Can XLM beat the shortcomings of current SWIFT protocol? Here is the analysis.

SWIFT payment system is well known to everyone around the world. Any international transfer of money is recorded and facilitated by SWIFT protocol. Now, with the transforming age of blockchain technology, there are cryptocurrencies being developed which serves the similar purpose as that of SWIFT protocol. Stellar is one such crypto facilitating the transfer of funds among overseas branches of banks and several individuals. Anyone can buy Stellar Lumens with credit card to move money across borders, quickly reliably and for fractions of a penny. Let us discover it’s benefits in more detail. What is StellarrnStellar is a cryptocurrency developed by Jed McCaleb in 2014, who is also the co-founder of Ripple. Lumen is the token offered by Stellar network. One lumen (XLM) is a unit of digital currency, like a bitcoin. In 2014 the Stellar network was launched with 100 billion stellars, the original name of the network’s native asset.rnIn 2015, with the launch of the upgraded network, they changed the name of the native asset from stellar to lumen to distinguish it from: 1) the Stellar network itself and,rn2) Stellar.org, the nonprofit organization that contributes to development of the network.rnXLM price chart since its inception is available at CoinSwitch. CoinSwitch also facilitates in XLM to BTC exchange. Use CasesrnStellar is the platform which connects banks, payment systems, and people all across the globe. No only this, Stellar provides a platform whereby an entity can develop their own protocols for funds transfer aligned with Stellar platform through API integration, which in itself gives it a unique edge than any other cryptocurrency.rnBelow are a few cases of such integration : MicropaymentsrnIntended to decrease the cost of smaller transfers, one of the world’s largest financial consulting firms set out to innovate in the core banking space with blockchain technologies. Deloitte developed a prototype that reduced transaction costs by 40% and each transaction is resolved in 5 seconds. The prototype is intended for banking clients outside of North America. RemittancesrnIntended to facilitate transfer of money to different countries quickly, for a fraction of cent. Tempo facilitates remittances from Europe to the world, a $150 billion market. Using the Stellar network, Tempo can power 600,000 transactions for .01 USD in fees.rnWith a network of 190,000 locations in 120 countries, Tempo and their cross-border payments enable customers to pay remotely for services such as water, phone, electricity, and health insurance. Mobile MoneyrnIntended to make mobile money platforms interoperable, Parkway uses the Stellar network to connect Nigeria’s 5 major telcos, enabling customers of different MM services to send money to one another. Parkway develops financial technology for 3,000 clients across Africa, including Ecobank, Wema Bank, and Diamond Bank. Their end-to-end financial solutions are used in 30 countries in sectors such as healthcare, education, and energy. As demonstrated in the above cases, Stellar is the modifiable and scalable crypto with advantages like, • real time settlement (2-5 seconds), • regulatory compliance, • international reach with a single integration, • automatic currency exchange, andrn• cryptographically secure transactions. ConclusionrnAs discussed, Stellar is already being used in its full potential, by a lot of multinationals as their payment mechanism. The current XLM price is $0.22 with market capitalization of $4 billion and 18.90 billion XLM in circulation. Now this is a huge market covering which makes it secure the 6th rank among all cryptos. It can be easily trading on any leading cryptocoin exchange. All this only points to the high growth prospect for this crypto. At this point, the exact XLM price prediction is difficult to concur but there is one thing that can be said with certainty that the investment of people who trust in this crypto now, will only be affected positively in the long run.