Ripple is a word that is creating a lot of traction and a ‘ripple’ effect is literally and metaphorically associated with the term. It is not the average and basic altcoin that one hears about. There has been an ample amount of love-hate opinions accompanying ripple. It has reached heights and has slowly climbed its way into the top 3 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the global market. Between early 2017 and 2018, the market cap value of this currency increased by 48,744%! Additionally, in the first week of 2018, the value of Ripple was $121billion. These cryptos took the world by storm and that holds true for citizens of India as well. To tap this sector of the financial industry, people started searching for crypto exchanges in India to make the most out of investing.
Ripple had the ability to settle transactions in just four seconds – this was one of the most appealing factors that drew people towards this crypto. Not without its highs and lows, ripple has gained several positions and rankings in the market cap. Before investing in the ripple crypto market, here are seven things that you ought to know:
- The difference between Ripple and XRP: Yes, they are not the same thing, contrary to what the media and several articles imply. Ripple is an enterprise software company that runs full-fledged with a department of executives, marketing and PR teams, directors, employees, etc. XRP is the token that can be used to buy and sell products.
- Ripple cannot be mined: People have heard of the complicated systems used to mine bitcoins. It is not the same for ripple. How this system works is that all the 100 billion XRP tokens that can ever be created, already exist. Some of these are out for circulation, others are not. Only about 40% of the existing tokens have been circulated yet. Based on the current price of XRP, with 40% in trades, the value leads up to about $31.52 billion. This makes it the third-greatest crypto in the market. However, to buy ripple in INR, one would have to source it from the existing pool of tokens available.
- Ripple is not supposed to be a currency and means of payment: To break the common misconception that all cryptocurrencies are meant to be methods of payment, ripple comes into the picture. It was designed as a method of payment transfer. This means that the overall intention of ripple was to move money from one point to another more efficiently. Its efficiency comes from being faster and cheaper.
- The network it operates on is faster than Bitcoin or Ethereum: While earlier the transactions in bitcoin took about more than an hour, these days it has come down to 10-30 minutes. Next comes Ethereum, whose transfers are faster and take about 2 minutes approximately. Now the ripple is almost instantaneous – it has a transaction time of 4 seconds! This is a huge benefit to the international users of this medium. Additionally, it can handle significantly larger transaction volumes, even more than the leading cryptos.
- The transaction cost is minimal: International businessmen and institutions thrive on the lower transfer rate ripple offers. Instead of losing money on an annual basis on transfers alone, ripple provides a solace. This is a more practical method of everyday payments, especially internationally.
- Ripple has its own XRP wallet: While users can opt for multi-crypto websites and platforms like CoinSwitch to deal in ripple tokens, they also have the option of directly trading this token with its own wallet. The digital wallet is a great means to let the users store, buy, and sell XRP coins.
- International reach: More than 300 banks all over the world along with several different financial institutions are using the xCurrent trading system offered by ripple. This was not overnight. After over 7 years of hard work, these institutions have now partnered with ripple. This association is proof that the network has a great global reach and is here to stay.
Ripple is considered to be more sustainable than the ‘mined’ digital assets. Since mined assets like bitcoins require a lot of resources, power, and applications, per coin, it is often considered unsustainable in the future in the long run. This is another advantage XRP tokens have over the so-called big leagues. Many financial gurus and experts are calling XRP the future. When the reach spreads even wider on a global scale when the day-to-day transactions would occur over the mediums and via ripple and when the cheap costs and future benefits of ripple will be relevant to everyday users, the surge and hype for this currency will grow exponentially.
It would be important for potential users to get into the market at the earliest to gain maximum benefits from this crypto. Instead of waiting for the prices to get more ‘stable’ or grow, investments can begin from this day so that one can be a part of the movement and flow with the momentum. Start researching and investing under the advice of more experienced people in the field.