital in bitcoin to get a decent profit. It is a popular investment product, the demand for which has remained at a consistently high level for years, largely due to the popularity and the constant reduction in the number of tokens in circulation.

This happens naturally – many people invest in crypto and keep coins in cold wallets in the long run. Also, a decrease in circulating supply can be caused by the loss of access to a wallet or exchange account. Against this background, a shortage of cryptocurrency assets is formed, which stimulates the growth of their value.

Ethereum

It is the second most popular and capitalized crypto in demand by investors. It shot up due to its blockchain, on which hundreds of thousands of projects are based. The work on Ethereum has attracted the attention of millions of programmers. The project has a strong development team led by Vitalik Buterin.

To overcome the inflationary nature of the asset associated with unlimited issuance, the developers decided to switch to a different way of mining blocks – from PoW to PoS mining. Two network forks passed in 2021 –  London and Berlin. They lowered the commissions, and in 2022 another fork will pass, which will launch a difficulty bomb and make mining with proof-of-work inefficient.

Ethereum will move to blockchain mining in May 2022 with the approval nodes that have frozen the amount of ETH in an account in a special smart contract. Stacks-nodes are already forming on the network, and several billion dollars’ worth of tokens have been frozen in ETH 2.0. This gives a huge boost to blockchain development and makes its coin more in demand.

The popularity of Ethereum consists not only in attracting a large number of users, but also in having a wide practical application of the blockchain. Many decentralized applications in DeFi, NFT and other spheres have been created based on this platform. The ETH token is needed to pay fees, program smart contracts, and for other needs.

Neo

The project, formerly known as Antshares, got another name after a rebranding. In the developer’s field, it was often referred to as “Chinese Ethereum”. Its creators thoroughly reworked the technical aspects of the network – the system of support for smart contracts, documentation. They made a limitation of issuance to ensure the development of the ecosystem, so there is increased interest in their coin.

Ripple

Despite attempts at active regulation and prohibition by the U.S. authorities, the coin is in the TOP-10. The high potential of this digital asset lies in its underlying basis. Ripple introduces progressive technologies and offers fast money transfers. Many banks and financial institutions around the world work with crypto blockchain. Therefore, investments in tokens are now very promising.

The disadvantage of the project can be considered the unlimited sale of tokens to developers, which may cause excessive centralization of the project in the future. However, against the background of active token trading on most exchanges, it is already possible to get a good profit on deals, as well as to acquire a token for a long term.

Important points when investing in crypto-assets through exchanges

If you are going to invest in exchange-traded investments, you need to understand that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are very different from other types of assets. They have their own characteristics that affect their popularity and profitability. For example, digital currencies have no formal back up, so there are other factors to consider when analyzing them.

Naturally, in this state of affairs, you need to build your working strategy differently compared to traditional assets. For example, the specifics of the cryptocurrency environment, regulation, news background and many other factors should be considered. There are also more important factors, which we have tried to compile and outline for you in a concise way:

• Liquidity, and therefore volatility. Digital assets are usually in high demand, so their value is constantly fluctuating. This process is called volatility, and it is not as scary as they write about it.
• Rate growth stability. By analyzing historical data, you can make sure that the market will grow.
• Reputation of creators. The launch of digital assets involves programmers and other specialists, who in some cases, as with bitcoin, remain in the shadows. And in others, as with Ripple, they have public status. This increases the credibility of the project.
• The prospects of the network. Blockchain technology has found applications in a lot of spheres. Some countries (such as China) prohibit digital assets but are enthusiastic about blockchain technology. Therefore, they are used in many spheres and will be in demand by users for a long time.
• Term. As practice shows, investing over the long term brings more benefits than trading. If you choose the latter, be prepared for high volatility of digital assets within a one-day trading session.

As was already mentioned, currencies are also affected by the news pool in the digital asset market. Any positive data or negative rumors can cause the market to rise as well as to crash. This is a consequence of a lack of formal back up, but it’s not all bad news. The news background can be used to predict asset price movements.

To better navigate this issue and understand where the price of bitcoin and other coins might be headed, follow crypto and blockchain news. Data about the legalization of coins, investments by major market players, and positive statements by government officials and figures often stimulate the growth of quotations. The negativity however makes them fall.

Is it profitable to invest in cryptocurrencies on the exchange? 

Investments in cryptocurrencies, compared to fiat money, bonds and financial derivatives, yield the highest returns. It often happens in the market that by purchasing coins at the right time, an investor becomes a millionaire a year later. When investing in traditional markets, this happens very rarely.

Advantages and disadvantages of investing on the exchange

Decentralization (DEX). This is one of the main advantages of cryptocurrency projects. To be decentralized means to have no central governing body. Thus, authorities, law enforcement, and any third parties won’t be able to affect the functioning of this system. Neither the wallet nor the transaction can be blocked by anyone’s decision.

Anonymity. All transfers within blockchains are anonymous. The transaction history of a particular account is available to its owner, as well as to analytics tracking services. However, it is extremely difficult to find out who owns a particular wallet. It takes a lot of time and resources to identify the owner of the wallet. Even on a national scale, this is an extremely costly task. Therefore, cryptocurrency users don’t need to pay taxes if they are not required to pass KYC and AML checks to trade on an exchange.

