Stellar Dedicated Node

The Stellar network was created in 2014. XLM coins are used in the network. In many ways, the network is based on the software code of the Ripple network. Therefore, it cannot be said that there is a Stellar blockchain. Instead, Stellar mainnet uses a modernized version of Ripple's decentralized registry. Since all 100 billion coins were created simultaneously when the network launched, XLM mining is not possible. A fixed fee of 0.00001 XLM is charged per transaction between Stellar nodes. The network has a high speed - transactions occur in less than 5 seconds. At the same time, the bandwidth of the network is about 1000 transactions per second (TPS). Many projects, including stablecoin USDC, are based on the XLM distributed ledger. A powerful Stellar API is available to developers.

The Stellar algorithm is called the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). Its essence is that the XLM nodes continuously poll each other to see who has the most complete transaction database. Each complete XLM node stores a complete database of transactions in the blockchain. To avoid overloading the network with unnecessary polling, XLM nodes poll only other XLM nodes with a balance greater than 20 XLM coins. The transaction is passed between Stellar nodes until the last one is convinced that it can be included in the Stellar blockchain. The new state of the network is synchronized between all XLM nodes. This system prevents forks in the network. Transaction fees are shared between the nodes that were involved in validating the transaction. Each user can install and configure the software for the Stellar node.

In the XLM network, there are "anchors" on which a certain amount of fiat money is blocked. Opening such a Stellar dedicated node requires a balance of 35 XLM coins. They are used for communication between banking institutions in different countries. The Stellar node Watcher is only for transmitting transactions over the network. It is the lightest XLM node. The Stellar node Basic Validator can enter transactions into a distributed registry. XLM node Full Validator not only can enter transactions into the distributed registry, but also keeps a complete copy of the distributed registry of the network. Often XLM node Full Validator is a Stellar dedicated node with high hardware requirements. Stellar node Archiver is an XLM archive blockchain node (XLM history blockchain node) that only stores transaction history.

Stellar dedicated nodes are of particular importance for developers of web3 apps, dApps and blockchain smart contracts on the network. Installing and setting up a XLM node is extremely difficult even for experienced programmers. Therefore, a good solution is blockchain node as a service. Such a service will save a lot of hassle of installing and configuring a Stellar dedicated node.

XLM API serves as the bridge between dApps and Stellar Core. ItI is called the Horizon API. Horizon has support for both XLM mainnet and testnet. The coins in XLM testnet have no value. That way developers can test their web3 apps, dApps and blockchain smart contracts without the risk of losing XLM coins. Horizon delivers the JSON RPC blockchain API and provides a streaming mechanism for receiving events in near real time. Horizon's API is accessed by developers via the Stellar SDK. Overall, Horizon's XLM API capabilities and potential are very high. However, the protocol potential can only be fully unlocked by using Stellar dedicated nodes.