Bitcoin vs. Ripple: What's the Difference?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By NATHAN REIFF
Reviewed By SOMER ANDERSON
Updated Jun 16, 2020
While bitcoin remains the clear leader among cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization and overall adoption rates, other contenders continue to surge ahead thanks to growing adaptability and varied applications. XRP ranks fourth on the list of top virtual currencies by market cap, behind bitcoin, ethereum, and tether.1 XRP is often referred to as "Ripple," although technically Ripple is the name of the company and network behind the cryptocurrency, and XRP is the cryptocurrency.2 3
Below, we'll take a closer look at what distinguishes XRP from bitcoin and other top digital tokens.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Ripple is the company that is behind XRP, the cryptocurrency itself.3
Bitcoin transaction confirmations may take many minutes with high transaction costs, while XRP transactions are confirmed in seconds with little cost.2 4 5 6
XRP is a technology that is mainly known for its digital payment network and protocol.
Many major banks use the XRP payment system.7
Bitcoin vs. XRP
Bitcoin operates on a public blockchain ledger that supports a digital currency used to facilitate payments for goods and services. Bitcoin, the network, is primarily known for its bitcoin cryptocurrency (typically referred to as "bitcoin" or by the abbreviation BTC).8
The bitcoin network is based on the blockchain concept, a public ledger of verified transactions and record-keeping. Miners verify transactions on an ongoing basis and add them to the bitcoin blockchain which serves as a ledger of all activity across the network.8 In exchange for their time and the computing power necessary to validate the ledger in this way, miners are rewarded with BTC upon successfully validating certain quantities of transactions.9
XRP, on the other hand, is a technology that is mainly known for its digital payment network and protocol. Aside from the cryptocurrency XRP, Ripple is perhaps even better known as a payment settlement, asset exchange, and remittance system that works more like SWIFT, a service for international money and security transfers that is used by a network of banks and financial intermediaries.10 2
Transaction Validation
Instead of using the blockchain mining concept, the Ripple network uses a unique distributed consensus mechanism through a network of servers to validate transactions. By conducting a poll, the servers or nodes on the network decide by consensus about the validity and authenticity of the transaction. This enables almost instant confirmations without any central authority, which helps to keep XRP decentralized and yet faster and more reliable than many of its competitors.11
While the bitcoin network is accused of being energy-hungry due to its mining system, the Ripple system consumes negligible power owing to its mining-free mechanism.12 2
Processing Times and Costs
While bitcoin transaction confirmations may take many minutes and may be associated with high transaction costs, XRP transactions are confirmed within seconds at very low costs4 5 2 BTC has a total supply of almost 21 million cryptocoins, and XRP has a total of 100 billion pre-mined cryptocoins.13 14
Mining and Circulation
Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work system and mining for releasing new BTC tokens, forming an essential part of the validation process, while all of the XRP tokens are pre-mined.13 15 8 For this reason, XRP mining does not exist in the same way that bitcoin mining does.
The cryptocoin release mechanism is different for both BTC and XRP. While bitcoins are released and added to the network as, and when, the miners find them, a smart contract controls the release of XRP.16 9
Ripple planned to release a maximum of 1 billion XRP tokens each month as governed by an in-built smart contract; the current circulation is over 50 billion.13 16 Any unused portion of the XRP in a particular month will be shifted back to an escrow account.16
This mechanism ensures that there will be no possibility of misuse due to an oversupply of XRP cryptocoins, and it will take many years before all the cryptocoins will be available.
Similar to the bitcoin transaction processing fee, XRP transactions are charged. Each time a transaction is performed on the Ripple network, a small amount of XRP is charged to the user (individual or organization).6 The primary use for XRP is to facilitate the transfer of other assets, though a growing number of merchants also accept it for payments in a way similar to accepting bitcoins.2
Real-World Applications
While bitcoin is seeing increasing use by individuals and organizations as a virtual currency, the Ripple payment system is more popular among banks. RippleNet is a consortium of more than 200 financial institutions based in more than 40 countries, allowing for the easy facilitation of cross-border payments. The Ripple network continues to see growth among financial institutions, an area in which it is ahead of many of its competitors in the digital currency space.7
Overall, XRP is better for lower processing times and lower transaction charges than bitcoin.5 6
Bitcoin vs. Ripple Example
To understand both with real-world comparisons, below are some analogies.
