Stripe Announces New Stellar Decentralized Currency

The processing company Stripe has announced a new currency, Stellar .

The currency is based on the open source code from Ripple , therefore, it inherited many features from the latter. This is a decentralized protocol for performing financial transactions, which can be used to send money anywhere in the world, in any currency pair. For example, the protocol supports sending money in dollars, and receiving in euros. The source code of all components is open, use is absolutely free. Stellar, like Ripple, aims to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and fiat money, making it easy to transfer between them. In fact, it is a distributed global currency exchange.

But the most interesting thing is that the creators give out free currency to everyone. You can also get your part.

Stellar device

For those familiar with Ripple, there is almost nothing new here.

There is a currency called STR (also called Stellar), which is the native currency of the Stellar network. The network is based on Ledger, a shared ledger. Ledger stores account balances and transaction history, similar to the Blockchain block tree in the Bitcoin system. Total created 100 billion STR . This volume will increase by 1% per year.

To protect Ledger from creating a large number of accounts, each Stellar account has a minimum balance of 50 STR. This is a small amount for ordinary users, but it does not allow attackers to overload the network with spam.

When processing a transaction, 0.00001 STR is debited from the sender. This is not a commission charged for someone else’s benefit, STR is simply debited and ceases to exist. This protects the network from "transactional spam" (creating a large number of transactions).

STR can be instantly transferred to any account without any transfer fee, it cannot be devalued, as it exists in a limited amount. Stellar supports any currency. Users are not required to use STR as a medium of exchange or savings.

Stellar's distributed currency exchange allows users to trade without having to hire a broker or resort to third-party currency exchange. Anyone can place offers or offers in the Ledger database, and the network will find the most effective way to establish contact between the parties to the transaction. For example, you store money in an account in US dollars and send the payment to the seller, who accepts payments only in euros. The Stellar network itself will “convert” currencies by routing orders through a network of market makers who compete to earn bid / ask spreads.

STR is convenient to use as an intermediate currency. If two counterparties cannot find a common currency / combination of gateways, they can use STR as a neutral currency without any counterparty risk. For example, Alice prefers US dollars, and Bob prefers euros. If they cannot find a suitable market maker working with the EUR / USD pair to complete their transaction, they can conveniently exchange their preferred currency for STR and STR for their preferred currency in order to be able to make transactions with each other.

Fiat money enters and leaves the network through gateways. The gateways in Stellar can be banks, financial companies, marketplaces and any financial institutions.

Stellar Development Fund

Stellar development is managed by the Stellar Development Fund (hereinafter referred to as the Fund). The Board of the Fund includes:

• Jed McCaleb (Jed McCaleb) - at the beginning of the zero created the file sharing network eDonkey, later - the world's largest Bitcoin exchange MtGox, a decentralized payment currency Ripple. This year he left Ripple due to disagreements with company CEO Chris Larsen.
• Keith Rabois is an American entrepreneur and investor in senior positions at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, Square. Invests in companies at an early stage. Rabua is considered one of the members of the PayPal Mafia, a Paypal group that also includes Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk.
• Patrick Collison (Patrick Collison) - together with his brother John founded the processing company Stripe, which allows you to make payments via the Internet, including from mobile devices.

The fund is responsible for:

• - promotion of currency through its fair distribution between people around the world;
• - development of free tools and services to support users and the network itself;
• - providing free access to the network for all who want to use it.

How will the currency be distributed worldwide?

So, a total of 100 billion STRs were created . Of these, 5% will be used by the Fund for operating expenses. By the way, the Fund has already received $ 3 million from Stripe in exchange for 2% of the total STR. Thus, the Fund still has 3% to finance its activities.

The remaining 95% will be distributed through 3 programs:

• 50% - through direct registration on the site
  Anyone can get their share of STR by registering an account on the Stellar website and passing Facebook authorization. Such authorization was chosen as the easiest way to identify a real person, especially since Facebook has the largest database. However, it was necessary to add verification algorithms to exclude suspicious pages. Since not everyone has Facebook, the Foundation is working on additional distribution methods, such as SMS and other online channels. Information about them will be posted on the system’s website.
• 25% through non-profit organizations.
  The purpose of this program is to deliver Stellar to those groups of people who do not have access to online and mobile channels, and therefore cannot use the direct registration program. Non-profit organizations will be able to submit applications with their proposals on the distribution of STR among the population, which will be considered by the Fund.
  
• 20% - to owners of Bitcoin and Ripple.
  At a certain point in time, a snapshot of the balances of all accounts in Bitcoin and Ripple systems will be taken. After that, Bitcoin and Ripple users will receive STR in proportion to their balances. Moreover, Bitcoin owners will receive 19%, and Ripple - 1%. For example, the owner of 0.001% of all Bitcoins will receive 0.001% of all STRs reserved for Bitcoin users, i.e. 190,000 STR.

The fund strives for maximum transparency of its activities, therefore, relevant information will be posted on the website:

• - salaries of Fund employees, other grants;
• - quarterly reports on the use of funds;
• - details and mechanism for the distribution of funds;
• - the number of people joining the direct registration program;
• - Non-profit program indicators - the number of applications, the number of grants issued, distribution schedules;
• - indicators for the Bitcoin program;
• - total number of STR.

How to get Stellar?

To do this, register an account at https://launch.stellar.org . After that, log in through your Facebook account. If your Facebook profile is not suspicious, you will be charged 5000 STR. The questionnaire must be verified by phone number. Upon confirmation of the email - add another 1000 STR. And if you send at least 1000 STR to someone (such as a friend), the Fund will replenish the wallet with another 1000 STR.

Thus, the maximum you can get 7000 STR, which at the current rate (250,000 STR = 1 BTC = $ 580) is more than $ 16!

Received STR can be exchanged for Bitcoin on one of the few exchanges that started working with Stellar. For example, on Justcoin or BX.in.th. All 7000 STR cannot be sent to the exchange - 50 STR will have to be left on the account.

According to system statistics, more than 65,000 people have already ordered their STR! Recently, money is not credited immediately, but after a few hours. According to the same statistics, the line of people awaiting payment extended to 13,000 people.

Conclusion

The Stellar network has just started. You can test it for sending and receiving payments, or use the API to create your own services. We work with several currency exchanges to help them become the first Stellar gateways, after which you can make transactions in the currencies with which they work. In the future, gateways will be created for all payment methods that people use. We will continue to move forward, and hope you join us!

Stellar Development Fund

UPDATE: Payouts decreased. Now after Facebook authorization, 500 STR is charged immediately, another 3,500 STR will have to wait. After confirming the email, 400 STR are credited, and when sending at least 100 STR to someone else, they replenish the wallet with another 100 STR.

UPDATE 2: In the comments you can ask your questions. In the next article I will try to answer them.