Summary

Stellar is an open-source protocol for exchanging money. It was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim. It is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency originally based on Ripple (XRP), but later made changes to critical consensus code. Stellar created an updated version of the protocol with new algorithms based on new code, which was released in April 2015, 2017 with the network going live in November 2015, 2017.

Stellar aims to be a highly-in-demand cryptocurrency for seamless payments between people and merchants, which differentiates it from Ripple which focuses on transactions between large financial houses.

Team

Jed McCaleb is the co-founder of Stellar Development Foundation. He is known for creating eDonkey2000 which became one of the largest file-sharing networks in its time. He also created Mt. Gox (the first bitcoin exchange) and assisted in the creation of Ripple.

The current team is comprised of 10 associates 6 of which have experience in development and computer engineering focusing on the product and security. The other 4 associates focus on acquiring new business partnerships across the globe and retaining current ones. A notable mention can be made to their CTO Nicholas Barry who assisted in the development of large-scale systems at Microsoft and Salesforce. He aims to turn technology into something practical that would further benefit the public.

How Stellar Works

Stellar is a decentralized network composed of peers running independently off of each other. Rather than one primary source, transmitting information is distributed among a network of servers, allowing Stellar to not depend on any single entity. The Stellar ledger lists all balances and transactions belonging to every account on the network, like a traditional ledger. Any entity can run a Stellar server, forming a decentralized Stellar network, distributing the ledger as widely as possible.

Key Highlights

• Partnership with IBM
• Customizable payment infrastructure
• Synchronized server communication