Top 10 Stellar Blockchain APIs

Stellar is an open-source blockchain network launched in 2014 by the Stellar Development Foundation. It aims to connect banks, payment systems, and people to enable fast and low-cost cross-border payments.

Stellar transactions are confirmed in about 5 seconds and have minimal fees, making them affordable. The network supports over 180 countries and 20 digital assets where users can convert currencies into Stellar-based assets. Users can issue their own digital assets like stablecoins, representing any value such as currencies or commodities.

Anchors provide on-ramps to traditional financial systems. Stellar APIs are important for developers to build on Stellar, enabling applications that use its features. This blog explores the top Stellar APIs, helping developers and businesses use Stellar for innovative financial solutions.

Key Features of Stellar

Below are the key features of Stellar:

• Transaction Costs: Stellar offers very low transaction fees. This makes it affordable for users and businesses to send payments globally.
• Foreign Currency Transfers: Stellar facilitates efficient foreign currency transfers. It leverages its decentralized network to reduce the need for intermediaries and lower costs.
• Micropayments: Stellar supports micropayments with minimal fees. This enables microtransactions which are useful for services like pay-per-use tipping and small-scale financial exchanges.
• Anchors: Anchors are trusted entities on the Stellar network. They issue digital credits (tokens) in exchange for deposits. Anchors act as bridges between the Stellar network and traditional banking systems.
• Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP): The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) is a unique consensus mechanism. It provides fast secure and reliable transaction confirmations without the need for mining. This makes it more energy-efficient compared to traditional proof-of-work systems.
• Smart Contracts: Stellar supports simple smart contracts. These facilitate automated and programmable transactions. Smart contracts can be used for multi-signature transactions escrows and conditional payments.
• Cross-Border Payments: Stellar excels in cross-border payments. It provides a seamless and fast solution for international money transfers. This is especially beneficial for remittances and global business transactions.
• Asset Issuance: Users can issue their own assets on the Stellar network. This includes fiat currencies cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. This feature is valuable for businesses looking to tokenize assets or create stablecoins.

Top Stellar APIs

Below are the top stellar APIs available in the market:

Bitquery

Bitquery indexes data from over 40 blockchains and provides data over APIs and cloud solutions. This allows developers to build multichain solutions for compliance, DEX trading, NFT marketplaces, analytics, and more.

For Stellar, Bitquery has APIs to access real-time and historical Stellar information across various aspects of the network.

• Stellar Address API: Bitquery’s Stellar Address API allows you to retrieve detailed information about Stellar wallet addresses. You can access data such as balances and token holdings, enabling comprehensive analysis of specific addresses on the Stellar network.
• Stellar Liquidity Pools API: With the Stellar Liquidity Pools API, you can access and analyze effects from Stellar’s liquidity pools. This includes specific changes that occur within the ledger due to operations performed on the liquidity pools, providing insights into liquidity dynamics and pool interactions.
• Stellar Payments API: Bitquery’s Stellar Payments API enables you to access and analyze payment transactions on the Stellar network. This API provides detailed information about each payment, including amounts, currencies, issuers, timestamps, and paths, facilitating a deep understanding of payment flows and patterns.
• Stellar Trade Effects API: The Stellar Trade Effects API allows you to monitor and analyze the effects of successful trade operations. These effects represent specific changes in the ledger, offering a granular view of trading activities and their impacts.
• Stellar Transactions API: Through the Stellar Transactions API, you can access and analyze transactions on the Stellar network. This API offers detailed transaction data, enabling comprehensive analysis and integration into various applications.

Ankr

Ankr is a blockchain infrastructure platform that provides easy access to various blockchain networks. It offers decentralized cloud services for hosting blockchain nodes and APIs.

• Access to Stellar Network: Ankr provides reliable and secure access to the Stellar network through its RPC endpoints
• Scalable Infrastructure: It offers a scalable infrastructure for developers to build and deploy their applications on the Stellar network
• Easy Integration: Ankr’s services are designed for easy integration with existing applications and services
• Developer Tools: It provides a range of tools and resources to help developers get started with Stellar quickly
• Support and Documentation: Ankr offers comprehensive support and documentation to assist developers in using its services

NowNodes

NowNodes is a blockchain-as-a-service platform that offers access to various blockchain nodes via API. It focuses on providing fast and reliable access to blockchain networks.

