Source: Wikipedia
Not so long ago Ripple took over Litecoin's 4th place in the charts and kept on going. Ripple is climbing a steep mountain and nothing seems to stop it, the cryptocoin has even dethroned Bitcoin Cash as the third largest cryptocurrency in the world. But where is the hype coming from and what is Ripple ?
Rise of the Ripple
The stunning rise of Ripple is quite extraordinary to say the least. Ripple is not new, the blockchain was conceived in 2004 under the name Ripplepay. The Ripplepay network had to facilitate decentralized transactions between individuals and 8 years later the system incorporated blockchain technology for a better service. The Ripple network makes it easy to transfer existing currencies like the USD or euro's, which is totally diffirent from Bitcoin that is more of a stand alone currency.
Transition to the Financial Market
In 2014 Ripple made a full transition to the financial market, with the Ripple-protocol banks now had the possibility to conduct money transfers at a speed that was significantly higher than before. Since October of 2017 more than 100 banks worldwide are making use of the protocol. American Express joined the Ripple network in the following month of November, American Express clients are now able to tranfer money to other people in the United Kingdom without a waiting period. The condition is that recipients in the UK have an account with Santander, a Spanish bank also with Ripple-protocol integration. The Ripple network has its own digital currency called XRP, the value of XRP is climbing fast the last couple of weeks. As a result we are witnessing a high market capitalization of the Ripple network, XRP plays a supporting role within the Ripple network but also serves as a digital coin for international payments.
Source: Tumiso
If for example a person wants to deposit U.S dollars into a European account, than the network calculates the most efficiënt method of conversion. Sometimes it is even better to first convert US dollars into yens to convert them back into XRP and finally in euro's. However customers are not obliged to use XRP in the network. With an estimated 38 billion XRP coins in circulation Ripple is now the 3th most valuable cryptocurrency on the market. For a crypto-investor it may be interesting to buy XRP's at their current price (8 dollarcent per coin). XRP and it's Ripple network seem to be very promising because of the fact that it has been discovered by the public just recently.
Source: Geralt
Hyped by a Hype
The sudden succes of Ripple and XRP has anything to do with the fluctuation of leading cryptocurrency's the latest month. Especially bitcoin, with it's price topping at 19.000 dollars a piece 14 days ago not many newcomers wanted to make an investement in it. The same can be told about Ethereum, as a consequence many people are searching for affordable alternatives like Ripple's XRP. Let's face it, everybody in the crypto-investment market wants to buy low and sell high. Ripple as a proctocol is gaining popularity nowadays, it will probably claim its rightful place in the banking sector. These are the main reasons for the hype around the cryptocoin and its network.
Thanks for reading,
Funcore