What is Ripple?

Ripple is an innovative platform in the form of a decentralized system for payments with the possibility of exchange, implemented in open code. This platform and its cryptocurrency XRP (ticket for exchanges) have gained great popularity in international transfers.

The history of ripple

Ripple appeared in 2012, and in the second half of 2017, it rose sharply, and in early January, the rate reached $ 3.8. But then after the fall of bitcoin came a pullback. Nevertheless, it is firmly held in third place by capitalization, immediately after bitcoin and Ethereum. So, let's study the main peculiarities of this cryptocurrency type.

The Purpose of Ripple

The purpose of Ripple is to provide users with the ability to bypass banks and card accounts, Paypal, and so on. All traditional services have relatively many restrictions and set a percentage for their not too fast translation. In Ripple, the emphasis is on currency exchange and fast transfer with the ability to exchange.

According to the company OpenCoin, which developed the platform, the XRP coin will greatly simplify the movement of funds. The company's blog posts tell about the history of traditional money and the obstacles created by financial institutions, delays, and profiteering commissions in transfers. And also that Ripple's goal is a decentralized approach to digital currency and its integration with Bank payment systems.

Starting in 2013, the company began to cooperate with many financial institutions from the United States, Europe, and Japan, and in 2015, it began to test the system and Western Union. Today, Ripple has recruited many partners, and their full list is available on the official website.

Expert’s opinion

Cryptographic programmer David Schwartz, who works at Ripple, explains the functionality of the system in this way: "Today's payment systems resemble e-mail of the 80's. Then each provider created its mail service, and using different providers almost could not contact each other. Ripple aims to bring different payment systems together."

Ripple Mining

Mining of XRP coins is impossible, since only Ripple Labs can produce it, and users and other companies can not engage in mining like bitcoin, in any other way. Sometimes "mining" is called the distribution of this coin for free, through cranes and so on.

The total amount of coins

In total, the system issued 100 billion XRP, and further emission is not provided. There is also a smaller unit of measurement called "a drop".

Now the market is not more than half of all coins, and most of them are frozen and are under the control of the company.

The Ripple commission

Transfers in this system can be considered free, unlike Paypal, banks, and other financial institutions. The Commission here is only 0.00001 XRP, but to start using the currency, you must Deposit at least 20 XRP to the account, because this is the amount frozen during registration (a measure of protection of the system). This very meager Commission is canceled and disappears from circulation in the system.

Thanks to this distribution of the Commission, the system is protected from spam and DDOS attacks, the cost of which is too expensive for hackers. If there were no Commission at all, then due to the increase in the volume of spam payment requests, the load on the system would increase greatly, and this would slow down the speed of transactions.

Ripple vs. Bitcoin

Does Ripple have some similarities with bitcoin? On many properties-yes, it has. Like bitcoin, Ripple has a limited number of coins and can be transferred from one account to another by one user, without the help of a third party. Both have protection against double-reading payments and token forgery.

At the same time, there are differences too. Everyone can do bitcoin mining, but the company has already released ripple tokens, and mining is not provided in this system. Moreover, in Ripple the platform is designed for currency exchange, and in Bitcoin, only can use digital currency and store it on the wallet.

Controversial point

The world is quite ambiguously perceived as opportunities for Ripple. On the one hand, the platform is also created distributed, and the entire transaction history is stored, but at the same time, this coin can not be mined using mining. Because there are already 100 billion coins in the system, Ripple is sometimes considered "pre-mined," ostensibly for a secret purpose, and new users of the cryptocurrency are suspicious. Besides, the fact that most of the coins belong to the developer violates the principle of decentralization adopted by all digital platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ripple a competitor to bitcoin?

Ripple was created as a supplement to the cryptocurrency used, not as a competitor. Its network is designed to seamlessly transfer money-a common digital and fiat currency, including bitcoin, ethereum, dollars, and euros. It only increases the possibilities of bitcoin owners, and greatly simplifies payments and transfers compared to traditional systems. Ripple provides the Bitcoin platform with much more opportunities than it had before – to transfer BTC to currency accounts and wallet numbers of other cryptocurrencies at the most favorable rate, besides, almost instantly.

Who is the developer of Ripple?

The creator of the platform is the company OpenCoin, which was founded six years ago by J. McCaleb and Ch. Larsen. The development was started with a transactional Protocol based on the existing developments of three programmers. The company was then renamed Ripple Labs, and Chris Larsen continued to work there. Both founders have good experience in the field of programming and financial management. Other members of the team worked with the Bitcoin system.

Attention! On the Internet, one can find many websites of the third parties that are not related to Ripple OpenCoin.org, which is at the disposal of a separate company creating its payment platform.