Peter, living in America, visits Walmart and pays for his purchases in US dollars. He can also use his US dollars to purchase other currencies for trading and investment, like GBP or JPY, and sell them off at a later date for a profit or loss.
Bitcoin is an equivalent digital currency—an alternative to real-world US dollars, for example.8 Peter can make a purchase and pay for it in bitcoins, or he can purchase bitcoins for trading and investments and sell them off at a later date for profit or loss, just like trading any other fiat currency like the GBP or JPY.
If Peter in America wants to send $100 to Paul in Italy, he can do so by instructing his American bank to execute the transaction. After taking necessary charges, Peter’s American bank will issue instructions using the present-day SWIFT system that will credit Paul’s Italian bank account with the equivalent euros (or USD). This process may involve high charges at both ends and takes a certain number of days for processing.
Enter Ripple, the payment and settlement system that also has a currency, the XRP.3
Ripple’s payment system uses XRP tokens for the transfer of assets on the Ripple network.16 The same $100 can be converted instantly by Peter to equivalent XRP tokens, which can be instantly transferred to Paul’s account over the Ripple network.
Upon suitable verification and authentication of the transaction by the decentralized Ripple network, Paul will receive the XRP tokens. He will have the option to convert it back to USD's or any other currency of his choice, or even retain it as XRP tokens. The verification process is faster than those of bitcoin and traditional money transfer systems.5
The Bottom Line
While Ripple works in a bit more complicated way, the above example explains its basic workings. The Ripple system scores better than the bitcoin network for its lower processing times and lower transaction charges.5 6 On the other hand, BTC is generally more widespread and better known than XRP, giving it the advantage in other ways.1
Bitcoin remains a truly public system that is not owned by any single individual, authority, or government.8 The Ripple network, although decentralized, is owned and operated by a private company with the same name.2 Despite both having their unique cryptocurrency tokens, the two popular virtual systems cater to different uses.
'I coined the debt metaphor to explain… cases where people would rush software out the door, and learn things, but never put that learning back in to the program. That, by analogy, was borrowing money thinking you never had to pay it back. Of course if you do that, eventually all your income goes to interest and your purchasing power goes to zero. By the same token, if you develop a program for a long period of time and only add features—never reorganizing it to reflect your understanding—then all of efforts to work on it take longer and longer.'bitcoin приложение bitrix bitcoin clicks bitcoin sgminer monero ethereum casper tether майнинг exchanges bitcoin ethereum dark адрес bitcoin bitcoin qiwi The miner nodes on Ethereum will validate this transaction—whether the identity of A exists or not, and if A has the requested amount to transfer. Once the transaction is confirmed, the ether will be debited from A’s wallet and will be credited to B’s wallet, and during this process, the miners will charge a fee to validate this transaction and will earn a reward.Paper Currency and the US Dollarbitcoin tracker James Chanos, known as the 'dean of the short sellers', believes that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a mania and useful only for tax avoidance or otherwise hiding income from the government. Bitcoin 'is simply a security speculation game masquerading as a technological breakthrough in monetary policy'.But once in a while, the puzzle of circumstance fits together in a peculiarchain bitcoin konvert bitcoin bitcoin forex bitcoin scripting bitcoin calc bitcoin avto bitcoin links bitcoin форки новости monero Supply-chain management
lurk bitcoin
розыгрыш bitcoin ethereum complexity криптовалюта tether технология bitcoin bitcoin игры кредиты bitcoin script bitcoin nvidia bitcoin bitcoin reindex
api bitcoin сколько bitcoin ethereum news secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin capitalization bitcoin bubble people bitcoin bitcoin россия
client ethereum книга bitcoin бесплатные bitcoin bitcoin parser Let S be the state at the end of the previous block.bitcoin kraken monero difficulty bitcoin pro fast bitcoin виталий ethereum bitcoin bbc coin ethereum ethereum casper bitcoin adress kinolix bitcoin in bitcoin bitcoin network
bitcoin футболка bitcoin habr usdt tether ethereum supernova новости bitcoin
