Crypto Academy | Season 2 - Week 1 | Homework Post for @alphafx | Blockchain and Platforms

Dear Steemians,

It gives me great joy to be part of Steemit Crypto Academy with the addition of new Crypto Professors which means more value to be added and more learning in crypto sphere.

Steemit Crypto Academy Professor @alphafx has explained in depth about the Blockchain Platforms with examples and I was able to understand the following thing from this lecture;

• Concept of Blockchain
• Need of Blockchain
• Four Great Blockchain Platforms (EOS, Ethereum, Tron and Stellar)

Home Work Task
At the end of the lecture, students were assigned a homework task by Professor @alphafx mentioned below;

Assignment:
Give a detailed comparison between two blockchain platforms of your choice.

I have decided to write on Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) for homework task.

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Ripple (XRP)

• Ripple was founded by Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen in 2014 to provide digital payments network for financial transactions across the globe. XRP is native digital asset on Ripple Ledger, which is an open source decentralized blockchain. XRP can be used directly for payment purposes and we don't need the permission or approval of any authority like Central banks. It is designed to offer cross-border payments between financial institutions like banks and multinational corporations.

• My 1st experience of trading XRP was in early 2017 when it was trading around $0.08 to $0.10 and it went to $0.40 in few days. I was quick to sell all my XRP to gain a 300% profit (A decision, I regret when I saw it going above $1 and then reaching ATH above $3)

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Stellar (XLM)

• Jed McCaleb founded Stellar in 2014 after conflict of opinion with Ripple team. Stellar offers fast and low cost cross-border transactions connecting banks, payment systems and people around the world. XLM is the native digital asset that is used to conduct transactions on distributed payment ledger. Stellar is different from Ripple in terms of the target audience as it focuses on providing low cost financial services to the people in developing countries or common people.

• My 1st experience of trading XLM was in early 2017 when it was trading around $0.003 and it went to $0.03 in 2 months. I was happy to gain 10X profit. It went in consolidation and I am satisfied that I took the right decision of taking profit but at end of 2017, it broke out big time and went on to make ATH of $0.90+ and I just can't tell you my feelings in words.

Key Differences between Ripple and Stellar

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Target Markets

• Ripple is designed to target big financial institutions like banks and multinational corporations to make quick and low cost transactions and currency conversions while stellar enables individuals to make cost effective currency transfers specially in developing countries.

Consensus Algorithm

• Initially Stellar and Ripple were sharing almost the same code but now they both have different codes. Ripple uses Proof of Correctness consensus mechanism while Stell payment protocols uses Stellar Consensus Protocol

Maximum Supply

• The maximum supply for XRP is capped at 100 Billion but a small amount of XRP is destroyed in each transaction and ultimately the maximum supply of XRP will decrease with time. Stellar maximum supply is also capped at 100 billion but it has a fixed inflation rate of 1% and all the transaction fees are recycled.

Circulating Supply and Market Cap

• Currently, There are 22,881,768,211 XLM in circulating supply with market cap of $13,910,038,140 while there are 45,404,028,640 XRP in circulation with market cap of $72,268,862,038

ICO Platform

• Stellar has additional features of acting as decentralized exchange and provides a platform to launch ICOs while Ripple doesn't have this feature.

Market Ranking

• Ripple (XRP) is currently ranked at 4th place in the market while Stellar (XLM) is standing at 14th place on market chart.

All Time High Price

• Ripple has managed to click an All Time High price of $3.40 in January 2018 and with its recent impulsive breakout, it is looking to reach that ATH. Stellar ATH was $0.93 in January 2018 and with current price hovering around $0.60, it is looking to break previous ATH very soon.

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Final Words

• Both Ripple and Lumen Offers fast and low cost transactions in financial system but their is a difference of psychology in term of target market with Ripple focusing on the Multinational Corporations and Stellar focussing on the common people in developing countries.

• If you are thinking to get involved in any of these two, you should not ignore the other one because both have the potential of yielding good returns on your investment. I would go with Stellar because it has more potential in terms of expected ROI as compared to Ripple.

I would like to pay my thanks to our Crypto Professor @alphafx for this wonderful lecture and looking to learn more in the coming weeks.