Modern cryptocurrencies are intriguing not only as a means of payment but also for their technology, which allows them to be used in a variety of areas of human existence.
Ripple, which ranks third after Bitcoin and Ethereum, is one of the most promising and technically appealing cryptocurrencies. In this article, we will discuss what is fascinating about cryptocurrency and why many investors and experts believe in Ripple.
What is Ripple?
In the cryptocurrency world, Ripple is causing a lot of misunderstandings. The name is frequently used to refer to the platform as well as the network’s native money. They do, however, have their differences.
So, before we look into where to get Ripple, let’s have a look at what Ripple is. Ripple, the payment protocol, is frequently mistaken with XRP, the cryptocurrency. To avoid any misunderstandings, We’ll refer to Ripple as the payments protocol and XRP as the token (currency) that runs on the network throughout this article.
Ripple is a global payment, settlement, and exchange network. Its goal is to make present banking systems better. The two issues that Ripple aims to address with banks today are:
- Transaction timings are slow.
- Cross-border payments are prohibitively expensive.
Ripple is not like Bitcoin or other truly decentralized cryptocurrencies. Rather than replacing banks, it was created to function alongside them. The Ripple protocol can be compared to the internet for banks in that it allows all banks to interact in a common language.
How does RippleNet work?
In today’s world, speed is crucial. Participants in the traditional, institutional money transfer sector must deal with each other on a worldwide scale, effectively figuring out how to operate with diverse systems that may or may not be easily compatible. RippleNet is essentially a global network that adheres to a set of guidelines and rules, making interactions between users simpler, smoother, and more transparent while lowering costs and transaction times.
Due to the various systems involved in the process, traditional centralized financial institutions can take days to execute transactions. This can make the present landscape slow, error-prone, and costly, and have a detrimental influence on corporate transaction efficiency.
RippleNet also has an On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) function, which eliminates the requirement for pre-funding in cross-border transactions. So, how does ODL function? When one entity wants to move money across national borders, they may have different currencies on hand. If one party lives in Sweden, for example, they may not want to receive Canadian dollars. RippleNet’s ODL can support transactions with each side sending and receiving their native currency by using XRP as a go-to between two separate fiat kinds.
When it comes to the speed, efficiency, and cost of communication and data transportation — the result of technology innovation — the conventional world of money transfer is out of date. Ripple’s solutions are aimed at bringing the global money transfer world up to speed in the long run.
Sending money worldwide in the traditional world, as far as centralized financial institutions are concerned, might include a number of procedures. Transaction timings and prices vary, but they are normally expensive and take a day or two to complete, with the sender incurring the transaction costs. RippleNet, on the other hand, reduces transaction costs and speeds up transactions.
What Is XRP and how does it work?
The XRP Ledger was created by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz. McCaleb and Britto went on to develop Ripple, which uses XRP to conduct network transactions. You can acquire XRP as an investment, a token to trade for other cryptocurrencies or a way to fund Ripple network transactions.
XRP’s blockchain, in particular, differs from that of most other cryptos. Other cryptocurrencies make their transaction ledgers and verification processes available to anybody who can swiftly solve difficult equations, but transactions are secure since the majority of ledger holders must agree to the verification before they can be added.
Instead, the Ripple network, on which XRP is based, slightly centralizes matters: while anyone can download its validation software, it maintains a list of “unique node lists” that users can use to validate transactions based on those participants they believe are least likely to cheat them. It presently has 35 trusted validators on its default list. Ripple chooses which validators to approve for this list, as well as constructs six of the validation nodes. Users can, however, opt out of this default list and, in theory, remove Ripple-backed validators entirely from their transactions, instead of creating their own trusted validator lists. This would enable the network to continue authorizing transactions even if Ripple as a company was no longer active or even existed.
Validators update their ledgers every three to five seconds when new transactions arrive, ensuring that they match the other ledgers. If there is a mismatch, they will stop to figure out what went wrong. This enables Ripple to validate transactions in a secure and timely manner, giving it an advantage over competing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Both the Ripple protocol and XRP are already in use by banks. | It’s difficult to estimate how much XRP is used. |
| When XRP is used to pay for a transaction, it is burned. Although this is a small quantity, the number of XRP in circulation is dwindling. The value of each coin should rise if there is a demand for XRP. | The possibility that Ripple, the firm, could crash the entire market by releasing the currency they’ve been holding back, should be a source of concern. |
| It simplifies international payments and swaps. Ripple has the potential to become the global economy’s backbone. | Ripple permits balances to be frozen in order to gain official approval. This should be a warning to everyone who is enthralled by Bitcoin’s and other cryptos’ permissionless nature. |
| On the Ripple network, completing a transaction costs only 0.0001 XRP, which is a fraction of a penny at current values. | |
| The confirmation of a transaction is quite quick. They usually take four to five seconds, compared to the days it may take a bank to execute a wire transfer or the minutes or hours it might take for Bitcoin transactions to be validated. |
Final thoughts
If you’re thinking about investing in XRP, you should first learn everything there is to know about how it operates and what it can do. You should be aware that the Ripple payment system can exist and function for inter-bank transactions even if its native currency, XRP, is not used.
The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that digital currencies are still in their infancy. As a result, they are far from a secure investment. It’s possible that the entire ripple community will collapse. If Ripple were to become outlawed in most of the world, banks would be unable to use it. As implausible as that may appear right now, it is still the most likely way to bring Ripple down right now.
That concludes our Ripple guide. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of one of the more misunderstood digital coins out there. Will you use your newfound knowledge to invest in Ripple or XRP?