Rank: 5
What is Ripple?
Ripple is a privately owned fintech corporation that uses a proprietary payment network named Ripple Network with a global payment solution (also known as RippleNet).
RippleNet, renamed XRP Ledger, is a payment network developed on top of Ripple’s consensus ledger (also known as XRPL). Ripple supported the XRP Ledger open-source development.
Ripple was built to connect banks, payment companies and digital asset exchanges, allowing real-time settlement expeditions and lower transaction costs, unlike other cryptocurrencies out there that cater to peer-to-peer needs.
What’s the XRP Ledger?
The open-source distributed ledger generated by Ripple is the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The XRP Ledger’s native crypto-currency is XRP.
XRP transactions are handled through a network of trustworthy validators on the XRP Ledger, similar to Bitcoin (BTC), which utilizes a public database where transactions are processed and protected by proof-of-work mining.
On the open-source distributed consensus ledger, which has a similar storage structure to a blockchain where the successive data block contains the hash of the previous block, Ripple transactions are publicly registered. Its consensus process, though is distinct from Bitcoin or Ethereum. It is not founded on Proof of Work (PoW) and XRP is also not interested in mining.
Instead, XRP focuses on a consensus algorithm known as the Consensus Algorithm for Ripple Protocol. The credibility of the XRPL is protected by a community of nodes who are trusted. In order to reach agreement and be included in the XRP Ledger, all transactions must be agreed by a supermajority of these trustworthy nodes.
How is governance established if there is no mining?
XRPL uses a separate collection of guidelines named the Ripple Consensus Protocol Algorithm (RCPA). The RCPA describes how a network of autonomous Ripple validator nodes handles XRPL. At least 80 percent of the nodes on the network need to check every Ripple transaction.
Everybody should become a validator. Ripple, though, retains a specified list of validators that can be trusted. This trustworthy node list is referred to as the Special Node List (UNL).
What’s the relationship between the network’s XRP, XRP Ledger, Ripple, and Ripple?
- XRP is the XRP Ledger’s native token and the ticker symbol
- The distributed consensus ledger is XRP Ledger
- The business behind Ripple Network is Ripple (formerly known as Ripple Labs),
- A global network payment built on top of the XRP Ledger is the Ripple Network
Who created Ripple?
Ripple was first introduced by Ryan Fugger in 2004, who created Ripple’s first edition, named RipplePay. It was offered to Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen by Fugger in 2013. At the moment, Chris is Ripple’s Executive Chairman.
Previously, Jed McCaleb was the founder of the first Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. With the Ripple squad, he had a fallout and forked the Ripple codebase to begin Stellar. Currently, Brad Garlinghouse is Ripple’s CEO.
