What Is Ripple (XRP)?
By P. Prashant Tiwari on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
The term “Ripple” is used for the Ripple token (XRP) as well as the real-time gross settlement system. In this article, we will explore the Ripple token (XRP). By the end of this article, you will have sufficient knowledge to answer the following questions:
- What is Ripple (XRP)?
- Why should you buy Ripple?
- How to buy XRP with a debit card and other payment systems?
What Is Ripple?
Ripple was created by Ripple Labs Inc, a US-based technology company. It works as currency exchange, remittance network and a real-time gross settlement system. The idea behind Ripple is to enable “secure, instant and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks.” Ripple supports tokens representing commodities of value such as fiat currency, cryptocurrency, etc.
What Is XRP? How Is It Different From Its Peers?
Ripple token (XRP) is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP ledger. Unlike Bitcoin and other crypto coins, XRP does not have miners. XRP is quite different than other altcoins. It is a cost-efficient and fast payment method for cross-border payments. Its payment settlement time is about 4 seconds and it can handle as many as 1500 transactions per second.
Ripple Token Economics
In 2015, 100 billion XRP tokens were issued. Ripple creators kept 20 billion XRP tokens and the rest were given to the Ripple company. The Ripple company uses XRP tokens for incentivizing and developing liquidity.
What Is The Use Of XRP?
XRP is primarily used to facilitate the transfer of other assets. A small amount of XRP is charged to the user (individual or organization) each time a transaction is performed on the Ripple network. A Few merchants accept payments in XRP.
Why Should You Buy Ripple?
At the time of writing of this article, XRP price is $0.412767/coin with a 24-hour XRP volume of $2,629,919,533 USD. The market capitalization is around $17,570,095,732 USD, and it is the third largest crypto coin in terms of market capitalization. If you look at the Ripple price chart for the past three months from Coindesk, you will see that despite the volatility of the crypto market, XRP value is increasing steadily. The price rise may not be astronomical, but it is definitely visible on the chart.
Is Ripple A Good Investment?
In the world of crypto, no one can accurately predict if investing in a particular coin is profitable or safe. The pros and cons associated with the coin must be considered before investing. XRP is no exception. Here are some pros and cons of XRP as an instrument of investment:
Pros
- It is the brainchild of an official organization. Ripple Labs Inc is a registered and trusted company.
- Many banks and reputed financial institutions have partnered with Ripple.
- XRP value is expected to increase as more banks use it for transactions. According to a theory, one day all banks will use XRP as a unified bank currency. This will greatly benefit the early investors.
Cons
- XRP is centralized.
- All XRP tokens are already “premined”. Thus XRP is not ruled by the crypto economic rules of inflation, supply, and demand. Even if the demand for XRP is huge, more XRP tokens cannot be mined.
- Ripple developers are the central authority to decide how, when and how many XRP tokens will be released.
How To Buy Ripple?
You can buy XRP with USD by using your credit/debit card and even a wire transfer! You can also use crypto coins like Bitcoin and Ether through peer-to-peer networks to purchase XRP.
How To Buy Ripple With USD Or Other Fiat Currencies?
Some of the Ripple recommended exchanges to buy XRP with USD are Bitstamp, Bittrex, CEX.IO, and Kraken. You can also buy XRP with AUD from Independent Reserve BTC Markets. If you want to buy XRP with Euro then you can get it from LiteBit.
How To Buy XRP With Debit Card?
There are a few exchanges where you can buy XRP and make the payment through your Debit/Credit card. The exchanges where you can buy XRP with a debit card are Exmo, Coinbase, BitBay, Coinmama, DSX, Zaif, and Bitstamp.
How To Buy Ripple With Wire Transfer?
A limited number of exchanges accept payments in the form of wire transfer. If you wish to buy XRP with a wire transfer, you can go for exchanges like CEX.IO, Exmo, Xcoins, HitBTC, Trustdex, and Coinbase.
How To Buy Ripple With Bitcoin, Ether And Other Crypto Coins?
Here are the steps that you need to follow if you wish to buy XRP with other digital currencies.
- Buy cryptocurrency with cash from an exchange that accepts Cash or credit/debit payments. You may bypass this step if you already hold crypto coins.
- Send the newly purchased cryptocurrency to your own wallet address.
- Check the exchanges which allow you to exchange your coins for XRP.
- Create an account on that exchange. Complete the registration and verification process.
- Buy XRP
- Store them in a Ripple Wallet.
Which Are The Best Crypto Exchanges To Buy Ripple?
We have shortlisted the 5 best Ripple exchanges on the basis of a user interface, processing fees, available trading pairs and ease of registration.
Bittrex: Easy registration process. Supports XRP/BTC, XRP/ETH, XRP/USTD trading pairs.
Binance: Low trading fees(0.1%). Supports XRP/BTC, XRP/ETH trading pairs.
Switchain: No registration or KYC is required.
Kraken: Pioneers in supporting the Ripple cryptocurrency. Supports XRP/BTC, XRP/EUR, XRP/USD trading pairs.
Coinbase: One of the most popular crypto exchanges.
Things That You Can Do With XRP
You can HODL your Ripple tokens, exchange them, send them to someone or convert them to other cryptocurrencies.
How To Pick The Right Ripple Wallet?
Picking the right wallet to store your crypto assets is very important. The features to look for in a wallet are control of private keys, advanced encryption, 2-factor authentication, and good customer service. For a Ripple wallet, you will need 20 XRP to book a wallet address. Hence, you must ensure that you pick the best Ripple wallet. You can refer to our article “Choosing the best Ripple wallet for your XRP coins” to get a deeper insight with an in-depth analysis of the available Ripple wallets.
Who Has Ripple Partnered With?
Ripple has partnered with a number of financial institutions and banks. The Ripple network has many banks and payment networks like Standard Chartered, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Yes Bank and many more.
You can find the complete list on Ripple’s official website.
Conclusion
Just like other crypto coins, Ripple’s success is dependent on its adoption rate. The more partners and people using Ripple products, the higher the value of XRP. Ripple has the potential to revolutionize the way international transactions are carried out. XRP investors can hope for a good return on their investment. Whether you invest in Ripple or not, it will be interesting to see its adoption as a fast scaling global payment network.
Article originally published on Switchain
