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## What Is DAI [DAI]?

DAI is an Ethereum-based [stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin) (stable-price cryptocurrency) whose issuance and development is managed by the Maker Protocol and the MakerDAO decentralized autonomous organization. 

The price of DAI is soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar and is collateralized by a mix of other cryptocurrencies that are deposited into [smart-contract](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/smart-contract) vaults every time new DAI is minted.

It is important to differentiate between Multi-Collateral DAI and Single-Collateral DAI (SAI), an earlier version of the token that could only be collateralized by a single cryptocurrency; SAI also doesn’t support the DAI Savings Rate, which allows users to earn savings by holding DAI tokens.

Multi-Collateral DAI was launched in November 2019.


### Who Are the Founders of DAI?

One of the defining features of DAI is that it wasn’t created by any single person or a small group of co-founders. Instead, the development of the software that powers it and the issuance of new tokens is governed by the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol.

MakerDAO is a [decentralized autonomous organization](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) — a kind of company that runs itself in a decentralized manner via the use of smart contracts — self-enforcing agreements expressed in software code and executed on the Ethereum [blockchain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain).

This organization is managed democratically by the holders of its Maker (MKR) governance tokens, which act similarly to a traditional company’s stock; MKR holders can vote on key decisions regarding the development of MakerDAO, Maker Protocol and DAI, with their voting power being proportionate to the amount of Maker tokens they own.

MakerDAO itself was originally founded by a Danish entrepreneur Rune Christensen in 2015. Before starting work on the Maker ecosystem, Christensen studied biochemistry and international business in Copenhagen and founded the Try China international recruiting firm.

### How to Generate Dai?

Dai is the second-largest decentralized stablecoin by [market capitalization](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/market-capitalization-market-cap-mcap), having been [flipped](https://decrypt.co/88791/terra-ust-flips-dai-fourth-largest-stablecoin) recently by Terra’s native stablecoin — [UST](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terrausd/). Both are backed by cryptocurrencies and pegged to the Dollar, while the top stablecoins like [USDT](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/), [USDC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/) and [BUSD](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/binance-usd/) are backed by traditional assets such as cash, corporate bonds, U.S. treasuries and commercial papers (which has come under [increased scrutiny](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/mystery-over-tether-s-billions-deepens) in the case of USDT). So what exactly is Dai backed by? The Dai stablecoin is a collateral-based cryptocurrency soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar. Users generate Dai by depositing crypto-assets into Maker Vaults on the Maker Protocol. Users can access Maker Protocol and create Vaults through Oasis Borrow or other interfaces built by the community. On [Oasis Borrow](https://oasis.app/borrow), users can lock in collateral such as [ETH](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/), [WBTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/wrapped-bitcoin/), [LINK](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/chainlink/), [UNI](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/uniswap/), [YFI](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/yearn-finance/), [MANA](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/decentraland/), [MATIC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polygon/) and more. Users can then borrow against their collateral in Dai, as long as it is within the collateral ratio, which ranges from 101% to 175%, depending on the risk level of the asset locked.

#### What Makes DAI Unique?

DAI’s main advantage lies in its soft peg to the price of the U.S. dollar.

The crypto market is notorious for its volatility with even the largest, highly-[liquid](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/liquidity) coins such as [Bitcoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/) sometimes experiencing price changes (both up and down) of 10% or more within a single day. Under these circumstances, traders and investors are naturally predisposed to add safe-haven assets to their portfolios, whose stable price might help offset significant market fluctuations.

One such kind of asset are stablecoins, of which DAI is one example. These are cryptocurrencies whose price is pegged to assets with a relatively stable value — most commonly traditional fiat currencies, such as USD or EUR.

Another key advantage of DAI is the fact that it is managed not by a private company, but rather by a decentralized autonomous organization via a software protocol. As a result, all instances of issuance and burning of tokens are managed and publicly recorded by Ethereum-powered self-enforcing smart-contracts, making the entire system more transparent and less prone to corruption. 

