Ripple is sometimes compared to Bitcoin and other established or emerging cryptocurrencies. But Ripple is not wholly a digital currency.
XRP is the digital currency which it uses as part of its system while Ripple itself is a peer to peer financial software protocol. Ripple aims to allow secure, fast, and cheaper global financial transactions with no chargebacks. It’s for this reason, it purports to work with banks to revolutionize how to transfer money across the globe. Ripple also supports tokens which symbolize fiat currency, crypto currency, commodity, flier miles or reward points. Its systems foundation is based on a shared public database or ledger. It then uses a systematic process that enables payments, exchanges, and remittance.
How to Use Ripple
The Ripple protocol has still not reached its full potential as its still using Beta. But you can still use it to execute some processes which include:
- Sending any amount of money across the world in any currency, and at the lowest transaction fees currently available
- You can send Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies instantaneously, and cheaply in comparison to using a regular Bitcoin wallet
- Exchange foreign currencies at super-low transaction fees
- It acts as a store for multiple currencies in the same account
- You can process online payments in any currency type.
The ability of Ripple to send and exchange currencies at faster and cheaper rates has made overseas remittances one of its biggest markets. Its transaction fees are lower in comparison to major players such as the Western Union and MoneyGram. Ripple currently lacks the infrastructure that allows individuals to physically pick cash, but that is bound to change in the near future.
How to buy XRPs
Ripples’ innovative technology is probably one of the main reasons why it has gained 3,800% in value over a short period. Its currency exchange option allows you to hold balances in various currencies, change money between them, or act as a currency exchange service by posting offers onto the open market. A Ripple wallet allows you to convert your currency to one of your choice, and even shows you how much you’ll receive. Here are some exchanges where you can purchase Ripples’ XRP.
Bitstamp: You can buy XRP/EUR, XRP/USD and XRP/BTC trading pairs on this exchange. After creating and verifying your account, you then deposit funds and buy XRP by selecting the correct market for your currency.
Kraken: On the Kraken cryptocurrency website, sign up for an account and follow the verification instructions that will allow depositing funds. But to buy XRP on Kraken, you’ll first need to buy Bitcoins. Once you buy them proceed to place an order using the XRP/XBT currency pair.
GateHub: Similar to the aforementioned exchanges, you need to visit GateHub’s website to create and verify your account. You’ll then need to connect to a gateway to be able to deposit funds. Once you deposit funds you can proceed to buy XRP on the “Exchange” page.
Other exchanges where you can buy XRP are CoinOne, Coincheck, Korbit, Bitbank, Oryptos, BTCXIndia and Bitsane.
Trading Ripple in CFDs
Most XRP/USD CFD trades have a difference of 2% between them. If your intuition tells you the price will reduce, bet on reducing prices – going short. If you predict it will go up, place your bet on a rising price. Predicting the market will experience a reduction in value anytime, enables you to use CFDs to promote it. Your earning will gain relative to any decrease in prices. But if the market moves against your prediction, your losses are likely to be magnified. CFDs are a flexible option for trading the movement of market price ranges as you can benefit from any movement, regardless of a market growing or shrinking.
CFDs allow you to place a market order that lets you buy or sell at the prevailing market prices. A limit order allows you to set the price you are comfortable to buy or sell. If the market achieves this your order is confirmed. Profit-take and stop-loss prices close your trade if they meet a certain threshold of profit or loss. This protects you from losing your gains or increasing your losses.
Ripple CFD
Leverage
5:1
Commission
Overnight fee -0.0694%
Minimum Spread, Pips
$0.0025 over market
Ripple Vs Bitcoin
The best way to analyze Bitcoin and Ripple is to study their differences. They include:
- Mining process – Bitcoin users create Bitcoins through mining while Ripple creators already have 100 billion Ripples created. Charitable organizations, Ripple users, and strategic partners can expect to trade in 55 billion Ripple XRPs
- Transaction speed – The mining process of creating Bitcoins is the main reason why Bitcoin transactions take longer to authorize. Ripple transaction authorization speed of 4 seconds is faster than Bitcoin
- Decentralized exchange – You can transact XRP on its own secure network, whereas Bitcoin trades on a centralized exchange which can potentially crash
- Transaction fees – Ripple users pay a transaction fee while Bitcoin has no transaction fees
- Information tracking – Ripple can track account and transaction information. Bitcoin’s network can only track the movement of Bitcoins.
The Pros of Ripple
- It has the fastest settlement time of any blockchain-like technology
- Ripple can process 1,000 transactions per second, more than any blockchain-like technology
- Its transactions have zero-latency with a Paychan feature similar to Dash
- It’s inter-ledger compatibility gives it near infinite scaling
- It has credibility as big companies such as Google and Santander have invested in it
- They are the only crypto player with a bank transacting on their public blockchain (UAE’s NBAD bank)
- The company is the majority shareholder (63%) so they can incentivize to push the price up.
Cons
- Ripple limits how much further it can appreciate based on growth in the crypto market
- Ripple is not centralized
- Ripple Consensus Ledger is open
- Ripple works closely with banks which go against many crypto users ethos of dismantling financial systems dominated by banks
- Ripple is not anonymous
Ripple has gained a significant following. It ranks third after Bitcoin and Ethereum in market capitalization. The way Ripple was created to function may not see it completely replace analog currencies. But its payment network has the potential to revolutionize the way business is done globally.
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