The difference between XRP, XRP Ledger and Ripple

Image by  David Schwartz. Thank you 🙂

To get this distinction, lets breakdown the components. Ripple is the mother company of which XRP and XRP ledger are the constituent elements.  Ripple is a payments platform that has the promise of a fully-fledged international company. 

This company is based in California and has a staff of about 200 full-time employees. Ripple (XRP) is one of the eminent cryptocurrencies of our time and has a relatively established presence in the market.

 Ripple’s design created a seamless, cost-effective and transparent cross border money transfer platform. Ripple (XRP) has since mushroomed into one of the top cryptocurrencies. Besides, blockchain technology’s real life application is perhaps best brought out .This is because Ripple solves the real problem of inefficient money transfer.

As a result, the waiting time typical of cross border money transfer using traditional banks are eliminated. Ripple facilitates such transactions almost instantaneously.

XRP

Now, what about XRP? This is the cryptocurrency of the Ripple platform. This digital currency exists on a public ledger and can be transferred using digitally signed transactions. For the distributed ledger, the digital currency is crucial as a means of exchange of value.

Besides, XRP is a means of storing value. Investors hold various amounts of XRP totaling to about 40% of the total sum and this keeps the platform solvent and fluid. The capital from investors is needed to breathe life into and cryptocurrency.  

This means that XRP is central to everything Ripple. The company, Ripple owns about 60% of the XRP in existence. It goes without saying that this brings forth centralization concerns but Ripple has had a decent level of consistency.

What is impressive is that XRP is secondary to Ripple’s functionality. This is similar to the Ethereum platform. What I mean is that, unlike Bitcoin, XRP is not the main focus of this ecosystem. The Ripple network is themed of cross border transfer and the value of XRP is contingent on how useful this service is. 

This is in stark contrast to Bitcoin which is a primary payment option. What has ended up happening is that since there are more Bitcoin sellers than buyers in the market now, the price has taken a hit. Think of XRP as owning shares in Ripple. That way you can get a basic distinction.

The XRP ledger

Blockchain technology has undoubtedly opened new technological frontiers. The fundamental concept behind it is a distributed or decentralized ledger that powers all relevant operations.  Using this ledger, there has been an explosion of cryptocurrencies that use it as a host.

The ledger is sort of like an ordinary ledger. This is because it is a means of recording and ascertaining transactions. Besides, the ledger is automated and the technology is responsible for one of the most exciting innovations of our time. 

Accordingly, the XRP ledger is what hosts the XRP digital currency. This ledger supports a decentralized exchange for transacting other assets and decentralized payments Therefore, all transactions that utilize XRP rely on this ledger.

Finally, Ripple is positioning XRP as a settlement asset to be used in making international payments in collaboration with the payment platform, RippleNet. As we have seen, the three pieces are part of the same pie. The distinction between Ripple, XRP and the XRP leger is purely on functional purposes.