In addition, the process of developing DAI software is governed in a more democratic way — via direct voting by the regular participants of the token’s ecosystem.

## The Crash of Algorithmic Stablecoins and its Impact on DAI

Although DAI was the first of its kind, it began to lose market share to emerging alternatives in the last bull market, especially Terra's UST – now called [TerraClassicUSD](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terrausd/). UST, unlike DAI, is an undercollateralized and [algorithmic stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/algorithmic-stablecoin) tethered to the U.S. dollar. However, without sufficient [collateral](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/collateral) and due to the algorithmic design, the [stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/stablecoin) and underlying Terra, now [TerraClassic](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terra-luna/), token were unable to shield themselves from an aggressive sell-off. In the end, the entire Terra ecosystem caved in, wiping over $18 billion off UST's $18.6 billion market cap after the crash. Read our full breakdown of the [Terra crash](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/are-algorithmic-stablecoins-dead-already-a-full-breakdown-of-the-terra-crash).

Unsurprisingly, the slump of UST had a massive impact on other stablecoins, including DAI. Although DAI managed to maintain its peg to the USD, there was a steep drop in its [market capitalization](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/market-capitalization-market-cap-mcap) from $8 billion to $6.33 billion. However, once the token found its floor, it began to experience a surge in demand for DAI, which later caused a DAI token to sell for a premium (slightly above $1).

While the crash of UST threatened the validity of algorithmic stablecoins, the performance of DAI during this stretch may suggest that not all hope is lost for decentralized stablecoins. It also highlights the importance of the over-collateralization of stablecoins.

#### **Related Pages**:

Read about Tether ([USDT](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/)) — another popular stablecoin whose price is pegged to the USD.

Check out the CoinMarketCap [blog](https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/).

Read more about the crypto space on CMC [Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/crypto-basics).


#### How Many DAI [DAI] Coins Are There in Circulation?

New DAI tokens are not produced via [mining](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/how-long-does-it-take-to-mine-one-bitcoin) like Bitcoin ([BTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/)) and Ethereum ([ETH](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/)), nor are they minted by a private company according to its own issuance police like Tether ([USDT](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/)). Instead, new DAI can be minted by any user via the use of Maker Protocol.

Maker Protocol, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain, is the software that governs DAI issuance. In order to maintain the soft price peg to the U.S. dollar, Maker Protocol ensures that every DAI token is collateralized by an appropriate amount of other cryptocurrencies. As part of this process, the Protocol allows any user to deposit their crypto into a so-called vault — a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain — as collateral and mint a corresponding amount of new DAI tokens.

There is no upper limit on the total supply of DAI — the supply is dynamic and depends on how much collateral is stored in the vaults at any given moment. As of November 2020, there are around 940 million DAI in circulation.


### How Is the DAI Network Secured?

DAI is an Ethereum-based, [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20)-compatible token. As such, it is secured by Ethereum’s Ethash algorithm.


### Where Can You Buy DAI [DAI]?

The purchase of DAI tokens is available on numerous online platforms. These include Decentralized Finance ([DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance)) token swap protocols:



*   [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/uniswap-v2/)
*   [Compound](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/compound/)

And traditional cryptocurrency exchanges:



*   [Coinbase Pro](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinbase-pro/)
*   [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/)
*   [OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/okex/)
*   [HitBTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hitbtc/)

Ledger

Coinbase

Safepal

HyperPay

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Binance Chain Wallet

SolFlare

Backpack

Phantom

Atomic wallet

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

UNUS SED LEO

Uniswap

FLOKI

Quant

Wormhole

Axie Infinity

Pepe

Ethena

Pendle

Fetch.ai

Maker

Immutable

Octopus Network

Popsicle Finance

Bit.Store

Wrapped Dogecoin

MetaOctagon

USDC is a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 basis. Every unit of this cryptocurrency in circulation is backed up by $1 that is held in reserve, in a mix of cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. The Centre consortium, which is behind this asset, says USDC is issued by regulated financial institutions.

