Stellar is a public blockchain platform that uses the Stellar consensus protocol (SCP). The node that finds next valid block is chosen by federated byzantine agreement. This makes the blockchain centralized permission based, as opposed to decentralized blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Stellar is a community driven open source project launched in November 2014 and written on C++. It is maintained and supervised by non-profit organisation Stellar.org.

The main purpose of creating this ockchain was to expands access to low-cost financial services. Stellar operates with its own token Lumen, supply of which increases a fixed rate of 1% a year. Main difference from Bitcoin is that it is based on the SCP consensus algorithm rather than mining, which means transactions are being confirmed within 2-7 seconds. Stellar has an SDKs that allows users to connect to the blockchain with external software written in Java, Golang, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, Python, Scala, iOS or any other software using REST API. Each transaction has a cost of 100 Stroops (0.00001 Lumens).

Stellar is mainly used by Money transfer companies like Tempo, Eurochange and TransferTo and mobile financial services providers like Coins.ph.