XRP
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What is XRP (XRP)
Although XRP is often referred to as Ripple, it’s important to distinguish that XRP is an independent open-source digital asset. Ripple is an American technology company based in San Francisco, co-founded by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb. In 2011, McCaleb, David Schwartz, and Arthur Britto started developing the XRP ledger as a recourse to the limitations of Bitcoin and when the XRP ledger was launched in 2012, it incorporated the native token XRP. To understand the breakdown of names and terms:
XRP is the native coin of the XRP Ledger, an open-source blockchain that runs on a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Ripple is the American technology company that has developed multiple payment solutions for businesses.
RippleNet is Ripple's electronic network of payment service providers around the world. The network connects the payment systems of banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporate entities. It can work with both fiat and cryptocurrencies.
Ripple (XRP) is a cryptocurrency token designed to migrate transactions from central databases controlled by financial institutions to a more open infrastructure while significantly cutting costs. XRP transactions are trustless and instant on the XRP Ledger—an open-source, permissionless, distributed ledger that can facilitate the settlement of transactions in 3 to 5 seconds, putting them at an advantage for cross-border movements.
Where to trade XRP (XRP)
Purchasing and trading XRP doesn’t mean you buy Ripple stock. Ripple is not a publicly traded company, which means that its shares cannot be bought as an investment. Interested individuals can buy, sell and trade through most centralised exchange platforms, often entailing the deposit of fiat funds via bank transfer and then using that balance to purchase XRP.
To help find the best fit for you, check out the table below and compare the best cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
| Name | Number of Assets | Trading Fees | Mobile App | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Coinbase | 30 | < 1.49% | Yes | |
 | Binance | 600+ | <0.1% | Yes | |
 | Nexo | 59 | <0.5% | Yes | |
 | Kucoin | 700+ | <0.1% | Yes |
Roadmap
February 2018
Introduced several features and enhancements that improve the reliability, scalability, and security of the XRP Ledger. Highlights of this release include:
The DepositAuth amendment, which lets an account strictly reject any incoming money from transactions sent by other accounts.
The Checks amendment, which allows users to create deferred payments that can be canceled or cashed by their intended recipients.
History Sharding, which allows rippled servers to distribute historical ledger data if they agree to dedicate storage for segments of ledger history.
May 2018
Included incremental improvements to several previously released features.
September 2018
Included the DepositPreAuth amendment, which combined with the previously released DepositAuth amendment, allows users to pre-authorize incoming transactions to accounts, by whitelisting sender addresses. The 1.1.0 release also includes incremental improvements to several previously released features (fix1515 amendment), deprecates support for the sign and sign_for commands from the rippled API, and improves invariant checking for enhanced security.
December 2018
Introduced a fix for an issue that could have prevented cluster peers from successfully bypassing connection limits when connecting to other servers on the same cluster. Additionally, it improves the logic used to determine what the preferred ledger is during suboptimal network conditions.
February 2019
Introduced the MultisignReserve Amendment, which reduces the reserve requirement associated with signer lists. This release also includes incremental improvements to the code that handles offers. Furthermore, rippled now also has the ability to automatically detect transaction censorship attempts and issue warnings of increasing severity for transactions that should have been included in a closed ledger after several rounds of consensus.
March 2019
Corrected a technical flaw in the fee escalation engine which could cause some fee metrics to be calculated incorrectly. In some circumstances, this can potentially cause the server to crash.
April 2019
Corrected a technical flaw which in some circumstances can cause a null pointer dereference that can crash the server.
Improved the way that shard crawl requests are routed and the robustness of configured validator list retrieval by imposing a 20-second timeout.
July 2019
Introduced several new features and overall improvements to the codebase, including the fixMasterKeyAsRegularKey amendment, code to adjust the timing of the consensus process, and support for decentralized validator domain verification. The release also includes miscellaneous improvements including in the transaction censorship detection code, transaction validation code, manifest parsing code, config file parsing code, log file rotation code, and in the build, continuous integration, testing, and package building pipelines.
XRP Wallets
Several types of wallets compatible with the XRP network are available on the market. Depending on their need for security and functionality, users can choose the wallet that suits them. Wallets that give users control of their private keys are advised for security reasons. To avoid the 20 XRP cost, most users store their tokens on the cryptocurrency exchanges where they buy them, as the exchanges handle the cost.
Ledger
Exodus
MetamaskBlockchain & Technology
The initial idea behind XRP from the onset was straightforward and is described as a peer-to-peer trust network. The cryptocurrency has one of the most ambitious goals in the cryptocurrency space. Ripple cites XRP as a faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient digital asset that can process transactions within seconds and consume less energy than some counterpart cryptocurrencies. XRP can be sent directly without any need for an intermediary. The main purpose of XRP is to be a mediator for currency exchange.
Typically, XRP is created to serve as a settlement layer facilitating the transactions with the Ripple network. It has been traded as a cryptocurrency and is available on several exchanges. It doesn’t, however, rely on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm backed by specialized computing hardware. Instead, it relies on a network of “unique nodes” that efficiently agree on which transactions can be processed in the network.
Only the votes of the other members of the UNL are considered when determining consensus, giving Ripple the ability to significantly influence who gets to participate in consensus and who does not. Furthermore, Ripple also participates at the network level of the XRP Ledger, validating transactions.
Staking with XRP
XRP runs on the XRP Ledger, which is not a proof-of-stake blockchain. Instead, the XRP Ledger relies on a consensus protocol to verify transactions and create new blocks. Therefore, you cannot stake XRP to earn rewards.
However, you can earn interest on your XRP tokens by lending them to third parties such as crypto exchanges which usually require crypto liquidity for their operations. Binance and Nexo offers its users staking and saving features. Both platforms offers XRP holders an option to save XRP and earn passive income on it.
Summary
XRP is a digital currency for people who believe that a modernization of traditional banking is needed. XRP’s value comes from its processing speed and appeal to the institutions, and it is the middle ground between traditional finance and decentralized finance.