XRP

What is Ripple?

Ripple is the name that encompasses the cryptocurrency platform, whose transactional protocol is actually XRP, just as Ethereum is the name of the platform that facilitates operations with Ether.

Like other cryptocurrencies, Ripple is based on the idea of a distributed ledger network that requires the intervention of different parties to validate transactions, rather than a single centralized authority.

This makes it easy to transact around the world, and the transfer fees are much cheaper than Bitcoin. XRP transfers, unlike other cryptocurrencies, are effective immediately and do not require the usual confirmation time.

Ripple was founded by a single company, Ripple Labs, which is still in charge of its development, unlike Bitcoin, now in the hands of a broader network of developers. You also don't have a fluctuating amount of your currency in stock.

While Bitcoin has a continuously growing reserve with a final maximum and Ethereum theoretically has no cap, Ripple was already created with its 100 billion XRP tokens. That number stands without mining and most of the tokens are owned by Ripple Labs (about 60 billion at the last count).