Ripple vs XRP: The Company and the Coin

The world of cryptocurrencies can often be confusing to newcomers. Not only do they have to understand a huge number of new terms, how everything works, and how to find a good project to invest in, but they also have to deal with issues that are sometimes complicated to understand even for those with experience.

Perhaps the best example of how complex the crypto world can really become from the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, XRP.

The first thing to understand — which is also something that a lot of investors find complicated — is that XRP is not the same as Ripple.

Ripple and XRP

XRP is the second largest coin in the crypto world. It used to hold the third place, but its expansion and increased usage secured additional funds, and the coin managed to beat Ethereum, which was strongly impacted by bearish market and intense competition. Now, XRP is second only to Bitcoin.

XRP was developed by a company called Ripple Labs, and because of this, it was originally known as Ripple. However, due to the confusion that followed, where it was difficult to tell whether others are talking about the coin or the company, it was renamed to XRP.

Today, it is a native cryptocurrency of the XRP distributed ledger, which is open-source and, according to Ripple Labs, decentralized.

When it comes to Ripple Labs, this is a company launched by Ryan Fugger and Jed McCaleb. Since its creation, about eight years ago, the firm developed XRP, as well as several products used for making quick payments anywhere in the world. These products — xCurrent and xRapid — were quickly recognized as advanced payment systems by banks around the globe, and many of them decided to enter a collaboration with Ripple in order to replace their old systems, which often take days to complete transactions. In comparison, Ripple’s products can manage the same in only 4 seconds, and their TPS is pretty much the same as that of major card companies.

Another thing to note about Ripple products is that they transfer the money by turning it into XRP, at least for the purpose of traveling through the network. Other than this, XRP is allegedly independent of Ripple, and its creators claim that the coin would survive even if the company were to disappear.

While this is proof of the coin’s decentralization to many, others were not convinced, and both XRP and Ripple had to face numerous accusations of centralization, coin manipulation, and even accusations of the coin being security. This has led to several lawsuits, especially in 2018, and XRP became a center of numerous controversies.

However, as time progressed, so did the coin and the company, and these days, most of those controversies are forgotten. XRP and Ripple achieved a lot of success on their respective battlefields, and both are well-known and well-respected these days.

In fact, many have high hopes for XRP and believe that the coin might be the one to lead cryptocurrencies to mainstream usage. Others speculate that it might become the representative of the third generation of cryptos. It is unknown what may happen in the future, but for now, at least, XRP seems to be reliable, more stable than most coins, fast when it comes to performing transactions, and completely independent.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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