Today, we’ll talk about Stellar Lumens (XLM). What is it? And when was it created? Why do we need to learn more about this crypto? Cryptocurrency and blockchain regularly make headlines, but what do we really know about crypto? While we all heard a thing or two about Bitcoin, there are various types of cryptocurrency we should know about. In this article, we’ll reveal the hidden history of Stellar Lumens.
Stellar cryptocurrency, so-called XLM, is up 75% since the beginning of 2020 and continues to rocket higher which makes it a good investment. Moreover, if we compare XLM to Bitcoin, we’ll find another reason to pay attention to Stellar. When it comes to the time that it takes for one Bitcoin transaction to be processed, XLM can make up to 200 transactions in the same amount of time.
The early days of Stellar and how it works now
Created in 2014, Stellar is a product of the Stellar Development Foundation, and initially, it wasn’t about the cryptocurrency itself. Who were the founders? Among the creators was Jed McCaleb, who is famous as co-founder of Ripple. He also launched the now non-functioning bitcoin exchange, called the Mt. Gox. Stellar was created as something bigger than one particular cryptocurrency as the aim of the founders was to offer the integrity of financial transactions.
Stellar was tailored to be a decentralized payment platform that would give its clients an opportunity to make international transactions between any areas and any currencies. Unlike its main rival in the market, Ripple, Stellar Lumens concentrates on the individuals rather than financial institutions. In other words, the ecosystem links people, institutions, and payment systems whenever they are located.
Nowadays, Stellar is an international consortium that brings together individuals and businesses from all over the world. Stellar works with numerous currencies. For example, it allows exchanging Stellar for Bitcoin. Plus, they work as a decentralized system for Bitcoin exchange. Stellar has its own native crypto called Lumens or XLM.
Stellar Lumens went through different times during these six years. In March 2019, Stellar announced that Denelle Dixon would take over Jed McCaleb’s leadership role as executive director. In the same year, Binance started to work with Stellar. Binance’s Trust Wallet began to accept and support XLM transactions for its customers.
What happened to Stellar Lumens over these years? Here are the most important milestones to pay attention to.
Airdrops
Advertising both itself and Stellar, Blockchain.com promoted its first airdrop in 2018. They were going to release $125 million in XLM over a half a year. The company decided to deposit $25 in XLM into each new Blockchain’s wallet. The rest of the Stellar Lumens should have been given to existing customers. This airdrop began on November 11, 2018. Did it change the Stellar’s price? Of course, the price increases by ten percent right after the announcement and it continued to rise for at least one day after the airdrop started. Blockchain.com claimed that this airdrop was the biggest one ever.
It wasn’t the only giveaway. In 2019, Stellar Lumens announced another airdrop. The company planned to give away more than $120 million worth of Stellar Lumens. They also cooperated with Keybase, a file-sharing application to organize the process. The event was designed to take place for 20 months and only verified customers were eligible to participate. Each of the clients would get up to $500 worth of XLM. However, the situation rapidly changed as in December 2019, Keybase wrote in their blog that the planned airdrop had been canceled. According to the post, Keybase was unable to verify and ban all the fraudulent accounts.
Cooperation with Thunes and Western Union
Although XLM isn’t as popular as Bitcoin, it has many partners that support Lumen transactions. In March 2019, Western Union started to work with Thunes, a blockchain platform that offers transnational transactions. Thunes’ technology relies on XLM, meaning that Western Union will use XLM for cross-border payments.
XLM became one of the best
Is XLM recognized on the market? In April 2019, Lumens became one of the most popular cryptocurrencies listed on Coinsquare.com, a famous Canadian trading platform. The CEO of Coinsquare admitted that XLM was mentioned because the cryptocurrency was often requested by its users.
Network issues
On May 15, 2019, the Stellar platform collapsed for more than two hours. The network was unable to validate XLM transactions. The price of Lumens increased by 20 percent after the breakdown. Why did it happen? The CTO of Stellar Lumens explained that the reason was in the platform itself. Stellar Lumens was working too fast, and it resulted in the network issues.
Lumens burn
In 2019, Stellar’s executive director Denelle Dixon stated that 55 billion of the initial 105 billion XLM had been terminated (“burned”) by moving them to a signature-free address. Around ten percent of the burned crypto was in Stellar’s operating account and the rest had been held in the partnership accounts.
The main benefits of XLM
Is XLM a good cryptocurrency? It is impossible to access it right now, but Lumens have tons of advantages. Here are some of them:
- high speed and stability: Stellar supports up to 1000 operations per second;
- instant confirmation for transactions: it usually takes less than 5 seconds;
- a minimal fee for operations: it is just 0.0001 XLM;
- multifunctionality: Stellar can provide both fiat and cryptocurrency operations.
Stellar’s reputation and its unique approach make it the big players in the cryptocurrency market. It is no surprise that XLM is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies nowadays. Moreover, we can expect this popularity to rise as more people join the blockchain sector.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) in 2020
While Stellar is something that can easily draw your interest, it is a great idea to monitor its position on the market. What is happening to XLM right now?
In 2020, Stellar Lumens have been fluctuating up to the 10 cents value. If we compare Lumens to other cryptocurrencies, it doesn’t seem very attractive. However, it is great as now, six years after XLM’s creation, its price is still higher than when it was released.
If we look into the past, XLM was close to the $1 value, stopping at $0.875 at the beginning of 2018. These days Lumens are slowly increasing in the value, with 2019 to 2020 witnessing a rise in the price of 4.90%. Taking into account all these facts and its features, Stellar is important in the cryptocurrency world.
To conclude, Stellar (XLM) is one of the fastest, oldest, and most reliable digital coins. Lumens can provide its users with stability and high speed. Plus, it offers a quite sufficient market cap.
Therefore, experts are sure that Stellar has the potential to become a big-name project in the future years. If you are thinking about investment, it is essential to keep in mind that investing in Stellar can bring great results right now. Last, but not least, XLM is one of the low-priced cryptocurrencies you can invest in.