Different options to create income. You can choose to trade cryptocurrencies or tokenized assets (commodities, energy, etc.), buy and sell NFT or engage in cryptocurrency mining. New assets for investments appear regularly, so every crypto-investor can choose the most suitable option for themselves.

As for the disadvantages, they include the following:

• Transaction cannot be canceled. Only a few times has its history been restored to some point after a general vote by blockchain users. This was the case with Ethereum after an epic hack by a scammer and the theft of a large sum of money.
• Hackers can gain access to resources. Hacking, theft of funds, fraud and scams are not uncommon in the crypto-sphere. That’s why I recommend working with exchanges from the TOP and investing in proven projects.
• Price volatility. Fluctuations in the value of crypto-assets scare newcomers, but when you get experience, you will be able to make money on the difference of cryptocurrencies on the exchange.

Considering the aforementioned, each investor chooses for themselves whether to invest or not. On the one hand, there are risks, but you can get rich on cryptocurrencies. For example, in 2021, one buyer of a SHIBA INU (SHIB) became a dollar billionaire by investing and purchasing that coin for $8,000. And there are many such examples. 

Prospects and risks of investing on exchange

Unlimited profitability of cryptocurrencies not only attracts funds, but also allows you to earn with minimal investments. If you conduct a thorough analysis of projects on the market and find good new coins, the chance of serious profit increases significantly. It is also possible to earn without much trouble on the fluctuations of such popular cryptocurrencies as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, etc.

The risks of working with exchanges are in the danger of hacking into the exchange account – local, if they hack the user’s email, change the password from the account and gain access to their funds in the account, and global – if they hacked the exchange and withdrew funds from many accounts. With serious projects like Huobi or Binance, this doesn’t  happen thanks to active protection measures.

The risk can also be associated with a scam project, which is ripped off either by hackers or by the creators themselves. This is what happened with the Squid Game (SQUID) coin, for example. A few days after its launch it went up in price to $628, and then the creators of the project withdrew $2.5 million and disappeared in an unknown direction. To avoid becoming a victim of such scam, you need to choose your tokens carefully.

Are investments without investing available

Trading on the exchange requires starting capital. Without money, you can’t make money. However, there are a number of ways to get coins, but they cannot be attributed to trading on the exchange. For example, you can earn tokens without investing by participating in raffles, using cryptocurrency crane websites, or by mining little-known tokens on your PC. However, you won’t earn much on that. You need at least a minimum investment.

How to earn on the exchange without a large investment

If you don’t have much money, choose little-known and inexpensive tokens on the exchange. They can cost a thousandth of a dollar, so they are available to a wide range of investors. The main thing is to choose the project carefully, so that it does not bail out and the coins actually go up in value in the long run. For example, investors who invested in the following tokens benefited:

NextCoin (NXT). It is a decentralized payment system. The project code was written from scratch by the programmers, so the blockchain is devoid of many disadvantages of earlier projects, including bitcoin. This crypto is completely anonymous, offers secure transactions and ample opportunities for mining using the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. The price of the coin has low volatility, so you can earn with minimal risk.

Ardor (ARDR). The project’s blockchain is similar to Ethereum. However, it is highly scalable, resulting in higher transaction speeds. Working with this project, you can create subsidiary networks and launch your own cryptocurrency projects. Transaction processing speed is less than a minute, especially at low and medium load. In 2021, the price of the coin went up and, as of this writing, is $0.11.

Aelf (ELF). A cryptocurrency project aimed at solving a large number of problems. The blockchain ecosystem provides for the creation of a full-fledged digital city. It is developed by a team from the U.S. with good reviews. This allows it to actively attract investors interested in finding promising products. The coin is currently priced at $0.15.

Omisego (OMG). Vitalik Buterin (one of the creators of Ethereum) took part in the development of the project. The startup aims to popularize cryptocurrency payments, which should become available to everyone. OMG allows one user to send crypto and the other to receive fiat money. This idea has attracted many, and the value of the tokens is constantly rising. Today, the price is $2.38.

Choosing a cryptocurrency for investment 

To invest in crypto, you need to have the right idea of what you are buying. The rate of return on cryptocurrencies changes frequently, so the rating of profitable projects is updated with enviable regularity. To avoid being at a disadvantage, every investor should learn the basics of blockchain technology and key aspects of working with crypto.

Popularity. The weight of a project in the blockchain community means a lot for selection. Get information about the creators of the project, find out if they have created successful business startups before. Read the news about the project, find out if there have been any blockchain hacks and how many exchanges the asset is traded on. There is usually a lot of information in the media about interesting and highly liquid projects; some news is definitely worth listening to.

Project idea. The technology on which the crypto is based must have differences from the base technology. There are many exact clones of popular cryptocurrencies on the market, but they rarely have a good future. Experienced investors track projects with revolutionary technology that can bring fresh ideas to the crypto-sphere.

Security. It is important for the team to provide an appropriate level of protection. This is implemented through a number of technologies – two-factor account authentication for users, availability of cold storage for tokens. Blockchain must be secure and smart contracts must be written correctly, with no loopholes that hackers could exploit to steal.

