Beyond just Bitcoin, plenty of cryptocurrencies have achieved mainstream attention, and one of the biggest known names is Ripple, the company that has created the token XRP.
The term “Ripple” is often used to refer to both the token and the company developing the network and system surrounding it, although the official term for the token is XRP, while the company name is Ripple.
Is Ripple (XRP) Better Than Bitcoin?
As a cryptocurrency, XRP and its payment network, Ripple, has achieved widespread renown for being an enterprise-focused blockchain implementation and network. In addition to supporting its own native cryptocurrency, XRP, it also supports transactions of fiat currency, commodities, and any type of value-bearing instruments such as flier miles or mobile minutes.
Being built to support global transactions at an enterprise-level and with features meant for such, it’s often being compared as an alternative to traditional systems such as SWIFT, which facilitates global interbank transactions via its networking technology.
Although some have challenged Ripple’s ability to scale successfully due to the purported limitations of blockchain technology, they have achieved a strong user base. Over 100 banks have signed up to use various aspects of Ripple to carry out intra-bank operations.
XRP Is Not Necessary For Ripple Transactions
Unlike other blockchain networks and systems, Ripple is designed to not require its native token for use in transactions, which gave it a controversial status in the cryptocurrency community.
This created fears that the value of XRP would not be tied to the growth of the Ripple network. Nonetheless, the segregated nature of the network token and the network itself has led to Ripple being able to capture market segments especially for enterprise-scale applications that a typical network token may not support, allowing Ripple to carve out a strong niche amongst its cryptocurrency peers.
XRP being the native token on Ripple does lend it some benefits, however. It’s still the primary token being used to develop Ripple’s ecosystem, and also the boost of one of the fastest transaction times for a native token, with settlements in as little as 4 seconds.
The entire Ripple network can handle 1,500+ transactions per second while competing cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are managing around 15 TPS and 6 TPS respectively.
Battle-tested
With their enterprise-focused direction and strong company background (the company hired Chris Larsen, famed Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor in August 2019), the company has successfully propelled itself to the forefront of cryptocurrencies, even briefly overtaking Ethereum as the world’s #2 cryptocurrency in 2018.
Today, it holds a strong third place in market capitalization amongst cryptocurrencies. Banks using the technology have also spoken out about its reliability, with names such as the head of Japanese Financial Giant SBI Group stating that XRP has reliably processed cross-border transactions and is one of the few “battle-tested” cryptocurrencies.
Ripple / XRP Statistics
- There are 100 billion XRP tokens released in an IPO-like fashion, and there are no plans to generate any more.
- XRP is faster and able to handle a higher TPS (transactions per second) than its competitor cryptocurrencies due to its relatively small validator count (about 150), bringing it to an average of 4 seconds for a transaction to be confirmed.
- While XRP can be used for payment, it’s mostly meant to act as a native middleman currency for easy cross-border payments between banks, allowing cross-border settlement to occur.
- It has one of the smallest transaction fees, having peaked at only $0.03 during the height of its growth in 2018.
Ripple May Be The Enterprise World’s Primary Bridge Into Blockchain Technology
With the accomplishments Ripple has, many believe that it could one day overtake Bitcoin to become the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Only time will tell if Ripple (XRP) is better than Bitcoin.
In the meantime join us on our mission as we connect the endless dots of information surrounding blockchains, and build tools to enhance the crypto user experience.
Here at Oobit, we enable you to buy and sell digital currencies like Ripple easily, believing the digital currency world should be user-friendly, simple to operate, and instant for anyone.
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