XRP vs. Stellar (XLM)
Why XRP and Stellar are so similar in design, and how their history, governance, and goals diverge.
Of all the comparisons in this wiki, XRP and Stellar's native asset XLM are the most closely related — for a very direct reason: Stellar was created by Jed McCaleb, one of the three original co-creators of the XRP Ledger, after he left Ripple in 2014. See Key People and Timeline of Major Events for that history.
Shared architectural DNA
Stellar's consensus protocol (the Stellar Consensus Protocol, or SCP) and the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol are both variants of federated Byzantine agreement, reflecting their shared conceptual origin — both rely on a network of trusted nodes voting toward agreement rather than proof-of-work mining, both target fast settlement (a few seconds), and both support native issued-asset and trust-line-style functionality directly at the protocol level, rather than requiring smart contracts for basic tokenization.
| XRP / XRP Ledger | XLM / Stellar | |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto (2011–2012) | Jed McCaleb, Joyce Kim (2014) |
| Primary steward | Ripple (a for-profit company) and independent community validators | Stellar Development Foundation (a non-profit) |
| Target users | Historically emphasized banks and large payment providers | Historically emphasized financial inclusion, remittances, and underbanked users |
| Consensus | XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol | Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) |
| Supply model | Fixed 100 billion at genesis, only decreasing | Originally had ongoing annual inflation, later removed; supply management differs from XRP's model |
Why McCaleb built a separate network instead of just forking
McCaleb's stated motivation for creating Stellar was philosophical and organizational as much as technical — disagreements over Ripple's direction, its for-profit corporate structure, and its target customers (banks and large institutions) led him to found Stellar under a non-profit foundation model, explicitly aimed at a different mission emphasizing accessibility for individuals and smaller institutions, particularly in underbanked regions.
Governance structure differs meaningfully
Stellar is stewarded primarily by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation, whereas the XRP Ledger's most prominent steward is Ripple, a for-profit company (though, as explained in XRP vs. XRPL vs. Ripple, Ripple does not own or unilaterally control the XRPL). This organizational difference has shaped each network's public positioning and partnership strategy over the years, even though the underlying technical approaches remain closely related.
Bottom line
If you understand how the XRP Ledger works, you're most of the way to understanding how Stellar works too — the two are close technical cousins, separated more by organizational philosophy, governance structure, and target market than by fundamentally different technology.