Ripple has grown explosively over the past few weeks. In fact today it grew almost 35%. it is one of the biggest gaining currency of the day and I want to share with you guys what Ripple is.
Protocol vs. Currency
So lets start off with one confusing factors. So I must make a distinction between Ripple the transaction protocol (which is used between banks and other businesses) and the ripple issued currency, XRP. When you see Ripple making gains its actually the XRP, the currency that is issued by Ripple, that is gaining. And this is actually quite different from the network protocol or Ripple protocol. Both share the same name and I’m sure this has definitely confused a lot of investors.
Ripple Protocol
So lets start off with the transaction network known as Ripple. So the Ripple protocol is based on technology that's similar to blockchain but not completely the same. It doesn't require any mining and its based on a consensus network instead of being consumer-facing which is what Bitcoin is. Basically, it's for the everyday person.
Ripple is exclusively used by big institutions such as banks. The whole idea of Ripple is to allow banks to transfer any sort of asset, be it currency, USD, Euro, gold, or any other asset such as airmiles. You can transfer that between other institutions near instantaneously. This rivals systems such as swift. So if you ever bought Bitcoin with bank transfer you will know how painful that is. You have to contact your bank and send the transaction to a swift bank code account and this might take up to two to three days and theres a lot of transaction fees involved for both the sender and the receiver. Ripple is set to revolutionise this by providing near instantaneous, sub-second transactions for institutions such as banks. It’s already been adopted by quite a few big banks and
XRP - Currency of the Ripple Network
So now that I explained what is the Ripple transaction protocol, let’s move on to Ripple XRP. XRP is actually issued by Ripple Labs and is a form of cryptocurrency that can be traded and it’s not “mined”. So there is a finite number of ripples and that amount is actually issued by the company behind Ripple called Ripple Labs. Currently, it is freely tradable on numerous exchanges such as Poloniex.
XRP by itself has no underlying related assets or values eg. Its not tied to USD or gold. Rather, it can be used to act as an intermediate currency in institutions. It has one huge advantage in that transaction costs are very, very low (unlike Bitcoin, which is now reaching 1.5 usd in transaction fees).
Concerns about Ripple
So moving on, XRP is currently only issued out at less than 40% of its total. The remaining amount (minus the 20% retained by the creators of Ripple) is held by Ripple Labs to distribute whenever and however they so wish. This is actually kind of interesting because unlike a lot of decentralized currencies, Ripple Labs plays a huge part in distributing XRP. Ripple Labs is actually a company and this is very different from Bitcoin, where Bitcoin is fully decentralized and doesn’t have a central controlling authority. Ripple Labs is registered in many countries and it could be sued and held under police custody. This is again very different from other technologies.
So that’s a little information regarding the Ripple protocol and XRP. I’m sure this may be a little bit confusing for some people and since the technology and the currency share the same name it could be misunderstood. I hope this clarifies a little for you about what Ripple protocol is and what XRP is.
Ripple makes me happy every day, it's the best investment I've made so far. Thank you for sharing this information with the community. It will help many. Big hug!
As someone who has been watching Ripple climb, but not really knowing what it is, thanks for this post. I don't know if I'd hold this coin for very long.
Agreed
@tfj
For interesting read for ripple https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@pps/ripple-things-you-need-to-know-about-ripple
It's an enticing proposition for short term profit, but there are a lot of red flags. ... Pre-mined? Banks? Only time will tell... We shall see..... :)
premined .. well there isn't even mined. its centrally issued
pre-mined has become a term for hoarding a large percentage of the token among developers/foundation.
Somehow, these Ripple magicians created a digital currency with the hybrid characteristics of a centralized fiat. Instead of XRP, it should be called MC for MuttCoin.
XRP has no utility value. They use a private chain for God's sake. As such, control is centralized by their own little private consortium. The value is a pure mirage and event driven by news about the Ripple protocol, of which it has no connection other than name and the people behind both ventures.
Let's see, as the price goes up, when they dump the other 40% and see what that does to the price.
Now I get it.
The name Ripple is a condensed form of "Rip People Off".
Perhaps people want a centralized token? but at that point, why not just use paypal.
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Thank you. I traded it in the past, but I won't now. I can't buy it again just out of principle.
Good stuff. I find Ripple to be the "antichrist" of crypto, and have avoided the protocol/currency but no doubt there is money to be made there. Thanks for the concise and clear explanation.
I highly suspect there are a lot of investors, especially new investors, that don't understand what the XRP actually is.
Ripple is debt
Thanks for this post - a couple days ago I didn't even know Ripple & XRP were different haha. This definitely explained it further in depth! :)
Very informative. Thanks.
I found XRP 3 years ago. Have been holding ever since. Some say I may have the worlds strongest hands >:) Great article though! Very informative for the new surge of people entering crypto. As a side note, XRP is now on Bitfinex...take that as you will. Happy trading!
@boxmining Thanks for post
For interesting read for ripple https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@pps/ripple-things-you-need-to-know-about-ripple
Very good post. I fully understand what you're talking about. It's surprising how much uneducated investors the crypto space has. You still see people invest in this shady and scammy coins. We do need to look better at the insights of every coin. What team is behind it, is there any management. How strong is the product, is there any product at all? I found this amazing platform: https://www.coincheckup.com They give great insights in the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model and other techincal insights. Check: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Ripple#analysis To see the: Ripple Report