8 facts about Ripple you may not know

Ripple is one of the highest performing digital currencies of 2017. And Ripple, as a relatively new player to Bitcoin, is not well understood by many people.

In this direction, here are 8 facts that will help you get to know Ripple:

1- Ripple , not the official name of a cryptocurrency

When we talk about Ripple as a cryptocurrency, we actually mean XRP. Technically, there is no such thing as “buying Ripple.”

Ripple Labs is the name of the company that created the XRP token. Ripple is preferred over XRP by many people because it is easier to remember and use.

2- Ripple offers three different products and only one uses XRP

Many Ripple owners, maybe xCurrent is not aware of this, but the company’s flagship product, xCurrrent, does not use XRP.. This is the product that Ripple has made available in partnerships such as American Express and Santander.

The product that uses XRP through the xCurrent system is known as xRapid and is not yet widely used.

3- Ripple mining unobtainable

Bitcoin’s circulating quantity keeps increasing due to a process called ‘mining’. The supply of many other cryptocurrencies is also increased through mining.

However, Ripple is different.. The total supply cap of 100 billion XRP has already been created. Although many of them are not yet in circulation, they will be in the future.

4- Only 40 percent of XRPs are in circulation

Although there are 100 billion XRPs, most of them are not yet in circulation. Ripple Labs has 60 billion XRP at the time of this writing. Directly owns 6.25 billion and holds the remaining 55 billion for future distribution. Over the next few years, 1 billion XRP per month will be made available for distribution. Thus, the number in circulation could increase significantly in the coming years.

5- Ripple does not have to be a means of payment

There is a common misconception among people who are not yet fully familiar with cryptocurrencies: the idea that digital currencies should be designed as payment money. If that were the case, only Bitcoin or a few could meet our needs and we wouldn’t need more.

However, many cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, were not designed as payment currencies.. In other words, your favorite seller is unlikely to accept XRP tokens anytime soon, and Ripple Labs isn’t content with that.

Instead, Ripple is a cryptocurrency designed as a payment method.. In other words, a technology that aims to replace existing money transfer methods.. It plans to do this cheaper and faster than its alternatives, too.

6- Ripple’s network is faster than Bitcoin or Ethereum’s

An average Bitcoin transaction takes between 10 and 30 minutes to complete. Transaction time in Ethereum is significantly faster than Bitcoin and usually takes up to two minutes.

Ripple on the other hand aims to be an instant form of money transfer and Ripple has transaction times of less than 4 seconds according to their official website.

In addition to speed, the Ripple network can handle significantly higher volumes of transactions than other leading digital currencies. Bitcoin and Ethereum can process around 3 to 15 transactions per second, which creates a scalability problem.. The Ripple network, on the other hand, processes 1,500 transactions per second, and the company claims they can scale it up to 50,000 transactions per second.

This is why many large financial companies like American Express, Santander and MoneyGram are testing Ripple’s technology.

7- Transaction fee on Ripple is quite low

One of the biggest problems faced by other digital currencies is transaction cost.

Transaction fees in Bitcoin late 2017 and 2018 originally it was over $20, now it’s $1.15. In Ethereum, this fee is around $0.30.

In Ripple, the average transaction fee is currently less than 0.01 cents.

8- XRP is central

Bitcoin, the ancestor of digital currencies, emerged with the emphasis on ‘centralization’ and ‘not being dependent on an authority’. XRP does not promise decentralization. On the contrary, XRP has a centralized structure that is directly linked to and controlled by the Ripple company.