The stablecoin originally launched on a limited basis in September 2018. Put simply, USDC’s mantra is “digital money for the digital age” — and the stablecoin is designed for a world where cashless transactions are becoming more common.

Several use cases have been unveiled for the USDC. As well as providing a safe haven for crypto traders in times of volatility, those behind the stablecoin say it can also allow businesses to accept payments in digital assets, and shake up an array of sectors including decentralized finance and gaming.

Overall, the goal is to create an ecosystem where USDC is accepted by as many wallets, exchanges, service providers and dApps as possible.

USDC

TUSD is the first digital asset with live on-chain attestations by independent third-party institutions and is backed 1:1 with the U.S. dollar (USD). So far, it has been listed on more than 100 trading platforms such as Binance and Huobi and is live on 12 mainstream public chains, including Ethereum, TRON, Avalanche, BSC, Fantom, and Polygon.

TrueUSD is attested to in real-time by an independent, industry-specialized accounting firm in the U.S., to ensure the 1:1 ratio of its USD reserve to the circulating token supply and the 100% collateral rate. With the integration of Chainlink PoR, TrueUSD becomes the first USD-Backed stablecoin to secure minting and further ensure transparency and reliability. Users can access the relevant data via the official website tusd.io at any time. TUSD is granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the Commonwealth of Dominica, a country in the Caribbean, effective on October 7th 2022.

TrueUSD

Binance USD (BUSD) is a 1:1 USD-backed stable coin issued by Binance (in partnership with Paxos), Approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), The BUSD Monthly Audit Report can be viewed from the official website. Launched on 5 Sep 2019, BUSD aims to meld the stability of the dollar with blockchain technology. It is a digital fiat currency, issued as ERC-20 and supports BEP-2.

BUSD

Launched in 2014, Tether is a blockchain-enabled platform designed to facilitate the use of fiat currencies in a digital manner. Tether works to disrupt the conventional financial system via a more modern approach to money. Tether has made headway by giving customers the ability to transact with traditional currencies across the blockchain, without the inherent volatility and complexity typically associated with a digital currency. As the first blockchain-enabled platform to facilitate the digital use of traditional currencies (a familiar, stable accounting unit), Tether has democratised cross-border transactions across the blockchain.

Tether USDt

TRON (TRX) is a decentralized blockchain-based operating system developed by the Tron Foundation and launched in 2017. Originally TRX tokens were ERC-20-based tokens deployed on Ethereum, but a year later they were moved to their own network.

Initially, the project was created with the aim of providing full ownership rights to makers of digital content. The main goal is to help content creators (who receive only a small part of the income) and encourage them with more rewards for their work. How: invite content consumers to reward content makers directly (without intermediaries like YouTube, Facebook or Apple).

The TRON software supports smart contracts, various kinds of blockchain systems, and decentralized applications aka dApps. The cryptocurrency platform uses a transaction model similar to Bitcoin (BTC), namely UTXO. Transactions take place in a public ledger, where users can track the history of operations.

Therefore, the platform was built to create a decentralized Internet and serves as a tool for developers to create dApps, acting as an alternative to Ethereum. Anyone can create dApps on the TRON network, offer content, and in return receive digital assets as compensation for their efforts. The ability to create content and share it openly without hesitation regarding transaction fees is an undeniable advantage of TRON.

TRON

Founded in September of 2018, Pax Dollar is a flat-collateralized stablecoin. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are designed to minimize the volatility of the price of the stablecoin, relative to a certain stable asset or a basket of assets.

A stablecoin can be pegged to a cryptocurrency or flat money. In some cases, it can even be traded for commodities. Pax Dollar offers the advantage of transacting with blockchain assets through minimized price risk. The Pax Dollar tokens (USDP) are issued asERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and are collateralized 1:1 through the USD held in Paxos-owned US bank accounts.

