This year turned out to be terrific for crypto currency. Two weeks before the new year, the total market capitalization of about 1340 CryptoCoins is $ 437 billion, which is almost 2400% more than it was in January. The impression is that investors had to poke a finger at random into any of the largest virtual currencies, and in less than a year it would bring money for the rest of their lives.

FUEL FOR CRYPTO RALLY
Bitcoin is the "face" of all the Crypto-currency, and for the year it managed to rise from $ 937 to almost $ 19,000. Its market capitalization of $ 268 billion allowed to overtake such "strong" industrial index of Dow Jones, like Visa, Procter & Gamble and Chevron.

The euphoria around digital currencies almost all owes much to the admiration of block-technology. It can be considered as an infrastructure on which crypto-currencies are "built". You probably already know about the wonderful advantages of distributed databases.

It is believed that Bitcoin and the underlying blocking technology are responsible for such a rapid growth of the industry in the first place.

I'M SORRY, WHAT? BITCOIN? BETTER GREET STELLAR LUMENS
Currently, BTC receives the greatest attention of crypto investors, given its dominance in market capitalization and commercial acceptance. There is no common virtual currency. It is also the first cryptocoyin whose futures started (or start) trading on the platforms of CBOE Global Markets and CME Group . But still it is not the only crypto currency, on which eyes are fixed.

Meet - Stellar Lumens . These "lumens" were the 13th largest crypto asset as of December 10 with a market capitalization of $ 2.28 billion. But that was not always the case: from March 20 to December 10, 2017, this added to the price of 6300%! The reason lies in the blockade of this network.

First of all, in the Stellar blockbuster, smart contract protocols are built in by default. They help to provide, verify or negotiate a transaction, ensuring the effectiveness of p2p and b2b transactions.

In addition, the Stellar system is distinguished by its rapid processing. This network conduct payment transactions in 2-5 seconds. Given how long it takes for international transfers or how long internal transactions can last on weekends, the Stellar block may well fill this void.

STELLAR "SNATCHED" THE FIRST LARGE ENTERPRISE CUSTOMER
The most interesting is that Stellar has already managed to get a big partner in the guise of IBM , which recently announced the success of the next blockbuster project. As announced in October, IBM and KlickEx have partnered with Stellar to use the latter's blocking technology to provide cheaper and faster international transactions. IMB, which generates billions in profits from customers around the world, has connected a dozen international banks to work on the project.

Here is what Jed McCaleb, one of the founders of Stellar, said:

"Innovation and this new cooperation represent an important milestone for both Stellar and the entire financial technology industry. Block-technology for the first time will be used in production to provide international payments in several interconnected currency corridors. Currently, the clearing of such payments takes up to several days. The new initiative is ready to bring significant changes to the South Pacific region, and when IBM and partner banks deploy it at full capacity, it will be able to change the way money flows around the world. "

This partnership led to the "intersection" of the Stellar and Ripple courses, which is also going to make its blocking the key in international payments. More recently, Ripple has partnered with American Express and Banco Santander to test international non-card payments. The bottom line is that such transactions can be carried out instantly, which is a huge advantage in comparison with several days of waiting, typical for the current calculations.

WARNING
While all this is terrific news for investors in Stellar lumens, it would be unforgivable not to point out two important issues.

First, large enterprises have a lot - really MUCH - blocking options for choice. Most of the 1300+ existing crypto-currencies are based on block-technology. It may take years before the "favorite" block of the big business is determined. Moreover, there is practically no threshold for entry into the development: if you have time, money and a team of intelligent developers, you yourself can create a decentralized database that someone will want to deal with.

The second problem is that the virtual currencies associated with these blockers are able to break away from reality. It is not clear (at least in some cases) how these crypto-currencies will cope with the wider use of technology.

Cryptocoins of some blockers are a way of instant exchange of currencies. This is what can happen with lumens Stellar , Ripple and other crypto assets. But the connection between virtual currencies and their blockbusters is sometimes confusing. This means that assessing the value of these currencies may not always be justified.

In other words: buyers, be vigilant.