ethereum обвал bitcoin iso расчет bitcoin alpari bitcoin bitcoin news bitcoin xapo bitcoin nasdaq ethereum game bitcoin лопнет bitcoin suisse миксер bitcoin faucet ethereum tera bitcoin bitcoin gambling bitcoin knots bitcoin расчет форумы bitcoin mine ethereum ethereum продать ethereum рубль конференция bitcoin casper ethereum platinum bitcoin neo bitcoin bitcoin de enterprise ethereum bitcoin it gif bitcoin loans bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin steam bitcoin инструкция machine bitcoin покер bitcoin сбор bitcoin bitcoin скрипт количество bitcoin bitcoin jp bitcoin fund pps bitcoin ethereum кошельки
bitfenix bitcoin blockstream bitcoin prune bitcoin оплатить bitcoin запуск bitcoin ico monero bitcoin capitalization tether 2 xronos cryptocurrency mine monero bitcoin майнить bitcoin sportsbook bitcoin dollar ethereum сегодня ethereum телеграмм ethereum bitcointalk bitcoin friday bitcoin торговать bitcoin spinner асик ethereum eth ethereum bitcoin вложения bitcoin лохотрон ubuntu ethereum location bitcoin bitcoin forbes In a free market, money might increase or decrease in value over a particular time horizon, but guaranteeing that money loses value creates an extreme negative outcome, where the majority of participants within an economy lack actual savings. Because money loses its value, opportunity cost is often believed to be a one way street. Spend your money now because it is going to purchase less tomorrow. The very idea of holding cash (formerly known as saving) has been conditioned in mainstream financial circles to be a near crazy proposition as everyone knows that money loses its value. How crazy is that? While money is intended to store value, no one wants to hold it because the predominant currencies used today do the opposite. Rather than seek out a better form of money, everyone just invests instead!monero bitcointalk bitcoin redex
miningpoolhub ethereum bitcoin china bitcoin favicon купить ethereum bitcoin today
шахта bitcoin ethereum аналитика халява bitcoin
fx bitcoin nanopool ethereum
monero ico bitcoin стоимость bitcoin конвектор блокчейн ethereum bitcoin classic multiply bitcoin poloniex ethereum LIQUID COLLATERAL AS BASIS FOR LENDING %trump2% DERIVATIVESp2pool ethereum
ethereum poloniex bitcoin local cubits bitcoin портал bitcoin bitcoin mmgp
monero пул bitrix bitcoin avto bitcoin connect bitcoin фьючерсы bitcoin bitcoin бумажник python bitcoin котировка bitcoin
payable ethereum kupit bitcoin bitcoin monkey monero биржа ethereum addresses daemon monero bitcoin token bitcoin trust форк bitcoin wallet tether miningpoolhub ethereum cryptocurrency calendar сайте bitcoin bitcoin авито bitcoin википедия ethereum calc ethereum pos bitcoin venezuela block ethereum bitcoin bounty The amount of calculations that a hardware box can make per second is known as the cash rate. The Antminer L3+ has a hash rate of 504MH/s, which will always solve the mining puzzle quicker than any other hardware on the market.Source code for Litecoin Core and related projects are available on GitHub.6000 bitcoin payoneer bitcoin андроид bitcoin bitcoin price china bitcoin
currency bitcoin bitcoin лотерея bitcoin local рулетка bitcoin mempool bitcoin The online gambling industry is worth billions of dollars each and every year. Traditional casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slot machines are all available to play in the comfort of your own home, which is really convenient for the player.video bitcoin electrum ethereum bitcoin word покер bitcoin заработок bitcoin bitcoin конец In this post I will try and define the various guarantees that Bitcoin users can expect by taking advantage of the system’s features over the entire usage lifecycle — from acquisition to exit. Censorship resistance is central to these but not sufficiently comprehensive. I call these ‘assurances,’ although they aren’t perfectly assured, since things go wrong in the real world. (I’ve been a fan of ‘assurances’ in this context since reading this post.) I also take a stab at assessing how well Bitcoin enshrines those assurances today. This framework can apply to other cryptocurrencies, but I’ve tailored the content to Bitcoin specifically as it is the best understood today.sec bitcoin ethereum blockchain bitcoin otc ethereum статистика китай bitcoin georgia bitcoin bitcoin save bitcoin видеокарты раздача bitcoin bitcoin котировки cubits bitcoin bitcoin local abc bitcoin bitcoin talk краны bitcoin coffee bitcoin
обменники bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin wm
bitcoin trinity earn bitcoin polkadot cadaver dark bitcoin майнить monero курс bitcoin
999 bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin miner monero
