The distributed payments network Stellar has announced it will create a for-profit spin-off dedicated to helping big players integrate its software.
The new project, dubbed Lightyear.io, will allow for growth of the Stellar ecosystem while allowing core progress to remain with the extant development team.
“This is not just a business opportunity but also will greatly accelerate network adoption, increase the overall utility of the Stellar network and overall will be very positive for the ecosystem,” Stellar founder Jed McCaleb wrote in a blog post.
“But…this isn’t what [Stellar Development Foundation] was designed to do. These activities are much better served by a dedicated for-profit company and that is why we are setting up Lightyear.io.”
Prime targets of the splinter company are big banks, a partnership with which will take Stellar to a new level of mainstream functionality.
“Lightyear won’t be a privileged actor in the system and no one will be forced to use it. We expect other companies will come along to compete with it,” McCaleb continued.
“SDF will continue to implement its technical roadmap for stellar core and horizon.”
Stellar’s Lumens token has seen unprecedented growth in value over the last month. Itself an offshoot of Ripple, the latter’s own surge could go some way to explaining Stellar’s new vogue among investors.