What is Stellar?
Stellar (XLM) is a payments-focused blockchain launched in 2014 by Jed McCaleb (who previously co-founded Ripple) and Joyce Kim. Its purpose is to make moving money around the world fast, cheap and inclusive - particularly for unbanked populations in emerging markets.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) is the native token, used to pay negligible transaction fees and to act as a bridge asset between fiat currencies when direct liquidity doesn't exist. The Stellar Development Foundation supports a broad partnership program with banks, money-transfer operators and NGOs.
How does Stellar work?
Stellar uses the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), a federated Byzantine Agreement system. Validators are organised into quorums chosen by participants, and consensus is reached whenever overlapping quorums agree. New ledgers close every five seconds and transactions cost a fraction of a cent.
The ledger natively supports issued assets, a built-in decentralized exchange, path payments that find the cheapest route between two currencies, and - as of 2023 - Soroban smart contracts, a WebAssembly-based platform that adds programmability to the chain without compromising its payments heritage.