In this week's issue of Coin Spotlight, we'll be taking a closer look at [Ripple](https://ripple.com). There is a lot of controversy surrounding this coin, so I will try to cover Ripple as neutral as possible. It can't be denied that Ripple clearly has a lot of investments behind it, as they've received backing from major financial institutions. 

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<center>https://i.imgur.com/yXGXhDk.png</center><center>*Source: Image created by @daan using Gimp; [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ripple_logo.svg)*</center>

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# Basic Overview
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There's a clear difference between Ripple as a payment protocol and XRP. The Ripple network (Ripplenet) uses XRP as it's own native cryptocurrency, but also offers other services. It is possible to make use of the Ripple network, without directly making use of XRP. There's only one exception to that rule, you do need 20 XRP to create an account that gives you access to the Ripple network. 

Ripple aims to make international transactions cheaper, faster and more reliable opposed to the traditional banking system. They work with a token system, where tokens can represent fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodities or any other units of value. At its core, Ripple uses a distributed ledger which is validated by different entities such as:  companies, ISP's and universities. This allows for payments, currency exchanges and settlements to take place in a secure environment. 

As I've mentioned before, while XRP is the native currency of the Ripple network, it is not used for all of Ripple's services. XRP was designed to be an asset with a decreasing supply, at it's creation there were 100 billion XRP created. Ripple's creators have retained 20 billion XRP and gave the other 80 billion XRP to Ripple labs. Part of Ripple Labs XRP reserves have been placed into an escrow account, to clear any suspicions surrounding the huge XRP supply under their control. It also has to be noted that Ripple's founders have donated nearly half of their XRP holdings to non-profits and charities. 

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<center>https://i.imgur.com/Q6hfNYF.jpg</center><center>*Source: [pixabay](https://pixabay.com/en/cryptocurrency-money-ripple-digital-3424779/)*</center>

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# Ripplenet Services

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## xCurrent
&nbsp;
This service offers banks the ability to process transactions securely and instantly. It's designed to work with the bank's existing infrastructure, while also adhering to various compliance requirements (such as KYC). Note that this service is for bank-to-bank transactions.

## xRapid (early access)
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Gives customers access to on-demand liquidity at low cost. xRapid provides banks and payment processors with liquidity through a pool of digital assets (XRP). 

## xVia (early access)
&nbsp;
xVia is Ripple's standard payment interface, which can be used for sending payments through various different networks, all through one standard interface. Prominent features include: payment tracking, adding rich data to transactions and efficient capital management. 

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<center>https://i.imgur.com/CE2foVg.jpg</center><center>*Source: [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/en/cryptocurrency-coin-blockchain-3409724/)*</center>

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# Ripple's Customers
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It is pretty clear that Ripple is primarily targeted to win over banks and other financial institutions as customers. They currently have over 100 members, among which banks are a majority. This doesn't mean that Ripple wouldn't be used by other sectors as well. Companies might opt to use Ripple to manage their capital more efficiently and currency exchanges might benefit from the fast settlement times on the Ripple network.

# Investing in XRP
&nbsp;
XRP is not used throughout all of Ripple's services, but the price of XRP has reacted to further developments regarding the Ripple network. Recently the prices went up, after it was announced that Ripple Labs had secured a number of customers for their xCurrent service. The thing is that xCurrent does not have anything to do with XRP, so in theory this shouldn't affect the price. 

It seems as though most investors directly tie XRP to Ripple, even though the two can operate independently from each other in some cases. The high number of XRP that is still retained by the founders and Ripple labs, is also a possible concern. 

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# My Opinion on Ripple
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I'm going to be honest, Ripple has never really been something that I've been interested in. Before I started researching for this article, I only knew a little bit about how it worked. It's clear that Ripple is mostly intended for professional use by financial institutions, while I usually only follow projects that interest me personally. 

Ripple has a little bit of a bad reputation in the crypto-community, with claims of it being too centralized and accusations of Ripple being pre-mined. Some of these claims might be a bit exaggerated, while some originate due to a difference in philosophy. 

I'm not against Ripple, but I also probably won't invest in it either. 

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# CoinMarketCap Statistics on 26/05/2018
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| Price (USD) | MarketCap | Volume (24h) | Circulating Supply | Max Supply |
|       :---: |                   :---: | :---:                        | :---:                                  |                      :---: |
|  $0.620229 |  $24,306,754,811  |  $217,598,000  | 39,189,968,239 XRP | 100,000,000,000 XRP |

*Source: [XRP on CoinMarketCap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ripple/)*

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# Research Sources
&nbsp;
[Official Ripple Website](https://ripple.com)
[xCurrent Product Overview](https://ripple.com/files/ripple_product_overview.pdf)
[Ripple Wikipedia Entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol))
[Coindesk Article on Ripple](https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-fits-ripples-payments-products-explained/)

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## Let me know what you think in the comments and consider upvoting or resteeming if you like this type of content! 

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