This Week Season2 week 1: (Altcoins – Part1) lecture by @yohan2on.

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What is Ripple (XRP), How it started, What is the motive behind it?

Ripple cryptocurrency

The Ripple cryptocurrency is a prototype of an open payment system. The essence of this system is to get rid of the intermediation of banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions. In terms of capitalization, Ripple ranks third among all cryptocurrencies, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The sum of account balances on the Ripple network is currently several billion dollars. The system itself is a network for executing transactions in real time, but it also includes Ripple XRP, the actual cryptocurrency, the price of which increased 40 times in 2017.

Sometimes, in order to avoid ambiguity, the very essence is called Ripple, and the currency is XPR or Ripples. The rate of the Ripple cryptocurrency is influenced by the frequency of the release of new coins. In total, there are 100 billion XRP in the world, with about 60% owned by Ripple itself (the sum of several American startups combined).

Ripple is constantly working to improve its network and find partners among international companies and financial institutions. In particular, Ripple is used by banks BBVA, SEB, Start One Credit Union, and Cambridge Global Payments.
As the Ripple network continues to grow, so does the cryptocurrency price.

XRP runs on the RippleNet digital payment platform on top of a distributed ledger database called XRP Ledger.

Ripple model

The Ripple model is built around the concept of "basic infrastructure."
The very idea of ​​Ripple originated from Canadian Ryan Fagger back in 2004. Development took place over the next 10 years, and in 2014, banks began to connect to the Ripple network. The Ripple system has many advantages, such as low fees, high security standards, and distributed journals.
The Ripple development company is called OpenCoin. The Ripple system consists of two entities:

• Ripple payment network;
• the cryptocurrency on the basis of which the network operates is XRP Ripple.

The main concept of Ripple is decentralization, which allows this currency to work with different payment systems in the world.
Transactions via Ripple are completed within 3-5 seconds, while payments are made automatically and cannot be canceled. Currently, the Ripple system is used by various financial institutions.
Ripple is very similar to Bitcoin in some ways: there is also a finite number of units to mine, the network is also peer-to-peer, and both currencies are safe and fraudulent. All payment data sent through Ripple is confidential; however, the details of the transaction are published.
Ripple's developers claim that the system is capable of performing transactions faster than Bitcoin since it does not need to wait for a block confirmation.

Similarities and differences between Bitcoin and Ripple

Similarities:

• Both currencies are open source and do not belong to any person or company.
• Transactions are performed free of charge and anonymously.
• Both currencies are decentralized and independent (from banks and other organizations).

Differences:

• Transactions in Ripple are much faster.
• Bitcoin belongs to the community; Ripple is a private company, so the journal of this cryptocurrency is closed from prying eyes.
• The total amount of all bitcoins in circulation is about $ 270 billion, Ripple coins - 120 billion.

The main difference:

Bitcoin changes the essence of payment; Ripple is a payment method.

Technical analysis:

The XRP happened to be one of the largest capitalization altcoins. There was a parabolic rally, as it seems the bulls completely control the price movement of the token.

Growth Outlook:

XRP price jumped 91% over the past month as the digital asset caught on. The catalysts for strengthening XRP are the growth in the number of unique addresses, the buyback of tokens by Ripple, and the possible launch of a new product.