This section is a part of Ripple (XRP) Crypto Guide. In this section we are going to compare two blockchains - Ripple (XRP) vs Ethereum (ETH).
Introduction
This guide is meant to show you unbiased feature set comparison of blockchains in discussion. Below table shows you the comparison points between the two blockchains.
| Ripple (XRP) | Ethereum (ETH) |
| Ripple began as a project called Opencoin in 2012 and later renamed into Ripple. | Ethereum whitepaper was launched in 2013 whereas the project as a blockchain launched in 2015. |
| Ripple has a circulating supply of 47,081,679,946 XRP coins and max. supply of 100,000,000,000 XRP coins. | Ethereum has a circulating supply of 117,046,619 coins and total coins $365,186,415,050 coins in supply. |
| Ripple makes use of the XRP Ledger protocol within it's bank networks for transactions consensus mechanism. | Ethereum has partial proof of stake and proof of work consensus mechanism in effect. |
| Ripple is financial network that connects various private banking entities whereas the XRP is a crypto that connects the blockchain to these financial sources for exchanges. | Ethereum has ETH has it's token for the use on the blockchain which is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine that runs the blockchain in various layers. |
| Ripple is owned by the Ripple Labs which is a privately owned entity and the blockchain it's resources are closed source. | Ethereum has now a foundation and it's open source maintained entity along with it's blockchain. |
| Ripple makes use of C++ as it's primary programming language for the blockchain development. | Ethereum makes use of the Solidity for it's smart contract and blockchain development. |
| Ripple XRP has the low transaction fees on it's private networks usually around 0.002 to 0.42. | Ethereum due to it's proof of work consensus model, it has higher network fees as of this date. |
| Ripple has upto 1500 TPS with the approval rate of the 3-5 seconds. | Ethereum has 25-35 TPS as of this date with block approval rate much higher than Ripple. |
| Ripple too has external 3rd party exchange options for stake, lend and borrow option. | Ethereum does allow the stake, lend and borrow option in exchange. |
| Ripple current ability for the dApps and the smart contracts are private while the public federated dApps and smart contract side chain is not yet deployed. | Ethereum since it's inception had option to build public dApps and smart contracts along with the sidechains on it's layer 2 solutions. |
You can check out the Ripple Coinmarket for more accurate numbers.
Ripple (XRP) OR Ethereum (ETH) - Which one to choose?
Ripple is being used in the faster transactions, low fees and also for the exchange among the financial networks. So from the context of financial exchange and money transfer Ripple with it's XRP crypto is being viewed as a proven solution.
Whereas the Ethereum is a blockchain that allows tokens, layer 2 solutions, dApps, smart contracts and ecosystem of it's own that can connect with other blockchain. Ethereum is said to offer much more features barring the network fees and other issues that come with it.
If we compare the blockchain case by case basis on use case, I'd say from financial context, Ripple's XRP wins hands down. But from developer and consumer use case wise, Ethereum has much bigger role to play.
You may want to read Fantom vs Ethereum Guide and Solana vs Ethereum Guide.
Conclusion
Ethereum seems to be a good option for developers who want to build their own token and build the ecosystem around the blockchain. Ripple network has been purely been looked at in context of the investor friendly financial exchange blockchain rather than developer or consumer friendly blockchain. In that context, Ethereum ecosystem makes sense for a better developer and consumer investment.