Stellar Lumens (XLM), A Cryptocurrency Future? 5 Key Points

The Stellar Lumens has a cryptomonnaie created by Joyce Kim and Jed McCaleb in 2014. The latter was already operating on the Ripple (XRP) project when he left the company after a disagreement with Chris Larsen, its managing director. So we could practically consider Stellar as the “fork” of Ripple. But what is this cryptocurrency worth as a payment protocol and as an investment? That’s what we wanted to know.

The Stellar Lumens network is managed by a non – profit foundation, the Stellar Development Foundation. Its goal is to offer a payment method that runs at lightning speed (less than seconds) with ultra-low charges: just 0.00001 stellar per transaction.

However, when we know that Stellar Lumens (XLM) is currently priced at 0.06 euros, this makes us 0,0000006 euro per operation! So it really is an- cheap, especially compared to the fees of the majors in the credit card payment industry.

With Lumens signals

Lumens signals (XLM: current price: € 0.06) are multifunctional. Both can be used by individuals, for example to send money quickly and at no cost (or almost) or to pay for purchases on ecommerce sites that accept Stellar.

In addition and like Ripple, they can also be used for cross-platform transactions. So a network user can send a trusted currency to another user who uses a completely different currency. There will be Lumen signals the mediator between the two parties.

Financial institutions may also use this protocol to make cross – border transfers of money quickly and inexpensively.

You should also know that, like Ripple, Stellar Lumens is not a decentralized cryptocurrency. So Blockchain purists will no doubt be crying dirty. But for them there is always the promised alternatives in Altcoins.

Stellar Lumens Wallet

You can connect to your Stellar wallet in three ways:

• through a hardware wallet
• through a download wallet
• through a web wallet.

The hardware wallet

This is the safest way to use a Stellar network. To do this, you can use either the Ledger Nano X which we tested in this article, or excellent Safe.

You will be able to view the Lumens supply available in your Stellar account by logging in to the Stellar Account Viewer with your Ledger or your Trezor.

With downloadable wallet

There are currently 3 downloadable wallets: Origin of keys, Solar Wallet and Lobster. These three wallets can be installed on PC / Mac (Desktop) and Android or IOS mobile phones.

I did one test Origin of keys, which is very practical and gives you access to Stellar chat, which currently has 5837 members.

Be careful, do not forget to secure your account by writing the 15 word sequence provided by Keybase on a sheet of paper, in case you lose your smartphone for various reasons.

The Stellar Foundation recently rewarded loyal Keybase users with a airdrop huge 2 billion XLM tokens (120 million euros at the daily rate). On the other hand, it’s too late for those who still want to sign up.

The Web Wallet

Coinbase it is the only web wallet currently available. And even if I do not like cryptocurrency exchanges in general, Coinbase is probably the most qualitative one available on the market (even if its fees may be higher than the competition).

Free XLM Tokens Thanks to Inflation

Here is a basic idea applied by the Stellar Foundation: inflation. In short, Stellar pays you a kind of dividend of 1% per annum, in Lumens tokens, to cover some of the inflation.

To do this, you must have at least 100 lumens (at the current price, it is only € 6) and register for the program. Inflation is then automatically paid to you every week.

To join, all you have to do is sign up for an inflation pool, as Lumenaut, for the user who uses a hardware wallet. It will then need to copy the address provided by the pool and paste it into your wallet via the Stellar Account Viewer.

For anyone who uses a downloadable wallet like Keybase, it’s even easier. Just register in the app settings.

The partnership with IBM has diminished?

It was declared the Holy Grail of the Stellar network. Partnership with IBM. In theory, we could not have dreamed better …

As a reminder, in March 2019 Stellar entered into a partnership with IBM to develop a system that would facilitate exchanges between financial institutions. The famous “IBM World Wire”. Less than 6 banks had already been identified into the project.

Unfortunately for Stellar, the project was suspended following the departure of IBM blockchain director Jesse Lund. We remember that the price of XLM lost 50% in the process… Case to follow, therefore.

Stores that take Stellar

As I write these lines, 306 shop accept Stellar as payment. You can view the regularly updated list here.

Most of them are ecommerce and unfortunately there are no big names… There are many web hosts, e-shops of legal cannabis, clothing stores, a little food, and of course, cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

After looking at the list, I would say that it is the most famous e-store that accepts Stellar Shopify. And when you know that Shopify is not a store but a way to create your own online sales site, you think the Stellar association will have to make serious efforts to expand its list with big names.

Conclusion

The Stellar Lumens starts from an excellent secret: offering a very fast, reliable payment network at a very low transaction cost.

In addition it provides 1% annual inflation and is certainly not stingy with airdrops.

Unfortunately, like most cryptocurrencies, there are no direct and concrete applications yet. To increase the interest of its users and bring out its currency, the Stellar Foundation will need to find visible and recognizable partners.

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