It is also necessary for the project to have stable mining. In the case of PoW projects, there must be protection against a 51% attack , when an attacker can access the vast majority of blockchain nodes and rewrite transaction history. And PoS networks need protection against validator manipulation.

Investments in little-known tokens are often a source of high risk. There is a high probability of a startup collapsing at the formative stage. That’s why if you don’t know much about assets, you better choose one of the popular and time-proven coins – BTC, ETH, XLM, etc. Such tokens will be more expensive, but they have no risk of scam.

What factors affect the value of a crypto-asset

Ensuring a high return on investment is achieved through a clear understanding of the pricing factors in this sphere. The list of them, of course, cannot be identical. The list will vary depending on the selected assets. But there are more universal criteria that can be considered by all investors. Here they are as following:

• How often the project is mentioned in the media.
• Is there a partnership with large financial institutions or companies.
• How the project is viewed by regulators – are there any prohibitions and sanctions.
• How transparent is the information about the startup’s team; is it indicated who the founder is.
• Have there been any reshuffles in the top management of the cryptocurrency project.
• Is there regular work on updating the blockchain, launching patches to eliminate technical errors, etc.
• Whether the project has a unique value (e.g., an idea).
• Whether the timeline corresponds to the roadmap.
• How much the bitcoin coin is worth and whether there is news about crypto in the industry as a whole.
• Whether the coin is associated with illegal activities – money laundering, terrorist financing.

Monitoring news allows even beginners with little experience to successfully trade cryptocurrencies. Combined with the knowledge of quotation history and the ability to predict the movement of the value of the asset, it allows you to invest and profit more rationally.

Moreover, we should note the openness of information about funders. Project owners and founders should ideally be public figures with authority in the blockchain sphere. For example, like Vitalik Buterin, the creator of the Ethereum network. Such projects attract funding from big investors faster, which means they have more opportunities for ecosystem growth and safe protocols.

Where to start when investing on cryptocurrency exchange

If you want to earn through a cryptocurrency exchange, you need to act in a certain sequence:

• Determine a budget. Generate a startup capital.
• Choose a token. Depending on how much money you have, determine the coin in which you will invest. Choose the one that analysts say is one of the best.
• Determine the storage. You need cold wallets to store funds and an account on the exchange of your choice.
• Buy a crypto-asset. Exchange your existing fiat currency for the selected digital asset.
• Study the charts. Using price retrospective, you can choose a time when the value of a coin will be slightly lower.

Trading on the exchange every day is a speculative activity. You buy cheap and sell dear. All the difference that remains after you pay commissions is your profit. Often you have to spend a lot of time to get a high income. So keep in mind that it may take at least 6 to 12 months to make a noticeable profit. The main thing is to take your time and act with as little risk as possible.

Although both Stellar (XLM) and Ripple (XRP) have a similar goal of facilitating cross-border transactions, they are based on different principles. 

But which to choose, Stellar or Ripple? Which is better for investors?

The Stellar network is an incredibly powerful platform that connects people, payment systems and banks, enabling the transfer of money between parties. Stellar (Lumens), a decentralized blockchain, processes payments and money transfers much faster than traditional banking systems.

The transaction verification system consists of selected nodes responsible for giving the green light to your transaction, which happens within seconds. In addition, the fees for these transactions are much lower.

For example: the average transaction confirmation time for Bitcoin is 1 hour, for Ethereum it is 15 minutes. For Lumens, the average transaction confirmation time is 3 seconds.

Just like Stellar, Ripple is a blockchain technology that acts as a cryptocurrency and as a payment network. It is currently considered one of the most reliable and secure ways to transfer money and provide liquidity as needed. Because there is no need for a central intermediary, XRP transfers (the token used in the Ripple network) are convenient and easy.

Ripple uses a tool called a “gateway” to create trust in transactions by sending the requested amount to publicly available addresses on the Ripple network. Anyone interested in making payments on the Ripple network technically has to open the gateway to exchange money with others. Ripple uses a peer-to-peer consensus mechanism, which ensures Ripple’s high security

Applications of Stellar and Ripple

The main difference between Stellar and Ripple is that both cryptocurrencies have different target audiences. Ripple, for example, is particularly interesting to large markets with huge profit potential, such as banks. This explains why XRP is centralized.

Rather, Stellar calls itself a “non-profit organization.” Stellar’s goal is to provide financial services even to people around the world, even if they don’t have access to banking services. Lumens was created to help users, not to make money from them.

Also, Ripple and Stellar use different algorithms. Lumens has a unique consensus protocol, while Ripple uses a truth proof algorithm. XLM (Lumens) is deflationary and XRP is inflationary. Thus, XRP increases the number of coins in circulation, while XLM, on the contrary, decreases it.

XLM and XRP exchange rate dynamics: factors and prospects

XLM experienced a dizzying rise between April 2017 and January 2018, rising from $0.004 to $0.89 in a few months. This is currently its all-time high. Lumens has long been predicted to soar above $1, but so far those predictions have not materialized. In May 2021, Lumens rose to another peak of $0.71 amid the rise of Bitcoin, but in April 2022 it trades at just $0.2. Does this mean that the hopes for Stellar’s bright prospects have been misguided? For now, it’s premature to say so.

