Transactions on the decentralized Stellar network resolve in only 2-5 seconds for a fraction of a cent, aiming for low-cost payments between different currencies to fight poverty and maximize individual potential. Stellar is a decentralized, hybrid blockchain that is fully open-source infrastructure that exists to facilitate cross-asset transfers of value, including payments. With just one integration into the Stellar Network you will join an open global financial network where all actors – be they people, payment networks, or banks – have equal access & economic participation. With a team of top technology and finance professionals the nonprofit Stellar.org Foundation expands access to low-cost financial services to fight poverty and maximize individual potential.
Stellar (Lumens) (STR/XLM) is supported by IBM, Deloitte, Stripe, Google.org, Blackrock and many other big companies.
"Stellar itself is a modified fork of Ripple, an initiative led by Jed McCaleb following his exit in 2013 from Ripple Labs, which he co-founded." ref. https://www.coindesk.com/stability-questions-dog-ripple-protocol-stellar-fork/
Stellar Development is led by Jed McCaleb (resuming development of the open-source technology he created at Ripple), founder of edonky, one of the first big file sharing sites and Mt. Gox, the first big bitcoin exchange before selling it to the one who ran it amok; and Professor David Mazières (head of Stanford’s Secure Computer Systems group, creator of SFS and bcrypt). The Foundation is led by Joyce Kim as Executive Director (former attorney and VC with public interest experience). It’s board is Keith Rabois (early Paypal, former COO at Square), Patrick Collison ( CEO of Stripe), and Jed McCaleb. The Foundation is advised by Dan Kaminsky, Joi Ito, Ronaldo Lemos, Linda Stone, Sam Altman, Naval Ravikant, Jackson Palmer, Greg Stein, and Matt Mullenweg.
Stripe has provided initial funding to help get the network off the ground and recently announced they would start removing bitcoin from it's payment structure and increasing Stellar usage.
The 2018 Stellar Roadmap announces their SDEX (Stellar Decentralized Exchange), which will include among other things, end-user control of secret keys, and the Lightning Network running on Stellar. SDEX will be the world-class front-end that their underlying technology has long deserved. It will enable on-chain, protocol-level trades for any Stellar token, and they will create liquidity to minimize spreads and maximize choice of assets. The Exchange also promotes their vision of moving more real-world assets on the blockchain. ICOs are already coming to Stellar because we’re cheap, scalable, and fast. See Mobius’s We Did It! announcement for their impression of the Stellar platform. Remember also, this is Jed creating this, who is the creator behind Mt. Gox, the world's first largest bitcoin exchange before he sold it to the one who ran it amok. SDEX may very well be a Mt. Gox 2.0 interconnecting the world of 2018 ;-)
To see for yourself the people behind Stellar and their vision, I created a playlist of Stellar videos: Stellar.org Foundation Vision Of An Open Financial System
A few other relative posts I've shared here:
Research Predicts $91,000 By March 2020 for Bitcoin
CRYPTO CRASH - WHICH WAY FROM HERE?
BECOMING A DISCIPLINED INVESTOR
You can open a cryptotrading account on Binance There you can trade bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for Stellar Lumens (XLM), as well as STEEM.
You can purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash to then move to trade for Stellar Lumens (XML/STR) on Coinbase
This is not financial advice, but as my first steemit blog post, I thought I might share some of my research, thoughts and ideas on one of my favorites in this new blockchain technologic revolution.
All the best
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