What is Ripple?

Ripple (XRP) is a crypto asset that uses RippleNet, an international remittance solution for financial institutions created by Ripple, a technology company. The issuance cap is set to 100 billion XRP, all of which has been issued. Therefore, it does not have a traditional mining system for issuing coins like Bitcoin.

About RippleNet

RippleNet is based on Interledger Protocol (ILP), a technology that makes it possible to connect multiple blockchains and payment networks, and is focused on on-demand liquidity (ODL, formerly xRapid). For example, one could make an international remittance by converting JPY to XRP, immediately send it to its destination on the unique XRP Ledger blockchain, then convert the XRP to the currency of the destination country. To put it simply, XRP acts as a bridge between different currencies.

It is said that banks and payment service providers participating in RippleNet can make international remittances in about 3.6 seconds with a transaction fee of about $0.001 USD. It is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is said to be able to process 1,500 transactions per second.

The unique consensus algorithm, XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol (XRP LCP), contributes to these high-speed transfers. In XRP LCP, there is a validator that authorizes transactions. If it is deemed valid, it is considered to have achieved consensus. It can achieve high-speed processing because it does not require complicated calculations like mining.