10 Things To Know About Ripple.

By Rishma Banerjee

Ripple is a digital currency marked as XRP, and an open payment network, within which the currency is circulated. Ripple’s coins are not as valuable as Bitcoins or Ether, but they show steady signs of growth. Its aim is to get rid of financial networks like credit cards, Banks, Paypal and other institutions what either charge extra for currency exchange, or provide restricted access with delays in processing. Here are ten things that one should be aware of about Ripple.

1. Ripple is not just a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

It provides for services like currency exchange, real-time gross settlement system (RTGS)  and a remittance network. The Ripple Transaction Protocol, which is to ensure “secure, instant and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks” stands on a structure of a distributed open source Internet protocol, consensus ledger and the currency called XRP.

2. Ripple is specifically designed for financial institutions and payment providers

Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, Ripple has a clear purpose — it is specifically designed for financial institutions and payment providers. In contrast, Bitcoin is meant to store value and be used for general transactions. Ethereum and Lisk are similar to Bitcoin in that sense although their platforms support running of third-party apps which are not limited to any specific industry.

3. Ripple’s aim is not to replace fiat currencies.

Ripple, on the other hand, aims for the smooth and efficient transfer of values across countries by acting as a middleman between the government-backed fiat currencies. It enables local banks to make instant on-demand payments, instead of either pre-funding a foreign account or by going through a foreign bank.

4. Cross-Border payments are faster and more reliable with Ripple.

Cross-border payments which generally take about 3-5 days and involves high fees and a risk of delay, but Ripple promises to fix these shortcomings with an average settlement time of 4 seconds and at a fraction of a cost.

5. Ripple is secure

Since Ripple is a financial institution, security is one of the most important aspects of Ripple. Ripple employs full-time engineers and developers who maintain the XRP ledger where all XRP transactions are recorded.

6. Ripple is faster and more scalable than Bitcoin

Ripple is designed to handle 2000 transactions per second, on an average. This is wholly different from BitCoin which can process up to 7 transactions per second. Ripple thus can boast of a far better scalability than Bitcoin.

7. Ripple is not mined

XRP is not mined, and every single unit of currency is either owned by Ripple or held by companies and individuals. This contributes to the sustainability of Ripple as it does not have. To rely on computing or in electricity for the creation of new coins.

8. Some banks are already using Ripple

Many banks and payment networks are now are adopting the Ripple protocol as settlement infrastructure technology. Some such banks are UniCredit, UBS, Santander, MUFG, BBVA, SEB, Akbank, Axis Bank, SBI Remit, Cambridge Global Payments, Star One Credit Union, National Australia Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Shanghai Huarui Bank, and many others.

9. Ripple’s performance in recent times has been great

Ripple now, is the third most prominent cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization and while XRP was up by 1159%, ten more financial institution s were added to Ripples global network.

10. It is possible to buy Ripple at most Exchanges.

Ripple now, is traded by 30 exchanges.As noted in the point above, you can now buy XRP in 30 exchanges. Unlike Bitcoin, you don’t need a small fortune to get a single coin — rather you can buy a few Ripple coins for one dollar.