During its history, Stellar has managed to conclude quite a few successful partnership agreements with major companies, the most famous of which is the one with IBM. The important fact is that interest in the platform is constant, because the technology allows the implementation of a very wide range of projects in the financial sector. For example, the Ukrainian government has recently announced plans to issue a digital hryvnia on the Stellar platform.

Now, while the rate of Lumens is quite low, it may be the most profitable time to buy it.

XRP is showing more stability than Lumens. Right now, Ripple is trading at $0.78. By comparison, at the time the crypto took off in May 2021, XRP was at $1.83. That is, XRP has fallen 2.3 times since then, but Lumen has fallen much more significantly – 3.5 times.

An important factor affecting XRP’s value (in addition to the overall cryptocurrency market environment) is the progress of the lawsuit with the SEC. Recall that Ripple has been accused by the SEC of illegal securities trading, and if the court ruling is not in its favor, it will likely end the existence of this cryptocurrency. However, Ripple has a good chance of winning this trial. For example, former SEC official Joseph Hall believes so. If Ripple wins in court, it is likely that the price of XRP will skyrocket.

Conclusion

We learned that both Lumens and XRP focus on cryptocurrency transfers, also both cryptocurrencies are quite popular. So, which is better for investors? 

Lumens is for everyone, but Ripple is more suitable for corporate companies, governments, banks and similar institutions. The fact that Stellar is deflationary means that the price of XLM will rise in the long run. While the inflationary nature of Ripple also means that there will always be more XRP on the market, the price of XRP can generally rise significantly if Ripple’s central company is successful

Overall, there are factors that support the optimism of both leading cryptocurrencies. Most likely, for investors, XRP and Lumens are equally good, and it makes sense to invest in both cryptocurrencies.

What would you say if I told you that you could understand everything you need to know about Stellar Lumens in 10 minutes?

If you have some free time, let’s figure it out.

After reading this article, you will learn:

• What is the difference between Stellar and Lumens? How they really work.
• What the Stellar network is and whether it’s worth investing in XLM like Bitcoin and altcoins.
• Will Stellar be successful in the future, or is it just one of the many altcoins that will soon disappear.

What is Stellar?

The terms Stellar and Lumens have always been used synonymously by crypto users. But the truth is that they mean different things.

The name Stellar refers only to the network, the protocol, the system, and the community as a whole. Lumens (XLM), on the other hand, is Stellar’s own digital currency that powers the network.

The cryptocurrency is used to send, receive and trade with other assets. The confusion may have started because the cryptocurrency was originally known as Stellar (STR), but it was later renamed Lumens or XLM.

Stellar and Lumens were born in 2014, when Jed McCaleb, founder of Mt.Gox and co-founder of Ripple, launched the Stellar network system with former attorney Joyce Kim. The nonprofit Stellar DevelopmentFoundation was created in collaboration with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison to formally launch the project in July.

After raising $3 million in seed funding from Stripe, Stellar was finally released as a decentralized payment network and protocol with its native currency, XLM. In August 2014, Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s first Bitcoin exchange, announced that it would use the Stellar network.

Great, now you’re starting to understand the concept.

Oops… that’s not all.

The next thing you need to know is how it all works.

How does the Stellar network work?

The network is an open-source payment technology, technically similar to another popular altcoin, Ripple (XRP), but less centralized, allowing for faster and easier transactions.

Stellar is essentially a decentralized network of servers on a blockchain that operate independently. This means that it is distributed among all the interconnected nodes of the Stellar network without control from a centralized source. The network synchronizes and reaches consensus, allowing the registry to be distributed evenly. The key element is that anyone can simply set up a verification node (server) with Stellar Core, where the verification process is performed using the Stellar ConsensusProtocol (SCP).

Think of SCP as the Stellar algorithm for transaction verification. This allows the network to scale faster and more efficiently than most PoW blockchains such as Bitcoin. The highlight of the Stellar network is that transactions take place in a more decentralized way, using “anchors”.

These anchors are organizations that people trust to be responsible for their deposits; they issue credits on the blockchain for those deposits. These anchors function as bridges between different currencies and the Stellar blockchain. Thus, all monetary transactions performed on the Stellar network (not including XLMs) are in the form of credit issued by anchors.

Ultimately, this reduces the cost and time required for cross-border transfers. (more about Functionality of the Stellar’s platform)

What are XLM Lumens used for?

Lumens (XLM) is Stellar’s native cryptocurrency. It serves several functions on the network, mainly it is used to pay users transaction fees and acts as an intermediary allowing users to trade between multiple currencies quickly, easily and at the lowest possible cost. For Lumens to work as it should, users must maintain a minimum XLM balance in their accounts.

It’s worth noting that XLM has a decentralized protocol built right into it. Any payment in different currencies can be routed through its order book, eventually the desired currency will arrive.

Since the primary use of XLM is to settle cross-border transactions for both individuals and financial institutions, Stellar has also partnered with IBM, which has helped Lumens gain significant traction as a blockchain-based cross-border money transfer.