Pax Dollar

Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.

An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading.

Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges.

Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges.

In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that aims to become sound global money with fast payments, micro fees, privacy and larger block size. As a permissionless, decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash requires no trusted third parties.

Bitcoin Cash was created as an alternative to the first and most valuable cryptocurrency — Bitcoin (BTC). In 2017, BCH developers modified the BTC code, releasing their software version and a full-fledged competitive product, which split Bitcoin into two blockchains: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is a result of a hard fork in the blockchain due to differences in the community over Bitcoin scaling and the SegWit upgrade. Moreover, another hard fork, which divided Bitcoin Cash into two parts, Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV, took place in the fall of 2018.

The scaling debate involved two sides: small block supporters opposed increasing block size as it could lead to blockchain centralization and vulnerability by making it harder to host full nodes. Large block supporters, however, advocated for a faster solution, concerned that rising transaction fees could hinder growth.

Bitcoin Cash

Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency that was designed to provide fast, secure and low-cost payments by leveraging the unique properties of blockchain technology.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Litecoin.

The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times and a few other factors. Litecoin has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees, making it suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.

Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011, and the Litecoin Network went live five days later on Oct. 13, 2011. Since then, it has exploded in both usage and acceptance among merchants and has counted among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for most of its existence.

The cryptocurrency was created by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, who intended Litecoin to be a "lite version of Bitcoin," in that it features many of the same properties as Bitcoin—albeit lighter in weight.

Litecoin

Monero was launched in 2014, and its goal is simple: to allow transactions to take place privately and with anonymity. Even though it’s commonly thought that BTC can conceal a person’s identity, it’s often easy to trace payments back to their original source because blockchains are transparent. On the other hand, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography.

The team behind Monero say privacy and security are their biggest priorities, with ease of use and efficiency coming second. It aims to provide protection to all users — irrespective of how technologically competent they are.

Overall, XMR aims to allow payments to be made quickly and inexpensively without fear of censorship.

Monero

Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol — respectively a decentralized organization and a software platform, both based on the Ethereum blockchain — that allows users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin.

Initially conceived in 2015 and fully launched in December 2017, Maker is a project whose task is to operate DAI, a community-managed decentralized cryptocurrency with a stable value soft-pegged to the US dollar.

MKR tokens act as a kind of voting share for the organization that manages DAI; while they do not pay dividends to their holders, they do give the holders voting rights over the development of Maker Protocol and are expected to appreciate in value in accordance with the success of DAI itself.

The Maker ecosystem is one of the earliest projects on the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene: the industry that seeks to build decentralized financial products on top of smart-contract-enabled blockchains, such as Ethereum.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the original Ethereum (ETH) blockchain that launched in July 2015. Its main function is as a smart contract network, with the ability to host and support decentralized applications (DApps). Its native token is ETC.

Since its launch, Ethereum Classic has sought to differentiate itself from Ethereum, with the two networks’ technical roadmap diverging further and further from each other with time.

Ethereum Classic first set out to preserve the integrity of the existing Ethereum blockchain after a major hacking event led to the theft of 3.6 million ETH.

Ethereum Classic

OKB is a cryptocurrency released by the OK Blockchain Foundation and Maltese crypto exchange, OKEx. The exchange is one of the largest in the world andcurrently ranks third in liquidity, fourth in trading volume, and provides a wide selection of trading pairs. OKEx is similar in many aspects to the cryptocurrency exchange giantBinance, but there are a few key differences. The OKEx platform has its owncloud mining service, and the company has a more focused reach in providing options trading for users. Meanwhile, Binance strives to offer a broad range of crypto services globally.

OKB is the OKEx utility token that enables users to access the crypto exchange's special features. The coin is used to calculate and pay trading fees, grant users access to voting and governance on the platform, and reward users for holding OKB.

