# Stellar

The Stellar platform and its cryptocurrency Lumen (XML) are dedicated to offering simplified micropayments, easier management of remittances and mobile-friendly transactions to average users, without requiring them to hold advanced technical knowledge or have interest in crypto technologies. The Stellar project started out as an open source protocol aimed at facilitating international transactions involving as many currencies as possible. Its co-founder and CTO Jed McCaleb was one of the main founders of Ripple, another cryptocurrency sharing similar goals yet with more focus placed on financial institutions. The coins on the platform were initially known as Stellar prior to their rebranding to their current name in 2015. Based on the Stellar’s ability to allow their users to upload funds in a single currency and have them converted into Lumens prior to the final conversion into a desired currency, the platform hopes to make it easier to exchange and transfer various currencies across the globe, both at low fees and with no intermediaries involved. Based on this, Stellar has entered several strategic partnership with various businesses, including IBM which has recently launched a payment network built on Stellar.