Let’s take an example.

Sarah (the sender) wants to send her mother (the recipient), who is in China, $50 as a money transfer. Let’s assume she chooses traditional wire transfers. In that case, she would be charged an average transaction fee of 7.1%, resulting in a final transfer of $46.25, not including currency exchange fees.

But if she chooses Stellar, it will turn her dollars into Lumens, and then the order book will turn Lumens into yuan. Sarah’s mom can get an almost exact amount of dollars in just five seconds.

So this concept is similar to Ripple? Yes, it is similar. However, there are differences that you may not be aware of.

The difference between Stellar and Ripple

The basic operation of Stellar is similar to most decentralized payment technologies. However, it is fundamentally different from Ripple, although both XRP and XLM are open source and rely on distributed ledger technology.

What sets them apart is that they target different groups of customers. Unlike Ripple, which works with well-known banking institutions and consortiums, Stellar focuses more on individuals and emerging markets and has many options for using its technology. Some of these include cash transfers and distribution of bank loans to non-banks. Various partnerships with banking institutions and payment processing platforms around the world allow people to use Stellar’s network for local and international transactions at virtually no cost.

In fact, the Stellar brand itself “helps” rather than “profits” from the people.

In terms of organization size, Ripple tends to be a larger organization with more capital. After all, Stellar targets a smaller pool of users compared to Ripple.

If you’re deciding whether to invest in XLM or XRP, you’ll want to know that Ripple has a protracted lawsuit with the SEC, which could affect prices. So does the removal of XRP from major crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Crypto.com and others, which also has an impact. Naturally, this will lead to a decrease in its potential trading volumes.

XLM price and future forecasts

The price of XLM is determined by the rate at which the Stellar network spreads. The network offers a wide range of functionality that may or may not be reflected in the price of digital currency, but the more Stellar is used, the higher the price of Lumen will be. Stellar’s blockchain is one of the best and is obviously driven by its partnerships with well-known tech titans such as IBM, Flutterwave and French Tempo Money.

At its all-time high, XLM hit $0.93. Since then, its price has fluctuated, and as of the current time (March 2022) is around $0.18. However, the stable performance of the coin and the growing adoption of the Stellar platform have led to optimistic price forecasts for 2022 and beyond.

Analysts believe the price will likely be in the $0.20 to $0.30 range. While Coinswitch sees XLM soaring to $1 by 2025. However, if it goes backwards, the coin will probably drop to about $0.05 and stay there for a while before moving up.

According to Coinmarketcap, XLM was trading at $0.34050 during bitcoin’s bullish run. It currently ranks 30th in market capitalization.

How much can XLM grow? Could it reach $100?

Of course, XLM is not the brightest star. Nevertheless, it tends to do well in crypto, despite all the ups and downs, which is pretty typical for all cryptos. Naturally, this has led investors and crypto-enthusiasts to wonder how far the coin can go.

If you look at XLM’s long-term price forecasts, they vary widely. Some even suggest a rise to $5 to $10, which is a rise of more than 500% even relative to the historical high. However, more moderate estimates range from $1 to $3. In the end, if you’re going to diversify your portfolio, XLM still generates substantial ROI.

Although $100 seems like an unreasonable target price, XLM is still a fantastic long-term investment. Nevertheless, its price is unlikely to soar above $100. After all, Stellar is here to help, not profit. Also, since Lumens supply is increasing at a fixed rate of 1% per year, it helps fight inflation and protects its holdings.

We can conclude that XLM is an altcoin that is not going nowhere. In fact, it has gained mass distribution and is now listed on almost every exchange.

How will Stellar come to success in the future?

XLM’s strength lies in the Stellar network and its current partnerships. The platform already has an impressive list of partners and has even been integrated into Samsung Mobile.

Let’s face it, partnerships are an integral part of any crypto project because they drive adoption and are a testament to the real utility of the XLM coin. Here are a few of the companies Stellar is partnering with:

• IBM
• Smartlands
• Stripe
• HTC Exodus
• Franklin Templeton
• Flutterwave
• Wirex
• Baracoin
• Novatti Group
• Saldo
• Tempo
• Bitbond
• SureRemit 

This is just one of the reasons why XLM is in the top 50 of all altcoins. It is very well established, has tremendous support, and its technology helps solve one of the major problems of today’s world – providing financial services to the public without banks. Even reputable companies like Deloitte are now providing services on the Stellar network.

Back in 2017, 30 banks confirmed that they had agreed to use Lumen blockchain for cross-border transfers. Payment service Stripe has also expressed interest in hosting Stellar on its platform.

Is there any possibility of a collapse?

XLM is a great long-term investment because it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But it is unlikely that this cryptocurrency will dethrone Bitcoin or Ethereum.

But!

Even Elon Musk believes in cryptocurrency, which means that the hopes that Stellar Lumens will live on are very real. Although Lumens is becoming a go-to payments token, there hasn’t been much information recently about its development. However, that certainly doesn’t mean anything if you believe in it. It’s only a matter of time before this cryptocurrency proves itself.

