About Ripple

Ripple and XRP are often terms that are used interinterchagably, but they are actually two separate things. Ripple is the money transfer network through which XRP is offered. However, XRP can be purchased on a variety of platforms. XRP is a digital currency, similar to Bitcoin or Ethereum, and it constantly ranks highly on the cryptocurrency platforms.

Ripple is used as a platform to change currencies and offers its customers the option to trade between cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin and XRP, as well as fiat currencies. Ripple charges its customers a fee for each transaction, though it purports to be one of the cheapest options for digital and fiat currency trading.

The cost for Ripple transactions of any kind are charged a fee of 0.00001 XRP, and XRP is the standard form of currency on Ripple, since it is the network’s proprietary digital asset. This transaction fee works out to be well under $.01 US at current XRP market values.

Ripple Breakdown

XRP differs from many other types of cryptocurrencies in the way it is set up. One of the advantages of using XRP over some of the other cryptos like Bitcoin is how quickly transactions take place using XRP. Many crypto transactions can take a few minutes to process, whereas XRP usually takes just seconds. This is partly due to the fact that XRP is already premined, so users are not required to mine more in order for a transaction to occur.

Whereas many crytos require users to validate transactions and aid in the mining process to add coins to a blockchain, XRP is set up a bit differently. The mining process is not as intricate and involved as many of its competing digital assets, which allows for very safe transactions, and that is why XRP is used by a number of major banks around the world.

XRP transactions are validated by a set of 36 validators, which include universities, banks and even Ripple itself. Ripple runs six of the validators on its own, accounting for 16% of the validators used on XRP transactions.

Ripple History

In 2005, David Schwartz and Arthur Britto came up with the idea for a secure online financial transaction service that operated on a global network. They took their idea to Ryan Fugger and together started up Ripple.

The company began as a peer-to-peer network that had a strong social media presence. It gave its users a way to make financial transactions without involving banks, but the initial idea didn’t do very well. Ripple changed tactics in 2012, becoming OpenCoin. In this iteration, they offered money transfers with financial services and major businesses serving as counterparties for transactions. This is when XRP was introduced to the world. The initial XRP offering was 80 billion coins, and XRP was designed to serve as the standard currency for the transaction network.

In 2013, the network changed its name to Ripple Labs. In 2017, XRP had achieved a market capitalization of $73 billion USD and was the second most popular cryptocurrency. By 2018, about 100 banks had signed up to do business with Ripple. Today, XRP still stays in rotation among the top four most popular cryptocurrencies.

Ripple Price Factors

There are a few different factors that limit how far XRP can go and that help to determine the value of the digital asset now and in the near future. Anyone looking to invest in XRP should be aware that it has to compete with multiple other cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin, Ethereum and, as of this writing, Dogecoin. The popularity of these ebbs and flows based in large part on which platforms trade the currency and which businesses accept payment with a particular crypto.

XRP benefits from strong relationships with a large number of financial institutions around the world, through the Ripple platform. However, a lot of those banks do not accept XRP as a valid form of payment currently.

XRP has been the subject of some legal battles, and investors should be aware of how that can affect the value of the currency and its prospects for the future. Ongoing attacks on XRP from the Securities and Exchange Commission have hurt XRP in the past. When new developments from these legal battles hit the news, the price of XRP usually drops temporarily.

Ripple Trading

Even though XRP benefits from strong ties to numerous banks, it is still a volatile currency. As such, investors need to be careful about trading recklessly with this digital asset. It can be risky to make large trades with Ripple without first consulting expert financial advice. This is why many investors rely on FX Leaders’ analysis of cryptocurrencies like Ripple to protect themselves and their investments.

Some of the best trading platforms for XRP include Coinmania, Binance, Bittrex, Swapzone and Changelly.

XRP has excellent liquidity, as transactions made with XRP can be settled in seconds, and it can be transferred between different currencies easily, particularly through the Ripple financial trading network.

XRP is considered very volatile right now and will continue to be so until legal action from the SEC is no longer an issue. As long as the threat of severe regulation looms over the digital asset, it will always be a risky asset to trade with.

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