Stellar is a public blockchain built to move money and digital assets quickly and cheaply across borders. It matters because it reduces reliance on slow, multi-step banking rails, offering near-instant settlement and lower fees for remittances, merchant payments, and tokenized assets.
The network operates on software called Stellar Core, which is run by a global network of computers (nodes). These nodes collaborate to validate transactions and maintain a shared, public ledger. Every few seconds, they reach an agreement on the next batch of transactions to add, keeping the network fast and in sync. While anyone can use the network, running a node helps secure it and gives you a voice in protocol upgrades.
Instead of using energy-intensive mining, Stellar uses a unique approach called the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). With SCP, validators choose a trusted set of peers to agree with. When enough of these trusted sets overlap across the network, consensus is reached, and transactions are confirmed. This design allows the network to confirm transactions in about 5–7 seconds while consuming very little energy.
Soroban is Stellar's smart contract environment. Contracts are typically written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly (Wasm) for efficient execution across different environments. Unlike accounts that require fixed minimum reserves, Soroban introduces a rent-style model: contracts pay for the storage they use and how long data is kept. That helps developers build lending apps, asset-management tools, and other programmable finance features while keeping resource use predictable.
Anchors are regulated entities—banks, payment firms, or fintech providers—that accept deposits in fiat, issue matching tokens on the Stellar ledger, and redeem those tokens back into local currency. By acting as on- and off-ramps, anchors make it straightforward to move value between bank accounts and the blockchain, enabling fast cross-border transfers.
Stellar's architecture is optimized for moving value, making it ideal for several applications:
The network's native asset, the lumen (XLM), serves several key functions:
Stellar was launched with 100 billion XLM. An initial inflation mechanism was voted out by the community in 2019. Later that year, the total supply was reduced when approximately 55 billion XLM were burned.
This left a total supply of about 50 billion XLM, with no plans for future issuance. As of August 2025, around 31.3 billion XLM are in public circulation. The remaining 18.4 billion are held by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization that supports the growth and development of the ecosystem.
Stellar stands out by combining a high-speed, low-cost consensus protocol with a network of trusted anchors that link directly to the traditional financial world. The introduction of Soroban smart contracts expands its capabilities from simple payments to a full suite of programmable financial services, making it a powerful platform for building the future of finance.