Conclusion

XLM doesn’t seem like the worst investment in 2022, although the platform still has plenty of room for growth and development. The coin has established some strong partnerships, it has a strong community behind it, and that makes a strong case for a significant price increase.

However, no one can know anything for sure about the future, especially against the backdrop of the turmoil that this year has brought.

The history of Stellar began in 2014 when its founder – Jed McCaleb – left the Ripple platform, on which he had been working since 2011, for a new project. More precisely, he decided to do the same thing, but with a different vector.

The thing is that in its concept Stellar is almost identical to Ripple – both systems:

• Do not support mining: unlike bitcoin, their tokens cannot be mined, all coins are immediately put into circulation by the system itself.
• Provide virtually free instant transactions.
• Designed to allow users to buy and sell different currencies at minimal cost.

The key difference is the audience: while Ripple is aimed at large banks and consortiums, Stellar is designed for individuals and businesses – including those from developing countries. In essence, McCaleb took the off-the-shelf Ripple model and then created a more affordable clone of it.

This decision looks ambiguous: on the one hand, Ripple is incomparably superior to Stellar in scale, but on the other hand, Stellar does not attract as much attention from regulators. While Ripple is suing the SEC, Stellar is developing, and that is a big plus.

In addition, Ripple’s successes play into the hands of its junior counterpart, confirming the system’s reliability and potential. Practice shows that market players care about this:

• In the first year of its existence, Stellar received 3 million users, and the capitalization of the project came close to $15 million.
• In 2015, the company released integration with Vumi, the popular messenger of the Praekelt Foundation (South Africa).
• In 2016, integration with Deloitte took place, and then Coins.ph, ICICI Indian Bank and several other large companies joined the Stellar payment network.
• In 2017, KickEx and IBM, interested in facilitating cross-border transactions in the South Pacific region, became partners of the project. During this period, Stellar’s token, Lumens, ranked 13th by market capitalization – 30 banks confirmed their cooperation with the platform.

And so on. By now, Stellar Lumens is among the top 30 altcoins, and does so quite deservedly. At the moment, the market capitalization of XLM is $8.3 billion, and the daily trading volume is around $700 million – more than impressive figures. But where is the demand coming from?

If Lumens can’t be mined, why are they needed?

The demand for XLM token is caused by the peculiarities of the marketplace itself. In fact, it is Lumens that allows Stellar users to trade currencies with minimal fees, tokens are indispensable for cross-border transactions.

For example, you need to transfer money from China (yuan) to the United States (U.S. dollars). If you use a regular bank transfer with currency conversion at the exchange rate, the commission can be up to 7%. In the case of transfer via Stellar you technically perform two operations:

1. First, you buy Lumens for yuan;
2. Then you buy dollars for those Lumens, which go to the recipient (you or another person).

The final commission will be less than a percentage, and the transaction itself will take seconds. Direct savings.

With its own tokens, the platform does not allocate any currency as the main one. Stellar financial system includes money from most countries of the world, their availability to users – in the form of digital tokens, the rate of which is pegged to the real currency – is exactly the same. Transparency, decentralization, independence, reliability and universality: Stellar’s success is based on the fact that this financial system is extremely convenient for all its participants. And this is a very powerful foundation.

Is this a good time to invest in Stellar?

The position of the coin is very strong at the moment – since the beginning of the year Lumens grew almost three times: if on January 1 the coin was trading at $0.132, at the moment of writing this article the value of altcoin is $0.34. In May, at its peak it was offered $0.73 for one XLM.

However, such a sharp upsurge is unlikely to happen again in the near future. Moreover, in the summer of 2021 the rate of XLM has fallen almost to $0.2 per coin. And though since that time Stellar Lumen strengthened almost 1.5 times, the predictions about the rate of $0.6-0.75 by the end of 2021 are obviously a pipe dream. As boring as it sounds, a rate of $0.33-0.39 per coin is most likely in 2022. On the other hand, it is hardly a good idea to invest in cryptocurrency at the peak of its price. Perhaps, given the relatively low rate of XLM, there is still a lucrative opportunity to buy it now.

The next question is whether there is currently a possibility of a significant loss of funds when investing in XLM? From our perspective, the likelihood of that happening is minimal. If we study the history of the coin’s prices, it becomes obvious: despite the ups and downs, there was not a single moment in the history of XLM when the token became unclaimed. This means that against the background of the general strengthening of cryptocurrency prices, which will resume sooner or later, XLM has a chance to grow.

Another important factor affecting the price of XLM is the conclusion of cooperation agreements with major players by Stellar. If there are media reports about the likelihood of a deal like the one with IBM, a sharp rise in Lumen is very likely. Therefore, when investing in Stellar, it is important to “keep your hand on the pulse”.

The same goes for investing in XRP, though. Right now, the fate of this asset largely depends on the outcome of the case with the SEC. If it ends up in Ripple’s favor, its coin has a good chance of increasing in value. 

That is the nature of all crypto assets – they rise sharply on a wave of hype and positive news, and collapse just as sharply when the wind blows in the other direction.

