Trade XRP - XRP Markets, Exchanges, Broker
Ripple (XRP) is a payment network for banks with the aim of making international payments between banks more efficient and cost-effective. It is a system dedicated to payment traffic between different currency areas and tries to make inefficient payment corridors more efficient. This is why Ripple is often referred to as the "Bitcoin of banks".
What problem does Ripple want to solve?
Banks or payment service providers face two problems with transactions across national borders (in different currency areas): On the one hand, liquidity must be available in all currencies involved and on the other hand, it must be ensured that payment functions properly.
Ripple has developed very innovative solutions for this over the past few years. If you would like to take a closer look at this topic, you can look at the so-called nostro and loro accounts which banks have to hold in any currency in order to remain liquid.
Ripple is thus not only a conventional crypto currency, but has a comprehensive system with several products. In the so-called RippleLabs, Ripple's various systems are researched and developed. These include xRapid, xCurrent and xVia.
Is Ripple (XRP) Distributed?
The crypto currency XRP is often criticized and discussed controversially. This is mainly due to the fact that XRP was not distributed decentrally, but is for the most part held centrally by the developers themselves. About 55% of all XRP coins are currently reserved for developers and stored on an escrow account (a cryptographically secured trust account).
This escrow ensures that developers do not have continuous access to their total reserved 55 billion XRP, but only to 1 billion coins per month. In recent months, an average of approximately 300 million new XRPs per month have been put into circulation.
Another point that speaks for the centrality of XRP is that it currently needs so-called Validator Nodes to confirm transactions in the network. There are currently few such nodes. All validator nodes are currently operated by Ripple itself.
Currently there are several hundred nodes, but only so-called "Trusted Nodes" can validate transactions. This validation of a node as a "Trusted Node" must be centralized by Ripple. This central authorization leads to a strong influence and thus a strong centrality of Ripple or XRP.
It should be noted, however, that Ripple is well aware of this problem and is working to find a solution. Despite the ideal behind crypto currencies to give people back their personal freedom and free the world from unnecessary middlemen, Ripple is certainly right on one point:
If Ripple wants to have a chance against established institutions such as SWIFT in payment traffic, there has to be a central contact person; and that is Ripple. In order for Ripple to be able to influence development, they must therefore not only be financially endowed with the necessary resources, but also be able to influence the distribution of XRP coins. The purpose of the XRP Coin is to serve as a central unit of liquidity in the Ripple System.
Who already uses the Ripple Network?
There are already several companies that started testing Ripple at the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018. These include numerous banks or payment service providers such as Western Union, Moneygram or Santander. Ripple already has more than 100 partnerships - including banks, payment service providers and exchanges for digital assets.
This shows that Ripple can gradually offer a mature solution for payments in international currency areas and that large companies have already become aware of Ripple. Many companies are likely to wait and see what the testers have to say about Ripple. If this is positive, Ripple may quickly be used not only across borders, but also across institutions.