• Stellar Node Access: NowNodes provides easy access to Stellar nodes through a simple API interface.
• High Availability: It ensures high availability of nodes for uninterrupted access to the Stellar network.
• Soroban Support: NowNodes also supports Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract platform, enhancing its functionality for developers.
• Fast Connections: NowNodes offers fast connections to the Stellar network to support high-performance applications.
• API Documentation: It provides detailed API documentation to help developers integrate Stellar node access into their applications.
• Customer Support: NowNodes offers customer support to assist developers with any issues they may encounter.

Blockchair

Blockchair is a blockchain explorer and analytics platform that supports multiple blockchains, including Stellar. It provides detailed insights and data about blockchain transactions and activities.

• Stellar Explorer: Blockchair provides a comprehensive explorer for the Stellar blockchain, allowing users to search and view transactions, blocks, and addresses.
• Data Analytics: It offers advanced analytics tools to analyze Stellar blockchain data
• API Access: Blockchair provides API access to Stellar blockchain data for developers to integrate into their applications.
• Custom Queries: Users can create custom queries to retrieve specific data from the Stellar blockchain.
• Detailed Documentation: Blockchair offers detailed documentation to help developers use its API effectively.

Lumenscan

Lumenscan is a dedicated explorer for the Stellar network. It offers a detailed Stellar scan, including transaction history, account balances, and more for the Stellar network.

• Comprehensive Explorer: Lumenscan provides a detailed explorer for the Stellar network, including transaction history, account balances, and more.
• Real-time Data: It offers real-time data and updates about the Stellar network.
• API Services: Lumenscan provides API services to access Stellar blockchain data programmatically.
• Offers Tracking: Lumenscan includes a feature to track offers on the Stellar network and provides insights into available and completed trades​.
• User-friendly Interface: It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and find information.
• Developer Resources: Lumenscan offers resources and support for developers to integrate its services into their applications.

QuickNode

QuickNode is a blockchain infrastructure platform that provides fast and reliable access to various blockchain networks, including Stellar. It focuses on performance and scalability.

• Stellar API Access: QuickNode offers API access to the Stellar network for developers to build and deploy their applications.
• High Performance: It ensures high-performance access to the Stellar network with low latency.
• Scalable Solutions: QuickNode provides scalable solutions to support the growing needs of blockchain applications.
• Comprehensive Documentation: It offers comprehensive documentation to help developers use its API effectively.
• Customer Support: QuickNode provides customer support to assist developers with any issues they may encounter.

Stellar Horizon API

The Stellar Horizon API is the official API provided by the Stellar Development Foundation. It allows developers to interact with the Stellar network programmatically.

• Official API: The Horizon API is the official API for interacting with the Stellar network.
• Access to Network Data: It provides access to all relevant network data, including transactions, accounts, and operations.
• API Endpoints: The Horizon API offers a variety of endpoints for different use cases, such as submitting transactions and querying network data.
• Detailed Documentation: The API comes with detailed documentation to help developers get started quickly.
• Community Support: Developers can access community support and resources provided by the Stellar Development Foundation.

Blockdaemon

Blockdaemon is a blockchain infrastructure platform that offers node management and API services for various blockchain networks, including Stellar.

• Node Management: Blockdaemon provides managed node services for the Stellar network, ensuring reliability and uptime.
• API Access: It offers API access to Stellar nodes for developers to build and deploy applications.
• Scalable Solutions: Blockdaemon provides scalable infrastructure solutions to meet the needs of growing applications.
• Soroban Support: Blockdaemon also supports Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract platform, enhancing the network’s functionality and developer capabilities.
• Security Features: It offers robust security features to protect the integrity and availability of the Stellar network.
• Developer Support: Blockdaemon provides support and resources to help developers integrate its services effectively.

Conclusion

In this blog, we explored the top Stellar APIs available. These tools provide essential services for accessing and interacting with the Stellar network. We also highlighted features of each API such as support for liquidity pools, payments, trade effects, and transactions. Using these APIs can enhance your ability to build, analyze, and innovate within the Stellar ecosystem.

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Written by Aarthy R