Probably everyone interested in cryptocurrency knows about the platform Stellar Lumens. This is not surprising, because this cryptocurrency is in the 14th place of coins in terms of market capitalization according to the CoinMarketCap rating. How successful will be the investment in the project? What if I buy XLM today? If you want answers to these questions, you’ve come to the right place. The price forecast for 2021 will set the record straight. Just read this article and find out how much will Lumens be worth in 2021?

Сontent of the article:

1. How was the coin created?
2. Stellar exchange rate forecast for 2021
3. The advantages of cryptocurrency Stellar
4. Lumens price forecast for 2021
5. How to earn on the cryptocurrency Stellar?
6. Conclusion

How was the coin created?

The Stellar cryptocurrency network was developed in 2014. Initially, it was created as a functional offshoot of the popular Ripple cryptocurrency. At the first stage, the program code and structure of the new coin were based on Ripple. At the same time, in 2015, the currency began to use its own open-source protocol, which can be called an advantage of the platform for third-party developers. At the same moment, stellar coins entered the market, which, after some time, began to be called lumen on the Poloniex exchange.

The situation with the separation of the two cryptocurrency platforms occurred against the backdrop of growing criticism of ripple for its creators’ centralization policy. The argument of ripple’s opponents was the cryptocurrency’s closed code, which prevented them from influencing the rate from the outside. At the same time, the coin was able to combine all the advantages of the progenitor and lose its inherent disadvantages. Thus, we can say that cryptocurrency Lumens will manage to enter the top of the largest cryptocurrencies, as experts of the cryptocurrency market say for the last year.

Stellar exchange rate forecast for 2021

Given the previous quotation dynamics of Lumens cryptocurrency, the forecast in technical terms can only be made bullish. For 2021, these coins should move their historical maximum and take a new growth peak. The most likely target for 2021 is the $1 per XLM Coin mark. In the long term, the prospects for Lumens cryptocurrency will depend on the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market and the implementation of the system proposed by the creators of Stellar in the global financial system.

According to XLM chart, the coin has already found its bottom. In our opinion, it is unlikely that Lumens has a chance to fall even lower. Stellar is a widely known platform and a very recognizable brand. Of course, it cannot be compared to such giants as Bitcoin and Ripple, but it has a leading position in the market and is respected by the community. The platform has been certified as compliant with Sharia Law. No other coin has received such recognition in Islamic states. This may contribute to the popularity of crypto among people who practice Islam.

The platform is in demand. There are many projects based on Lumens, in particular SatoshiPay (payment widget for the Internet), Blockbook (system for creating avatars for Stellar users’ addresses), BlockEQ (decentralized exchange), WeBuy (advertising platform) and many others. On this site you can find a wider list of projects. There is a powerful team working on the project, including Jed McCaleb (former Ripple developer), David Mazier (Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University) and other equally knowledgeable people.

Popular prediction websites such as Walletinvestor make positive predictions. We are not talking about the correctness of the predictions. We are talking about the fact that they create a positive information backdrop that influences people’s opinions and their decision to buy or not buy the coin. XLM has started to attract good trading volumes again.

Advantages of Stellar cryptocurrency

According to experienced members of the cryptocurrency community, the main advantage of the digital coin Stellar can be considered the scalability and openness of its source code. A telling aspect of this cryptocurrency’s system is that it can easily handle thousands of transactions in a single second. At the same time, it takes no more than 5 seconds to confirm a transaction, which is an unattainable result for modern cryptocurrencies. Such characteristics of the coin allow it to compete on equal terms with bank remittance services.

Also, one of the most important advantages of this coin can be called the support of SCP technology, which allows participants to exchange cryptocurrencies, fiat money, as well as tokens and other assets without restrictions. Thus, we can say that this technology advantageously differs from the more common software protocol PoW.

At the same time, we should also note the support for the ability of users to use smart contracts, as well as multi-signatures. This makes it possible to significantly expand the functional component of this crypto. It is quite possible that these positive aspects of Stellar, will allow it in a short time to win a loyal user audience, appreciating the constant technical innovations that can improve the work inside the crypto network. Crypto market analysts predict the start of a sharp rise in the digital coin’s quotes in 2021. However, one should not invest thoughtlessly in this asset due to the high volatility of the cryptocurrency.

Lumens price forecast for 2021

Not all specialists undertake to forecast cryptocurrency, because this business is quite dangerous due to its instability of the financial market. The insufficient level of market capitalization and its assets should be at the top of the list.

Lumens forecast for 2021 is as follows:

1. Each event is analyzed in terms of its impact on Stellar – percentage growth will depend on the strength of the market.
2. After a spike, there is a stability phase, called a correction. It is not realistic to predict how many depositors will decide to fix their profits. It takes time for the achieved figures to become stable.
3. Demand surges are provided by a rise or fall in interest. Stellar’s competitor is Ripple, so when making a forecast, one should take into account the position on the market of analogues and competing services, which allows for a more accurate representation.

Lumens cryptocurrency forecast for 2021 depends on the stability of the financial market. In one case or another, Stellar does not lend itself to regulation. Many countries are taking a number of measures to keep the new financial instrument out of general use.

