Ripple and how it works?!

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As Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency has more than tripled in one week, it's interesting to determine due to what such a cheap currency could get close to the recognized leaders of the crypto-currency market?

The forerunner of the modern Ripple platform the RipplePay system appeared in 2004. Canadian programmer Ryan Fugger managed to create a decentralized payment platform for a wide range of users. However, despite a good idea, the project did not get much success, and Fugger decided to go even further - to change the existing system of the bank and interbank payments.
The updated system appeared in 2012 and was named Ripple. The company, which is engaged in the development and maintenance of the platform, was named Ripple Labs. Fugger together with other developers created a secure decentralized platform for payments between physical and even legal entities (primarily banking institutions). Also, the platform launched its cryptocurrency​, called the ripple with the designation XRP.

The basis of the system is a unique algorithm. Ripple uses its own secure RPC protocol, which connects different nodes of the network. This is an open source protocol that allows all users in the system to quickly and safely exchange resources make payments and conclude deals while paying a minimum commission.

XRP cannot be mined. It's not even that it's impossible, but crypto-currency developers do not foresee just such an option. They minted about 100 billion coins, left themselves 65% of the extracted assets, and the remaining 35% were released to the market.
Ripple does not use blockchain technology. Instead, the system operates gateways through which all transactions pass. Dozens of servers installed in the company's offices around the world are responsible for the operation of these gateways.
The popularity of a ripple as a cryptocurrency is determined by the number of partner banks that use the Ripple payment system. So, in 2016 the company signed a contract with more than 20 banks, and the price of rivals immediately grew by 200%.
The little cost of ripple is explained by a large number of coins issued. As the number of coins decreases and the popularity of the entire system increases, the value of the ripple will naturally increase.

The main advantages of Ripple are; high speed of transactions (higher than bitcoin), the possibility of exchanging any currency for any other money or value, high level of protection against spam, hacking and hacker attacks and the impossibility of inflation.

However, there are disadvantages also for instance high monopolization as Ripple Labs owns 65% of existing coins, which allows it to manipulate the exchange rate.

So Ripple by itself is more payment system than currency. The e​xperts predict that shortly Ripple will be used as the primary system of interbank payments.

I hope you enjoy the article!

All the best,
Artyom