Ripple also referred to as Ripple protocol or Ripple Transaction protocol (RTXP) is one of the most famous cryptocurrencies that are freely traded around the world. Developed by the American technology firm Ripplepay, it exists and relies on the XRP Ledger- an open-source blockchain. However, Ripple has historically fallen in the shadow of both Bitcoin and Ethereum, escaping some of the buzz surrounding it. Well, you might not be knowing that Ripple is far beyond a cryptocurrency token as it is intended to function as a real-time gross settlement system, exchange system, and remittance network. In this write-up, we have discussed each feature of Ripple that will help you judge whether it’s suitable for investment.
What is the goal of Ripple?
Since its initial days, Ripple propagated itself as the “future of banking”. Although this might sound pretentious at the present moment, the company is set to come up with a revamped settlement system that will surpass the existing technological infrastructure for settlements, remittances, and financial exchanges. This advanced settlement system will be extremely cost-effective and will be free from the lacunas of existing settlement systems like high failure rates.
Understanding RippleNet
The company described Ripple Net as a new global payment infrastructure that will connect all the senders and receivers of money, such as banks, businesses, payment providers and digital asset exchanges. The idea here is to leverage blockchain technology in order to create a viable alternative to traditional, outdated, irregular and fragmented payment systems. Also, RippleNet will be using a decentralized framework, allowing its customers a single access point into a global network. Finally, it is going to boost the certainty of flawless settlements, through offering end-to-end visibility of fees, delivery time and status.
The Ripple token (XRP)
Ripple(XRP) is RippleNet’s native currency was designed in order to be used by businesses to source liquidity in cross-national payments. It was developed in order to comply with previous goals of RippleNet i.e., coming up with a fast and cost-efficient transaction compared to other cryptocurrencies.
Well, Ripple is very fast compared to traditional settlement systems and is also highly competitive compared to other cryptocurrencies. In fact, Ripple transactions are faster than Ethereum transactions, which takes two minutes for processing, or Bitcoin transactions which can take an hour. Moreover, it can support the high-volume transaction required by a real-time settlement system. It can handle approximately 1,500 transactions every second.
Ripple, the company & Ripple, the token
While Ripple(the company) and Ripple ( the cryptocurrency) are often used interchangeably, the company Ripple encompasses a broad area than the XRP Ripple token. The company Ripple primarily develops payment software for banks and primarily deals in software solutions. On the other hand, there are three transaction solutions built on RippleNet including xCurrent, xRapid, and xVia. xCurrent is the most advanced payment processing software to be built using RippleNet. xRapid is a Ripple initiative aimed at lowering the liquidity cost of cross-border payments. xVia is Ripple’s least-developed solution so-far, however, this does not mean that it is without any potential.
How to buy Ripple (XRP)
The simplest way to purchase Ripple tokens is through one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges online. However, this can also be done through first purchasing Bitcoin or Ethereum, and then swapping this cryptocurrency for Ripple.
While there are many cryptocurrencies, Ripple is quite different from them. But it remains to be seen whether Ripple can successfully supersede the place of the fragmented, traditional payment systems. However, there are some hurdles that need to be cleared first. Financial institutions have mainly relied on RippleNet for testing, which means that this functionality needs to be expanded if Ripple truly intends it to replace legacy settlement systems.
