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**Company Description:**
Move Money Across Borders Quickly, Reliably, And For Fractions Of A Penny.
Stellar is a distributed, hybrid blockchain that is fully open-source. It is infrastructure that exists to facilitate cross-asset transfers of value, including payments. With just one integration into the Stellar Network, you will join an open, global financial network where all actors – be they people, payment networks, or banks – have equal access & economic participation.
**Reference:** Taken directly from Stellar official website, www.stellar.org.


**Average Broke Guy’s Translation in Lehman’s terms:**
Stellar is a non-profit company that aims to streamline financial transactions across the world. It’s run on a completely open source, decentralized platform. Transactions are made in lumens (XLM), Stellar’s native currency. All lumen transfers are finalized in a matter of seconds,  making Stellar Lumens one of the fastest cryptocurrencies in existence. Furthermore, Stellar’s transaction fees are very affordable at a fraction of a cent per transaction.

**Things to Consider:**
Many people compare Stellar to Ripple. While there are many similarities, the differences are what make Stellar shine. Stellar is actually a hard fork off Ripple. It’s founder, Jeb McCaleb, was Ripple’s Co-Founder. McCaleb had a different vision from his Ripple colleagues.  Due to this, he decided to leave Ripple so he was free to purse that vision. The hard fork off Ripple created Stellar and completed McCaleb’s vision of a decentralized platform and currency. One capable of near instant transactions and the ability to create smart contracts. This has led many companies to perform their ICO’s on top of the Stellar network. This gives Ethereum some much needed competition in my opinion. 
Stellar also rewards lumen users and holders with inflation every week. Lumen holders are able to register their public address and receive a small amount of free lumens every week. The amount is based on the number of transactions in and out of your wallet, as well as the amount of lumens held. 

**PRO’S:**
-Great Team
-Functioning tech that’s being used to solve real world problems
-Strong Community of supporters
-Other Companies building on the Stellar Platform
-Strategic Roadmap
-Great Vision
-Decentralized
-Completely Open source 

**CON’S:**
-Faces Competition from Ripple (although they have different target markets)
-Has not yet achieved mass adoption

**Average Broke Guy’s Risk Rating:**
Short Term: LOW
Long Term: MEDIUM  

**Average Broke Guy’s Closing Thoughts:**
Stellar is one of my top picks. It’s a very strong company and certainly one to watch in 2018. I highly recommend people do a deep dive into Stellar’s fundamentals. This coin is an excellent long term hold in my opinion.  
**Disclaimer:**
All Cryptocurrency coins and tokens are highly risky investments. Risk rating is based on a comparison to other cryptocurrencies. I am NOT a financial expert nor am I giving financial advice. All information given in this article is purely for entertainment purposes. Do your own research when investing and never invest more than you can afford to loose.