Decentralized network
分布式网络
A decentralized network consists of peers that can run independently of each other. The power to transmit information is distributed among a network of servers, instead of being driven from one primary source. This means that the Stellar network does not depend on any single entity. The idea is to have as many independent servers participate in the Stellar network as possible, so that the network will still run successfully even if some servers fail.
分布式网络由可以相互之间独立运行的节点构成。传递信息的权利分布在网络服务器中，而不是单一主来源。这意味着恒星网络不依赖任何单一实体。我们的想法是让尽可能多的独立服务器参与到恒星网络中来，从而即使有一些服务器不可用，恒星网络依然可以正常运作。
Ledger
Like a traditional ledger, the Stellar ledger records a list of all the balances and transactions belonging to every single account on the network. A complete copy of the global Stellar ledger is hosted on each server that runs the Stellar software. Any entity can run a Stellar server. These servers form a decentralized Stellar network, allowing the ledger to be distributed as widely as possible. The servers sync and validate the ledger by a mechanism known as consensus.
如同传统的总账，恒星总账记录着网络上所有账户余额和交易的清单。全局恒星总账的完整副本托管在每个运行恒星软件的服务器上。任何实体都可以运行一个恒星服务器。这些服务器形成了一个分布式的恒星网络，允许总账分布尽可能的广泛。服务器同步和验证总账的机制被称为共识。
Consensus
共识
The Stellar servers communicate and sync with each other to ensure that transactions are valid and get applied successfully to the global ledger. For example, if you want to send $5 to a friend on the network, a list of trusted servers will begin a process to agree on the validity of your $5 payment to your friend. The majority of these servers will have to agree that you do in fact own $5 worth of credit on the network before they will mark the transaction as valid. This entire process of coming to consensus on the Stellar network occurs approximately every 2-5 seconds. We have a whitepaper describing the technical process of consensus, to be released in 2015.
恒星服务器之间互相通讯和同步以确保交易有效并成功添加到全局总账。例如，当你要给网络上的一个朋友发送五美元时，一组被信任的服务器会开始一个流程——对你的支付行为，达成一致认定其有效。你需要在网络中拥有五美元的等价物，并被大多数服务器所承认，然后它们会将交易标记为有效。在恒星网络中，达成共识的整个过程大约每2-5秒进行一次。我们会在2015年发布描述共识技术过程的白皮书。
Gateways, trust, and credit
网关，信任和等价物
Gateways are simply entities that people trust to hold their deposits and issue credits into the Stellar network for those deposits. They act as a bridge between different currencies and the Stellar network. All money transactions in the Stellar network (except the native digital currency of stellars) occur in the form of credit issued by gateways. Gateways do two simple things:
- They take your deposit and issue the corresponding credit to your wallet address on the Stellar ledger.
- You can make a withdrawal by bringing them credit they issued.
You have to trust the gateway to honor your deposits and withdrawals of credit it has issued. Gateways exist in the pre-stellar world now. For example, to use Paypal, you deposit money in from your bank account. Paypal then gives you credit in your Paypal account. You can now send that Paypal credit to anyone that trusts Paypal (anyone with a Paypal account). Someone that received your Paypal credit can convert it to real money using Paypal by withdrawing it to the bank. Gateways perform the same function in Stellar. The difference is, all the “Paypals” and other gateways are operating on the same network so they can all transact with each other now – this makes the system way more powerful. People can now easily send and exchange all these different gateway credits with each other.
网关是简单的实体，人们能够信任它，放心的由它持有他们的存款，并为他们的存款在恒星网络里发行等价物。网关在不同的货币和恒星网络之间扮演着桥梁的角色。恒星网络中所有的货币交易（除了STR）动作，都是由网关发行的等价物的形式进行。网关完成两件简单的事情：
- 接受存入并发行相应的等价物到你的钱包地址，这会记录到恒星总账上。
- 你可以将等价物还给网关，并取回你的存款，完成取现动作。
你必须信任网关能够兑现你的存款及利用其发行的等价物取现。在恒星出现之前，即有网关存在了。例如，要使用Paypal，你必须从你的银行账户将钱存入Paypal。Paypal随后在你的Paypal账户上给你增加同样的数额。这时你可以把这些等价物发送给任意信任Paypal的人（即拥有Paypal账户的人）。收到这些等价物的人可以使用取现到银行的动作将其换成真实货币。在恒星网络里，网关实现相同的功能。不同的是，所有这些“Paypal”和其它网关在同一个系统运营，因此他们可以彼此交易——这使系统愈发强大。人们彼此之间可以随心所欲的发送和交换不同网关发行的等价物。
Distributed Exchange
分布式交易
The Stellar ledger is able to store offers that people have made to buy or sell currencies. Offers are public commitments to exchange one type of credit for another at a pre-determined rate. The ledger becomes a global marketplace for offers. All these offers form what is called an orderbook. There is an orderbook for each currency/issuer pair. So if you are wanting to exchange Virgin Bank/EUR for bitstamp/BTC you look at that particular order book in the ledger to see what people are buying and selling it for. This allows people to not only buy and sell currencies in a foreign exchange like manner but also to convert currencies seamlessly during transactions.
恒星总账能够储存人们发起的买卖货币的报价。报价是以预定比率交换两种等价物的公开承诺。总账这时成为一个全局的报价市场。所有这些报价构成了所谓的orderbook。每一种货币对都会有orderbook。所以如果你想将Virgin Bank/EUR换成bitstamp/BTC，你就要在总账里找寻特定的orderbook，看看售卖情况。这不仅能让人们买卖外汇，而且能够在交易中无缝转换货币。
Multi-currency transactions
多币种交易
Stellar allows you to send any currency you hold to anyone else in a different currency through the built-in distributed exchange. People can receive any currency through a gateway they added. For example, Amy wants to send Bob euros, using her USD balance. Stellar automatically submits an offer to the distributed exchange selling USD for EUR. The network finds the best exchange rate for the transaction. Here’s a few possible ways the transaction can happen:
恒星允许您能够通过内置的分布式交易方式发送你持有的任意币种，而对方收到不同的币种。人们可以通过添加的网关接收不同的货币。例如，Amy想要使用她的USD余额给Bob发送欧元。恒星会自动的向分布式交易所提交一个报价，提供USD/EUR买单。网络会为交易选择最佳利率，以下是几种可能发生的交易方式：
Conversion through an offer
通过报价转换
Stellar finds an offer on the internal USD/EUR exchange for someone wanting to buy EUR for USD and automatically makes the exchange between the two parties.
恒星在内部的USD/EUR交易所发现有人提供报价想要用美元购买欧元，并自动促成双方交换。
Using stellars as an intermediary currency
使用恒星币作为中介货币
Stellar looks for offers on the network asking for USD in exchange for stellars (the native — purely digital — currency). It simultaneously looks for an offer asking for stellars in exchange for euros. The network makes those exchanges and sends Bob the resulting euro credit.
恒星在网络上查找用美元交换恒星币的挂单，同时也查找用恒星币交换欧元的挂单。网络促成这些交换并发送给Bob欧元等价物。
Chain of conversions
链式转换
If there are no explicit relationship between offers to buy and sell, Stellar tries to find offers from the network that will lead a chain of conversions from EUR to USD. For example, EUR to AUD, AUD to BTC, BTC to STR, STR to USD.
如果在买卖报价之间没有明确的关系（以上两种方式），恒星会尝试在网络上查找报价，并发起一个从欧元到美元的链式转换。例如，欧元到澳元，澳元到比特币，比特币到恒星币，恒星币到美元。