OKEx has become a world-leading trading floor since its launch in 2017. The platform launched in the spring of 2017 and emerged as an offshoot from the original OKCoin platform (operating since 2013 in China). OKCoin now focuses on exchanging fiat for crypto, while OKEx focuses on crypto trading with a built-inAPI for algorithmic trading. The exchange also gives users access to a multi-currency wallet and functions formargin trading.

Aave

In a nutshell, Cosmos bills itself as a project that solves some of the “hardest problems” facing the blockchain industry. It aims to offer an antidote to “slow, expensive, unscalable and environmentally harmful” proof-of-work protocols, like those used by Bitcoin, by offering an ecosystem of connected blockchains.

The project’s other goals include making blockchain technology less complex and difficult for developers thanks to a modular framework that demystifies decentralized apps. Last but not least, an Interblockchain Communication protocol makes it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other — preventing fragmentation in the industry.

Cosmos’ origins can be dated back to 2014, when Tendermint, a core contributor to the network, was founded. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published — and a token sale was held the following year. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help to keep the Cosmos Hub, the project’s flagship blockchain, secure. This cryptocurrency also has a role in the network’s governance.

Cosmos

Tezos is a high-performing blockchain and open-source platform for assets and applications, with a strong focus on code security, on-chain governance, and decentralization. Tezos 2.0, the upcoming step in the evolution of Tezos, aims to improve scalability (via layer 2s), composability, and to implement support to mainstream programming languages (like Javascript, Typescript, Python, and many others).

Initially built with formal verification in mind, the Tezos protocol enables builders to avoid bugs when developing smart contracts, making it particularly suited to applications that require a high degree of security and certainty.

Tezos’ LPoS (Liquid Proof-of-Stake) consensus mechanism enables any stakeholder to take part, directly or by delegation, in the consensus process, and to be rewarded for securing the network. Rather uniquely, Tezos’ on-chain governance system also enables stakeholders to create and vote on protocol upgrade proposals. This pioneering system allows the protocol to self-amend and upgrade itself without leading to a split (or fork) in the blockchain, empowering the community without slowing down innovation.

First proposed in 2014 and launched in 2018, the Tezos Mainnet has a proven track record of running uninterrupted ever since, having earned a strong reputation for technical excellence and a supportive community.

Tezos

Polkadot is an open-source sharded multichain protocol that connects and secures a network of specialized blockchains, facilitating cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens, thereby allowing blockchains to be interoperable with each other. Polkadot was designed to provide a foundation for a decentralized internet of blockchains, also known as Web3.

Polkadot is known as a layer-0 metaprotocol because it underlies and describes a format for a network of layer 1 blockchains known as parachains (parallel chains). As a metaprotocol, Polkadot is also capable of autonomously and forklessly updating its own codebase via on-chain governance according to the will of its token holder community.

Polkadot provides a foundation to support a decentralized web, controlled by its users, and to simplify the creation of new applications, institutions and services.

The Polkadot protocol can connect public and private chains, permissionless networks, oracles and future technologies, allowing these independent blockchains to trustlessly share information and transactions through the Polkadot Relay Chain (explained further down).

Polkadot’s native DOT token serves three clear purposes: staking for operations and security, facilitating network governance, and bonding tokens to  connect parachains .

Polkadot has four core components:

Relay Chain: Polkadot’s “heart,” helping to create consensus, interoperability and shared security across the network of different chains;

Parachains: independent chains that can have their own tokens and be optimized for specific use cases;

Parathreads: similar to parachains but with flexible connectivity based on an economical pay-as-you-go model;

Bridges: allow parachains and parathreads to connect and communicate with external blockchains like Ethereum.

Polkadot

Polygon (previously Matic Network) is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building multiple types of applications.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Polygon Matic.

Using Polygon, one can create optimistic rollup chains, ZK rollup chains, stand alone chains or any other kind of infra required by the developer.

