Hello Steemians, I welcome you all to the season 2 of Steemit Crypto Academy. I'm glad to be a beneficiary of this great academy because I have gained a lot of knowledge about cryptocurrency technology. Today's lesson was given by professors @yohan2on on Altcoins .For the homework task, I will write about Ripple (XRP).

Ripple

Source

Ripple is a decentralized platform with an open-source protocol designed to facilitate quicker transactions at a low cost. Ripple aim at breaking the bridge and setbacks in the present-day financial methods of currency transfers. With Ripple, International transactions can be easily carried out at a very fast rate with a cheap transaction cost. Ripple was created in 2012 for payment purposes. Unlike Bitcoin that takes 500 seconds to settle transactions, Ripple takes 3-5 seconds to settle transactions on the ledger. This makes Ripple a better and faster means of payment unlike Bitcoin and other digital assets.

XRP

XRP is a digital token used as a payment value across the Ripple network. XRP is the native cryptocurrency built specifically for financial institutions for exchange purposes with other currencies or asset. Similarly, XRP tokens are used by financial institutions to source liquidity instantly. XRP can be used for international payment directly without the involvement of any intermediary body like the central bank. This enables settling of payments in a faster manner at a relatively low transaction cost.

How Ripple works

Source
In the Ripple network, there's no proof of work or proof of stake protocol for verifying transactions unlike in Bitcoin. Ripples use of Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm(RPCA) to process as verify transactions. This technology was created by ripple to improve transaction speed at a reduced cost. The consensus algorithm verifies transactions when all nodes (validator) on the networks have unanimously agreed on an order of XRP transactions every 3-5 seconds. With this, Ripple carries out global payment and transactions seamlessly, making it a faster means of payment than other digital assets.
Ripple serves as a global settlement network allowing financial institutions and banks to transfer different currencies among them to any part of the world. The unique feature of Ripple is that it allows the transaction of any asset between banks and individuals (Cross border transaction). For example, John wants to trade USD for Japanese Yen. We all know the difficulty in carrying out such transaction using the traditional method. Ripple facilitates this transaction by converting the USD first to XRP and then converting the XRP to Japanese Yen. This transaction might look like a long process but it takes less than 5 seconds to settle the transaction at a very low cost.

Use Cases of Ripple (XRP)

• Low commission currency exchange: XRP serves as a mediator when converting from one currency to another. Converting from USD to EURO is costly, but with XRP as the mediator, this transaction can be carried out at a low cost.
• Fast transaction method: Transactions with Ripple takes less than 5 seconds to be settled. Unlike Bitcoin which takes 500 seconds to settle a transaction.
• Payment ecosystem: we all know the difficulties in international payment methods. This includes delays and verifications by central bodies. Ripple provides a payment ecosystem that allows users to carry out an international transfer of money in a faster and safer way.

Benefit of Ripple

• Instant Transactions: Transactions using Ripple takes place in less than 5 seconds to be settled. This makes Ripple a faster means transaction than Bitcoin which takes about 500 seconds.
• Low Transaction Fee: Transaction fee using Ripple cost about $0.0002 which is very low compared to other payment methods.
• Scalable: The XRP ledger can carry about 1500 transactions per second. This makes XRP a faster means of payment transfer than Bitcoin which handles 3 transactions per second.
• Decentralized: Transactions using Ripple is carried out in a decentralized manner. This means that there's no third party or central authority over its control.
• Sustainability: Ripple offers pre-mined tokens. This means that XRP cannot be mined and all the total supply of 100 billion is already issued out. With these, there will be no environmental hazard in generating power for mining rigs.

Technical Overview of XRP

_{Image source Technical information}

The tool supply of XRP is 100 billion with a market cap of $79.31 billion. 45.40 billion is already in circulation with developers in possession of 60% of the total supply. Currently, XRP is ranked 4th in CoinmarketCap. Similarly, XRP has reached an all-time high of $2.37 and an all-time low of $0.00448.

_{Image source XRP all-time Line Chart}

XRP is currently trading at $1.73 at the time of this writing with a 24hr trading volume of $30.58 across major exchanges. Over the past few days, XRP has been making good progress to the upside and might retest an all-time high at $2.37. More information on the technical overview of XRP can be viewed on CoinmarketCap.

Exchanges where XRP can be traded

XRP can be traded in major cryptocurrency exchanges. The image below shows some of the exchanges where XRP can be traded. Binance has the highest 24hr trading of $4.1 billion. This high trading volume makes XRP a very liquid pair that can be easily traded.

_{Image source XRP Trading Exchanges}

Wallets where XRP can be stored

XRP can be stored in an exchange that guarantees the safety of your asset. Similarly, it can be stored in a hardware wallet, mobile wallet or web wallet. It is recommended you make proper research about the safety of a wallet before you store your assets in them. The best wallets to store XRP:

• Ledger Nano X (hardware wallet)
• Atomic wallet (android mobile wallet)
• Trust wallet ( android mobile wallet)
• Ledger live ( Desktop wallet)
• Gatehub wallet (web wallet)
• Rippex (web wallet) etc.

In conclusion, Ripple has a big potential and solutions for banking systems. Several banks and financial institutions have been adopting the Ripple network for payment services. With XRP, international transactions can be carried out faster at a relatively low cost. Ripple price might surge in the future when the majority of banks and institutions have adopted the network for its payment services. Similarly, 60% of the total supply XRP is being held by the developers which the developers control over the asset. We all know the idea of cryptocurrency is to eliminate centralization in the financial market.

Thank you Professor @yohan2on for this amazing lesson.