Ripple (XRP): From Idea to Deployment
Ripple is a US private company (known as OpenCoin until 2013) and a fund transfer complex featuring XRP as its native crypto token. Having chosen blockchain technology as the core of all Ripple operations, the brand puts huge efforts into streamlining most interbank and payment provider financial operations, thus making them not only rapidly but also more affordable.
Outset Prototype and Steps to Success
Back in 2004, being a regular Vancouver developer, Ryan Fugger came up with brand new ideas to build a devolved digital payment mechanism, an ecosystem in which individuals and groups of people could develop their own medium of exchange. In fact, this is how RipplePay was born and saw the big world one year later, in 2005. Sadly, despite the uniqueness of the idea at that time, RipplePay failed to grow into a widely-known solution and become successful.
In 2012, Ryan Fugger met Chris Larsen (Prosper, E-Loan founder) and Jed McCaleb (from eDonkey), who asked Ryan to pitch one of their project ideas. Later, Ryan Fugger put them in charge of his own solution. Larsen and McCaleb established the OpenCoin brand following a global idea: To offer a payment ecosystem to banks, monetary companies, and other financial institutions. The Ripple ideas and Fugger's concepts were used as the foundation for the expansion of the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP). In around a year (2013), the OpenCoin brand transformed into Ripple Labs. After two more years (2015), the team refused to use the labs in their name, and since that time, it's become known as simple as Ripple.
The XRP by Ripple
Ripple and XRP are two different notions. While Ripple is a commercial brand, XRP is cryptocurrency. The company also built and promoted the XRP Ledger and takes full responsibility for developing multiple projects related to the world of transactions.
The XRP Ledger is, in fact, an ecosystem that performs two major functions: It offers exchange infrastructure across price quotes of the exchange rate for two different currencies traded in FX markets and is used as a storage for all the participants' data. The transfers offered by the software are fast, low-cost, and immediate. The deals within the systems are transparent and public. To date, there are more than 1500 validators that are operated on the Ledger by businesses and exchanges, universities, and individuals globally. Since its first day of launch in 2013, the number of completed deals has been several billion.
Though based upon the invention of Bitcoin, the Ledger differs from its closest counterpart: It doesn't have a PoW algorithm of consensus as its core. Thus, it never relies on cryptocurrency mining for transaction verification. The network can reach it via a personal tailor-made procedure, the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm.
Deal records are compared by validating nodes that are independent. And though one can install a validator node, run it, and decide on the reputable ones, the system has a recommended catalog to follow (the Unique Node List, UNL). All the transfers supported by the majority of nodes from the list are viewed as valid. All of the nodes simultaneously applied to a certain number of deals stand for consensus achievement.
In line with official resources, the XRPL is an open-source instrument and will keep operating even if or when the commercial brand no longer exists.
The RippleNet Component
RippleNet is a commercial component developed by Ripple parallel to Ledger as a cross-border payment grid with the aim of creating a payment scheme that would be globalized and unified. RippleNet is now characterized by the presence of core services:
xRapid is a service that strongly relies on Ripple's XRP. Basically, this is an inexpensive liquidity solution providing access through the XRP coin. The procedure is called on-demand liquidity: the service is bridging currency between fiat and other currencies, ensuring an instant conversion, and relieving businesses from the need to pre-fund foreign areas.
xCurrent's main focus is banks. The service offers these banking companies transboundary payments at lower prices than those suggested by standard international payment services. xCurrent uses an open and neutral Interledger Protocol linking ledgers and payment systems within RippleNet, thus allowing interbank immediate message exchange and transaction settlement at a high speed and with improved transparency. Originally created for fiat currencies only, this service of RippleNet equally aids all cryptocurrency-related transactions. xCurrent features the following main elements:
Messenger: a module with an AI core for secure contact between the banking systems. The messenger is primarily utilized for exchanging data related to rates, fees, risks, payment data, compliance, as well as delivery time.
Validator: a facilitator of fund movement. It ensures that all transfers are legitimate and confirms whether a transaction is successful or not. Because of safeguarding the customers' identity, the validator is often referred to as a single source of truth for all counterparties.
ILP Ledger: a custom protocol or a sub-ledger exploited for the majority of tracking operations, including credits and debits as well as liquidity. Regardless of the number of parties involved, the protocol enables automatic funds settlement, thus an instant transaction settlement as well.
FX Ticker: a special tracker, an exchange facilitator between the ledgers that defines FX rates between the participants of a transaction.
xVia's service is often regarded as less fundamental compared to xRapid or xCurrent. Nevertheless, xVia is responsible for promoting financial operations through a unified Application Programming-Based user interface. Via xVia in their back offices, companies that focus on dealing with financial transactions can refuse to integrate multiple payment networks and make use of one framework.
Closing Thoughts
And though on the modern orb and Bitcoin taking the position of a leading virtual exchange medium that acts as money, the Ripple ecosystem with its XRP is on the same footing as a unique global solution for interbank financial operations.
With its golden trio services (xRapid, xCurrent, and xVia), the network is easy to integrate into an already developed backbone of a bank or any other financial brand to ensure real-time interbank transactions, on-demand liquidity instruments, and accessible inter-participant communication.