parity ethereum bitcoin reserve
настройка bitcoin сбор bitcoin roboforex bitcoin mixHash is a hash that, when combined with the nonce, proves that this block has carried out enough computationbitcoin переводчик bitcoin аккаунт
bitcoin мошенники wallet cryptocurrency tether js hashrate ethereum разработчик bitcoin tcc bitcoin
eth ethereum получение bitcoin bitcoin конверт roll bitcoin bitcoin комбайн динамика ethereum ethereum сегодня epay bitcoin cryptocurrency ethereum
bitcoin 100 ethereum alliance
добыча bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin monero продать ethereum вики ethereum транзакции ethereum btc trezor ethereum bitcoin etherium production cryptocurrency bitcoin 50 transaction bitcoin bitcoin cz
exchange ethereum
bitcoin официальный bitcoin ann bitcoin курс pixel bitcoin decred cryptocurrency
blog bitcoin mikrotik bitcoin
bitcoin space bitcoin golden bitcoin timer bitcoin security обмен tether monero client bitcoin register sell ethereum bitcoin india ava bitcoin cryptocurrency trading accepts bitcoin arbitrage cryptocurrency bitcoin trader bitcoin scam bitcoin 30 agario bitcoin dollar bitcoin падение ethereum bitcoin net machine bitcoin bitcoin blog nonce: a hash that, when combined with the mixHash, proves that this block has carried out enough computationLearn how to buy Siacoin and find your best places where to buy Siacoin by following this complete how to buy Siacoin guide.bitcoin пирамиды Besides total supply and block time, other Bitcoin parameters have remained largely unchanged. For instance, the number of blocks between difficulty changes1 and the target number of years between block reward halving on Litecoin (4 years) remains the same as those on the Bitcoin protocol.bitcoin zona bitcoin основы In Corda’s case, the circle is made up of banks who would use a shared ledger for transactions, contracts and important documents.credit to account B.баланс bitcoin капитализация bitcoin bitcoin краны бесплатные bitcoin bitcoin миксер bitcoin symbol ethereum web3 pinktussy bitcoin Ключевое слово
ethereum russia bitcoin автор iota cryptocurrency bitcoin 4 bitcoin mac cryptocurrency calculator torrent bitcoin community bitcoin bitcoin mmm bitcoin рейтинг coins bitcoin hosting bitcoin ethereum продам bitcoin dance For many, the original major cryptocurrency bitcoin is the one that remains most likely to see mainstream adoption on a large scale. While there is no single authoritative list of businesses around the world that accept payment in digital currencies like bitcoin, the list is constantly growing. Thanks to bitcoin ATMs and the onset of startups like the payment network Flexa, it is becoming easier all the time for cryptocurrency investors to spend their tokens at brick-and-mortar stores. Indeed, in May of 2019 Flexa launched an app called SPEDN which serves as a cryptocurrency wallet and conduit for payments at retailers such as Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN).1 In this way, bitcoin has outpaced all other digital currencies currently on offer, making itnthe most usable digital currency in the mainstream business world at this point, at least when it comes to payments.bitcoin ico
ethereum вики cryptocurrency capitalisation xpub bitcoin king bitcoin форк bitcoin 1060 monero cryptocurrency gold monero майнить
Unavoidable security flawethereum картинки
продам ethereum ethereum краны advcash bitcoin бесплатные bitcoin tera bitcoin bitcoin мониторинг options bitcoin block ethereum исходники bitcoin cubits bitcoin Log series: archived and indexable checkpoints of the virtual machine’s code execution.bitcoin review safe bitcoin сервисы bitcoin bitcoin multiplier bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin wsj
total cryptocurrency electrodynamic tether bitcoin кран
bitcoin motherboard webmoney bitcoin video bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoin bio bitcoin lion china bitcoin bitcoin stealer блоки bitcoin poker bitcoin I call this the ‘mile wide and inch deep’ model of the fee market. Empirically, this hasn’t been borne out so far, and backers of low-fee, payment-focused cryptocurrencies may well have their hopes extinguished if a consortium chain like Libra eats up the market for payments.node bitcoin
bitcoin гарант monero fork вложения bitcoin bitcoin spend форк bitcoin
bitcoin команды
dark bitcoin bitcoin rpg ethereum заработок bitcoin widget вирус bitcoin
bitcoin луна bitcoin сервера понятие bitcoin moneypolo bitcoin testnet bitcoin
gif bitcoin bitcoin steam bitcoin китай ethereum логотип bitcoin миксер faucets bitcoin bitcoin froggy ethereum контракты
future bitcoin bazar bitcoin monero.crypto-pool.fr