Polygon effectively transforms Ethereum into a full-fledged multi-chain system (aka Internet of Blockchains). This multi-chain system is akin to other ones such as Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche etc. with the advantages of Ethereum’s security, vibrant ecosystem and openness.

The $MATIC token will continue to exist and will play an increasingly important role, securing the system and enabling governance.

Polygon (formerly Matic Network) is a Layer 2 scaling solution backed by Binance and Coinbase. The project seeks to stimulate mass adoption of cryptocurrencies by resolving the problems of scalability on many blockchains.

Polygon combines the Plasma Framework and the proof-of-stake blockchain architecture. The Plasma framework used by Polygon as proposed by the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, allows for the easy execution of scalable and autonomous smart contracts.

Nothing will change for the existing ecosystem built on the Plasma-POS chain. With Polygon, new features are being built around the existing proven technology to expand the ability to cater to diverse needs from the developer ecosystem. Polygon will continue to develop the core technology so that it can scale to a larger ecosystem.

Polygon boasts of up to 65,000 transactions per second on a single side chain, along with a respectable block confirmation time of less than two seconds. The framework also allows for the creation of globally available decentralized financial applications on a single foundational blockchain.

The Plasma framework gives Polygon the potential of housing an unlimited number of decentralized applications on their infrastructure without experiencing the normal drawbacks common on proof-of-work blockchains. So far, Polygon has attracted more than 50 DApps to its PoS-secured Ethereum sidechain.

MATIC, the native tokens of Polygon, is an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens are used for payment services on Polygon and as a settlement currency between users who operate within the Polygon ecosystem. The transaction fees on Polygon sidechains are also paid in MATIC tokens.

Polygon

Stellar (XLM) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized network created in 2014 by The Stellar Development Foundation or Stellar.org. The network officially launched in 2015 with the purpose of connecting the world's financial systems and ensuring a protocol for payment providers and financial institutions. The platform is designed to move financial resources swiftly and reliably at minimal cost. Stellar links people, banks, payment processors and allows users to create, send and trade multiple types of crypto.

The basis of the network is its native digital currency - XLM or Lumens. XLM acts as an intermediate currency for operations and is also used to pay transaction fees. How it works: the protocol converts money in a few seconds, first into XLM, and then into the requested currency.

The Stellar payment protocol is based on distributed ledger technology -- an open-source development, community-owned and distributed by community. The crypto asset of the Stellar platform helps with cross-border transactions, overcoming the problems of high fees and slow procedures. XLM is more focused on assisting individuals transfer money than they are with institutions. Thus, Stellar offers access to financial systems, and people can send money at low cost and promptly around the world.

Moreover, Stellar serves as a decentralized exchange and marketplace, with a built-in order book that tracks ownership of Stellar assets. Platform users can manage buy/sell orders, as well as select and set their preferred assets in settlements. XLM is a built-in coin that helps reduce transaction fees.

The network maintains a high level of security.  XLM holders must have at least one token in order to remain active on the network. This nuance performs a global goal - the execution of network transactions efficiently and with minimal time costs. Plus, Lumens offers protection against flood attacks by making microtransactions too expensive for hackers with no chance of profit, which keeps Stellar Network safe from serious threats.

The target audience of Stellar is the inhabitants of developing countries, ordinary users who are provided access to the global economy through fast, simple and inexpensive transactions. Stellar Network makes extensive use of Lumens to produce live convection as well as to send cash in multiple currencies; currency is sent from one peer, and the recipient can receive the amount in another currency. This feature is beneficial when a transaction is made between currencies without widely traded pairs.

Support for multi-currency transactions is another competitive advantage of Stellar, and the ability for cross-currency transactions has only enhanced processes with foreign operations. Moreover, stable speed and low transaction costs are a privilege that users receive.

This functionality is powered by a development called Anchors (a bridge between different currencies and the network), which simplifies the exchange within the network and helps speed up the whole process.

In summary, the benefits of Stellar (XLM) include: