Stellar: worth buying?

I acquired some Stellar (XLM) this time last year through the Coinbase 'learn' promotion - through which you earn some of the token for simply watching videos about it.

I was happy enough to pick up some new coin at the time for very little effort, but a year on, having finally gotten around to researching Stellar Lumens a bit more, I kind of get why it's a top 20 crypto by market cap...

Screenshot 20210421 at 15.46.08.png

Its functionality is basically down to it's synergy with FIAT (it's a Ripple fork) and the extremely low TX fees - it actually has a genuine use case beyond making you more money!

What is Stellar? The Basics

The main function of the Stellar network is to allow for fast and cheap transactions of crypt and fiat assets (It's advertised as 'crypto adjacent' and is a fork of XRP), and it's also (apparently) easy to create versions of any type of token on the XLM network.

It's a proof of work blockchain and Stellar Lumens are used to secure the network and for transactions fees, which are incredibly low, the lowest of all cryptos I believe.

The means whereby you can hold and transfer FIAT is by buying a 'stellar version' of, for example the dollar', and holding or transferring that on the network.

The extremely low TX fees make it a great token for transferring small sums of money, so it's a useful token to help 'bank the unbanked' and for making micro payments

40% of tokens currently in circulation

There is a total supply of 50 billion XLM, 20 billion of which are in circulation with 30 billion being controlled by the Stellar Development Foundation which funds development on the network with that fund.

Users of the network can vote on which projects get funded.

I like a coin with a hard cap on the total supply!

There doesn't seem to be too much going on on Stellar

Looking at the block explorer, there are < 10 000 active accounts in a day, far less than Hive for example, and very few case studies of projects being developed - I clicked on one case study showcased on Stellar's website and all I got was a video with a guy banging on about what they're developing, and found the cheesy 'promotional' style a bit 2017 TBH.

Screenshot 20210421 at 16.12.56.png

Final thoughts - XLM: worth buying?

I guess this is basically a competitor for Ripple, as it aims to work with the fiat system rather than replace it, and Ripple has seen a lot of controversy yet also positive price action, which suggests there could be upward price potential in this coin.

I also like the fact that it's good for micropayments, I'm a fan of anything which helps 'bank the unbanked', and the hard cap on the total supply of tokens is a positive too.

And I quite like the ability to 'mint' versions of FIAT currencies and the ability to send these for next to nothing - low TX fees are a real bonus.

However, I do find the relative lack of development (not much done since 2017 IMO) and lack of specific case studies which utilise XLM are a disappointment, which puts me off buying more of the coin!

XLM isn't an absolute NO for me when it comes to buying more, but I just don't find the project that exciting or even interesting!

H2
H3
H4
3 columns
2 columns
1 column
21 Comments
Ecency