Stellar Network

Stellar is an open-source internet protocol developed by a non-profit to move money fast and affordably. Mobius built the DApp Store on top of the Stellar Network for its various advantages.

Fees

Transaction costs are very low, close to $0 per transaction.

Speed

Transactions take 2-5 seconds and don’t require multiple confirmation blocks.

Decentralization

Network validators chose their own quorom slices.

Custom Assets

A more secure way to issue distributed ledger assets.

Consensus Protocol

These low fees and high speeds are a result of the Stellar Consensus Protocol - an alternative to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus method.

Stellar validators - nodes running Stellar Core - serve a purpose somewhat similar to miners in the Bitcoin network. They agree on sets of transactions every several seconds by passing cryptographically signed messages and update the global ledger.

Ledgers close every 2-5 seconds, and, because it’s just message passing, there’s no expensive computational problem-solving.

Unlike other message passing consensus protocols, there is no single, master validator list recommended by a central authority.

Rather, each validator decides which other validators they trust, and their list of trusted validators is called their quorum slice.

The quorum slices of each validator overlap to form a quorum, or network-wide consensus on a transaction.

Without the need for one centralized authority to decide on the validator list, you create an open membership network. Anyone can spin up a validator and participate in consensus if any other participating validator adds you to their quorum slice. Because there is no one master authority deciding which nodes get to participate in consensus, the network exhibits decentralization.

1296 — Quorum slices in the Stellar Consensus Protocol

To learn more: Explain it to me like I’m five, explain it to me like I’m a college grad, and explain it to me like I’m a grad student.