What is Stellar?

Stellar is a decentralized, open-source network co-founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim. It aims to facilitate efficient value transfers across various currencies and assets worldwide, primarily serving underserved populations by connecting banks, payment systems, and individuals. The project is managed by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation and relies on the Stellar Consensus Protocol and Federated Byzantine Agreement to maintain ledger integrity through trusted nodes. Key features include a built-in distributed exchange for asset trading and the Soroban platform for smart contract development.

The network's native token, XLM, plays a critical role in maintaining its operations by serving as an intermediary for efficient exchanges and helping to mitigate spam via transaction fees and minimum balance requirements. Stellar has no built-in inflation mechanism; the community voted to disable the automatic creation of new tokens. The project was initially supported by early funding from Stripe, but it now relies on contributions from a global network of validators and developers.