What is XRP?

What is the popular coin XRP?



XRP is a cryptocurrency or a digital asset created by Ripple Labs with the purpose of being an intermediary between banks or individuals using the Ripple Network, which is convenient and efficient to use. XRP is considered one of the top cryptocurrencies in the market based on its market value.





The Origin of XRP and Ripple



Ripple, originally known as Opencoin, was founded by Jed McCaleb in 2012. It was later renamed Ripple in 2015, along with a new executive, Chris Larsen.

Ripple was created with the purpose of being an online payment solution. Therefore they had created a transparent network which could handle transactions at fast speeds, without the existence of a mediator. This is then utilized by banks, service providers, and various financial institutions through Ripple’s network and their currency, which is XRP.





What is XRP Ledger (XRPL)?



XRP Ledger is the backbone of the XRP network, which was created to be efficient at handling transactions. It was created to be convenient and efficient while maintaining a low fee for each transaction. Anyone with an internet connection will be able to make transactions from and to anywhere around the world.



XRP Ledger has over 150 nodes validating and confirming transactions, while securing the network according to the features of a decentralized blockchain technology.





Prominent Points of XRP



Utility



The main objective of XRP is to provide a payment solution and exchange fiat currencies with a very low processing fee, which starts at just 0.00001 XRP. It also has a very fast rate of validation at 1,500 transactions per second, which once broke the record at 65,000 transactions per second on July 19, 2019.



Power Consumption



The XRP network consumes power at a very efficient rate compared to many other cryptocurrencies in the market which uses the Proof of Work system. XRP uses their own system, which is known as the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA).



When compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum in the year 2019, having 60 million transactions studied, Bitcoin averages at 57.09 billion kilowatts per hour, while Ethereum averages 2.57 billion kilowatts per hour, but XRP averages at just 474,000 kilowatts per hour.



Bitcoin’s power consumption uses more power than even an entire country like Portugal, where they use on average about 46.94 billion kilowatts per hour. Ethereum uses a comparable amount of power to a small country as well.



Technology



Although XRP is already making transactions more convenient and efficient, along with maintaining low transaction fees, developers are still looking for ways to make XRP even better at what it is doing. They have been trying to implement Smart Contracts into the XRP ledger, which is soon yet to be done.





Summary



XRP is a unique cryptocurrency that came into existence during the early days of this market. There is still a lot of development that is yet to be seen in accordance with the market demands, which makes XRP a very interesting cryptocurrency. However, any form of investment in this market may involve risks, therefore further studies in this form of asset is recommended.





Reference:



Ripple, Investopedia, Binance Research, XRP Ledger