What is Ripple?

Difference between Ripple and XRP

Almost all people are either unware of it or they get confused to understand the difference between Ripple and XRP. Most people also think that both of them are the same thing; the name of a cryptocurrency. No they're not, very few actually know that they are two different things. So today, I'll be clearing out all your doubts regarding this.

Ripple is a blockchain-based digital payment network of the Ripple company while XRP is the cryptocurrency which is built upon that digital payment platform. Ripple network is open-source and is not based on blockchain, but rather a distributed ledger database. Ripple explains it's goal is to enable secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks. And you can transact any currency on the Ripple platform. It claims that it can settle transactions in 3-5 seconds.

History of Ripple

Ripple started as RipplePay, a money transfer medium, by software developer Ryan Fugger in 2004. It wasn't a blockchain or cryptocurrency company back then. The company's vision changed when Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz joined the team. They tried to look beyond bitcoin and wanted to built their own blockchain platform with it's own cryptocurrency. Then the Ripple distributed ledger was released in 2012 with releasing the XRP tokens in the same year. 

Then McCaleb left Ripple in 2014, going on to co-found Stellar (XML).

How does Ripple work?

According to their website, The ledger is maintained by independent participants of a global “XRP Community,” of which Ripple is an active member.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) does not employ a proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, as seen with Bitcoin’s blockchain, or a proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm, as with the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain. Instead, the XRP Ledger relies on a setup called the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol to validate account balances and perform transactions.

Independent validator nodes come to an agreement on the order and validity of XRP transactions. This agreement, called consensus, serves as final and irreversible settlement. The ledger reaches consensus on all outstanding transactions every 3-5 seconds, at which point a new ledger is issued. Anyone can be a validator, and active validators on the ledger today include universities, exchanges and financial institutions. There are currently 36 validators, and Ripple runs 6 of them—16%.

XRP Price, Supply and Market capitalization

At the time of writing each XRP token is trading nearly at $0.7245. XRP touched an astonishing all time high of $3.4 during it's 2018 bull run, then it started falling and fell as low as below $0.2 before again starting it's up-run. Currently it is ranked as the #6th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap by CoinMarketCap as it has a market capitalization of $33,410,274,312.50. It has a circulating supply of 46,312,443,360 XRP coins and a max. supply of 100,000,000,000 XRP coins.

Where to buy XRP?

XRP is available for buy almost in all the major crypto exchanges across the world, the top exchanges for trading in XRP are currently Binance, Upbit, Tokocrypto, OKEx, and Bybit. Choose your exchange based on your location and convenience.

Should you Invest in XRP?

While some might find the vision and benefits for XRP compelling, White is worried the SEC lawsuit could create trouble for those looking to buy into it. “They are positioning themselves as a settlement layer for regulated companies, but they’re also deep in a dispute with the SEC. None of the customers they would love to be onboarding can really start to use XRP until Ripple has gotten their legal woes figured out,” he says.

It is important to note that although the Ripple company harnesses the XRP Ledger and XRP coin in various capacities, the XRP Ledger and XRP coin are independent of the Ripple company, according to ample statements and material issued by the company itself over the years of operating.

Investing in cryptocurrencies is subject to very high risk and high volatility which could lead to unrecoverable losses. So investing in any type of cryptocurrencies should be done only after a lot of research and taking a few factors into consideration. So, always do your own research before investing in cryptocurrencies.