Nuls (NULS) is a Singaporean based project is trying to develop a highly adaptable blockchain that can be used for enterprise solutions. They have regularly used the phrase “Nuls is nothing, Nuls is everything”. In other words, Nuls is not traditionally defined and can be melded into anything that the community sees fit. Nuls is looking to solve the problems faced by blockchains by creating one that features modularity and sub-chain operability. The two part design of functional modules and microkernels will provide both an underlying network mechanism and compartmentalized features for the blockchain.Essentially this should provide scalability and security to the blockchain, while adhering to the programming practices of low coupling and high cohesion. And because the blockchain is designed to be modular, it becomes hot pluggable, allowing for the addition or removal of modules at any time. There are several blockchain problems inhibiting growth and development of the industry that have been identified by the Nuls team. One such issue is the cost of development. Because there is a shortage of blockchain proficient developers, those with skills can command higher salaries.This is simply demand exceeding supply and will eventually level out as more IT professionals learn blockchain skills. That’s when businesses will see greater adoption of the technology, and only the most trustworthy blockchains will be of interest. Nuls is working to make trustworthy solutions to business problems. Nuls is primarily focused on making blockchain more accessible for developers and businesses. It seeks to do this through its modularity and the use of sub-chains, and hopes to break the complexity associated with blockchain projects, while also solving the scalability issue that is hindering the growth of the industry. Nuls will make trust simpler, increasing the adoption rate of blockchain technology by businesses. They will also lower the cost of entry by removing complexity and increasing the supply of developers capable of programming blockchain applications. Taken all together, the Nuls ecosystem will benefit developers, businesses, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts by providing needed solutions and increasing usage and adoption of blockchain technology. Check out CoinBureau for the full review of Nuls.
The Stellar network is an open source, distributed, and community owned network used to facilitate cross-asset transfers of value. Stellar aims to help facilitate cross-asset transfer of value at a fraction of a penny while aiming to be an open financial system that gives people of all income levels access to low-cost financial services. Stellar can handle exchanges between fiat-based currencies and between cryptocurrencies. Stellar.org, the organization that supports Stellar, is centralized like XRP and meant to handle cross platform transactions and micro transactions like XRP. However, unlike Ripple, Stellar.org is non-profit and their platform itself is open source and decentralized. Stellar was founded by Jed McCaleb in 2014. Jed McCaleb is also the founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple, launched the network system Stellar with former lawyer Joyce Kim. Stellar is also a payment technology that aims to connect financial institutions and drastically reduce the cost and time required for cross-border transfers. In fact, both payment networks used the same protocol initially. Distributed Exchange Through the use of its intermediary currency Lumens (XLM), a user can send any currency that they own to anyone else in a different currency. For instance, if Joe wanted to send USD to Mary using her EUR, an offer is submitted to the distributed exchange selling USD for EUR. This submitted offer forms is known as an order book. The network will use the order book to find the best exchange rate for the transaction in-order to minimize the fee paid by a user. This multi-currency transaction is possible because of 'Anchors'. Anchors are trusted entities that hold people’s deposits and can issue credit. In essence, Anchors serves as the bridge between different currencies and the Stellar network. Lumens (XLM) Lumens are the native asset (digital currency) that exist on the Stellar network that helps to facilitate multi-currency transactions and prevent spams. For multi-currency transactions, XLM is the digital intermediary that allows for such a transaction to occur at a low cost. In-order to prevent DoS attacks (aka spams) that would inevitably occur on the Stellar network, a small fee of 0.00001 XLM is associated with every transaction that occurs on the network. This fee is small enough so it does not significantly affect the cost of transaction, but large enough so it dissuades bad actors from spamming the network. The collected fee is then redistributed and added to an inflation pool. This inflation pool releases Lumens at a rate of 1% each year.