XRP is a digital asset used for payments. It is a native digital asset on XRP's ledger that can settle transactions in 3-5 seconds through open source, unlicensed and decentralized blockchain technology.

Replace Bitcoin with a trust-free, instant and cheap cross-border payment network.

The existing pain points in the payment industry are obvious, including high payment fees, low efficiency and high cost of cross-border transfer, poor interoperability of different networks, and hidden risks of security and privacy under the operation mode of centralized institutions.

Distributed ledger technology solves the centralized, special consensus mechanism to bring extremely fast (3-5 seconds) transaction experience.

XRP based on XRP Ledger technology connects different currencies. XRP Ledger consists of independent authentication nodes and can reach consensus in 3-5 seconds. There are 36 XRP Ledger authentication nodes, which are composed of universities, exchanges, and financial institutions.

1. Two-way circulation of real and virtual currency; 2. Multi-currency P2P exchange and payment; 3.P2P network credit; 4. Personal network clearing.

The XRP ledger utilizes a consensus mechanism based on the Federal Byzantine Protocol (FBA) model.

Of the total 100 billion XRP tokens, Ripple retains 80 billion tokens to fund future operations and development, with the founders distributing the remaining XRP to them. XRP in Ripple decided to sell its pre-mined tokens into circulation on the secondary market. In 2017, the company transferred 55 billion of its 80 billion XRP tokens into an escrow account and could sell up to 1 billion tokens a month in the secondary market. This is done to improve the transparency and predictability of Ripple's sale of XRP.

Ripple is one of the most mature projects to date due to its clear target and early establishment of the industry. Its ecosystem includes multinational banks and traditional payment institutions.

Like Bitcoin, Ripple is a shared public database and a global ledger of payments. The consensus mechanism allows all computers in the Ripple network to automatically receive updates to general ledger information in a matter of seconds without going through a central data exchange. This processing speed is a major engineering breakthrough for Ripple. This means that Ripple's transaction confirmation time is only 3 to 5 seconds, compared to 60 minutes for Bitcoin.

Regulatory review, litigation risk. Ripple Labs controls a large number of XRP tokens and there are concerns that the company has too much power, making it the central authority in a project that should be decentralized in all aspects.

Ripple is one of the most successful payment and trading platforms and it will have a significant impact on the future of financial transactions. On the other hand, the value of XRP, the underlying digital currency that powers the network, should continue to rise as more financial institutions use the Ripple network to facilitate cross-border transactions.