Cryptocurrency is extremely volatile, and its area will be subject to active regulation. The main growth is the drafting of new, most profitable collaborations. As Stellar is experiencing rapid development through agreements with many of the world’s largest companies, its prospects for 2021 look optimistic. However, according to experts, a new historical maximum will be reached only in 2022.

How to make money on Lumens and where to store it – Stellar wallet

Decided to make money with the coin? You can use one of several strategies to do so:

• Long-term-investment – buy XLM at the current price with holding in the portfolio for at least 2 years.
• Short-term-speculative – buy Lumens at major support levels and sell at the moment of maximum growth.
• For maximum efficiency of this strategy it is better to use pending orders.

For fast transactions with XLM, our online Stellar wallet is perfect. If you are going to store large amounts of Lumens for a long time, we recommend using cold Stellar wallet: Ledger and Trezor.

Conclusion

According to analysts, the forecast of the Lumens exchange rate to the USD in 2021 is not characterized by sharp movement, the situation with the coin will be quite quiet and stable. However, according to experts, in the longer term, the cryptocurrency may reach a high level and occupy the niche of the main system of intercurrency transfers. More and more financial institutions began to pay attention to the protocol Stellar, due to which the prospects of the cryptocurrency greatly increase.

10 key facts about Stellar XLM

1) Launched in 2014;

2) 14-th largest crypto by market capitalization ($1.63bn, CoinMarketCap, September 2020)

3) Appreciated by 79% between January and September 2020;

4) Founded by Jed McCaleb, the famous crypto entrepreneur who also created Ripple and Mt Gox exchange;

5) Managed by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation;

6) Consensus algorithm: Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP);

7) Total supply: circa 50 billion XLM;

8) Stellar is the name of the blockchain, while the coins themselves are called lumens;

9) Stellar blockchain transaction fee is just 0.00001 lumens;

10) Transactions take a few seconds to confirm.

Why was Stellar XLM created?

The main objective of Stellar XLM is to provide financial solutions for the unbanked and cheap cross-border payments. If things go as planned, in the future the Stellar blockchain will underlie a massive network of international money transfers and remittances, all for a fraction of the cost of traditional bank payment, Western Union and the like.

In fact, Stellar fees are so low that you’d have to make hundreds of thousands of transactions to spend even $1. In case you’re asking why have transaction fees at all, the answer is that the fees protect the network from spammers.

The true power of Stellar XLM is the possibility to tokenize any asset, including fiat money. You can create a digital version of USD, euro, etc. on the Stellar blockchain and send them to anybody else in the world in seconds and virtually for free. But for this to work, you need a network of so-called anchors – banks and savings institutions that will swap fiat funds for digital assets.

Near-free money transfers for all – Stellar wallet

Imagine that you work in another country and want to send money home. You come to an anchor and hand in some money in the local currency – say, US dollars. In exchange, the anchor (bank) issues you with an equivalent amount of ‘Stellar dollars’, or tokens, which are instantly deposited in your Stellar wallet. You send them to the Stellar wallet of a family member back home – your wife, for instance. She goes to her nearest anchor institution and redeems the digital tokens for her local currency.

How close is Stellar to making this bold vision a reality? To be fair, there’s still quite a long way to go, but the Stellar Foundation constantly expands its range of partnerships in the financial industry. For example, in May 2020 it partnered up with Abra – a wallet and investment platform that allows users to buy 100 different crypto coins and 65 fiat currencies. Another interesting project is Lightnet – a Bangkok-based company that expects to move $50 billion worth of remittances on the Stellar blockchain by 2022.

How to use Stellar

To hold and send XLM, you’ll need either a dedicated Stellar wallet or a multi currency wallet with Stellar support. Wallets built for Stellar include Lobstr, StellarX, Stellarport and Lumenshine. If you prefer a multicurrency crypto wallet, you can use Coinbase, Atomic Wallet, Guarda, Blockchain.com, etc.

Note that wallets created specifically for XLM can also hold any assets built on the Stellar blockchain.

If you don’t have any lumens yet, you can buy them on most major exchanges, such as Binance, Poloniex, Kraken, and so forth. Stellar also has its own decentralized exchange, called StellarX, where you can trade for free: there are no fees whatsoever.

What’s next for Stellar XLM price?

XLM has had a very successful year so far, increasing in price by over 75% since January 1. But the second half of August and early September were marked by a price slump: XLM/USD went down 27% between Aug 15 and Sep 10.

There’s no reason to talk about a real downtrend, however. The coin’s fundamentals are still strong, considering the steady flow of new partnerships in the recent months. Plus, Stellar XLM correlates with Bitcoin to a certain point, and BTC is expected to resume growth. This means that September 2020 is a good moment to buy lumens on a dip.

While it’s unlikely that the price of Stellar XLM will double until the end of the year, a 15-25% increase in price is completely possible. Stellar XLM is a worthy addition to a balanced investment portfolio, even if it doesn’t attract as much media attention as Chainlink, Polkadot, and other trendy infrastructure projects.

Stellar XLM isn’t a hype coin like some of the staking or DeFi assets that can rise 50% in a few days and then collapse; instead, it’s a reliable coin that provides real value to the ecosystem. If you are willing to wait for a while to reap your gains, then XLM is the right asset for you.