Ripple, Ripples, and Rippling
The Company
Ripple is created by the Ripple company and uses ripples or XRP as its native cryptocurrency. It dates back to 2012. when it was first founded and established. Its purpose is to be a system for payment protocols, currency exchange, or as a remittance network. To put it simply it is a real-time gross settlement system or RTGS.
By using the idea of blockchain the Ripple Company is able to provide people with an exciting innovation in the scope of global transactions. It was proven to be a cost-effective, highly functional, and a reliable system with many users.
Advantages
Its main features include time-efficiency and safety. It is a fast, nearly free and secure way for financial transactions on a global scale. For the last couple of years, on the market, the ripple has remained in the top 5 as far as currencies go. It is a very popular and much-used network which both individuals and organizations earnestly use.
Though reminiscent of the bitcoin, this is a different type of cryptocurrency. It is owned privately thus cannot be verified by any outsider. It also supports tokens as currency. It revolves around the idea of an open and shared database which uses consensus as a basis for payments, exchanges, distribution, and other financial protocols.
Supporters
Some institutions which support the Ripple Company include internet service providers, UniCredit bank, Santander, and even the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is even said that from the perspective of a settlement infrastructure of any standard bank, the ripples are far more developed and advantageous as a cryptocurrency than, for example, the bitcoin.
The Ripple Company has offices worldwide, in locations such as New York and London. What is more, even India and Luxembourg have Ripple offices. Their clientele is global as are their services.
Users and ripples
Many banks use the Ripple protocol and allow their customers to use it. It can be easily done just by incorporating the Ripple protocol into, for example, the bank’s system. The requirement for this is pretty basic. You’ll need a regular financial institution and system on one end, and so-called ‘market makers’ on the other end. This is the condition for any transaction to occur. The two sides have to have a need for the transaction and the transaction needs to be efficient. The first end of the transaction is the one that holds funds and issues balances for their customers. While the other part can be, for example, hedge funds or any basis for trading currencies.
The two currencies available are XRP or Ripple’s native currency or fiat currencies. They allow users to make payments in both directions by cryptographically signing transactions. Everything the user needs to do is which other users they can trust and with what amount. The system works by finding the path of trust from one user to the other by linking them through other trustees. This is a unique mechanism dubbed “rippling”. It is an extraordinary way of establishing financial relationships and securing your payment protocols in an innovative manner.