XRP is the cryptocurrency of the Ledger XRP blockchain which was developed by Ripple Labs. XRP is used to instantly make and receive payments from anywhere in the world. XRP is accepted on some e-commerce sites. XRP is also used in Ripple products to facilitate quick conversion between different currencies. XRP Ledger is a platform created to help banks and companies carry out fast and cheap transactions.

Overview

XRP is the native cryptocurrency on the Ripple network, and it consistently ranks among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. XRP is a cryptocurrency that runs on the XRP Ledger, a blockchain engineered by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz. McCaleb and Britto would go on to found Ripple and use XRP to facilitate transactions on the network. Ripple Labs was rebranded to Ripple in October 2015. Since then, the interchangeability in the terminology used to describe the company, the network, the XRP Ledger, and XRP itself has caused confusion to those new and old in the cryptocurrency space.^[3][4][5]

History

2011
Jed McCaleb started developing a digital currency system (XRP Ledger) together with David Schwartz and Arthur Britto. They sought to create a more sustainable system for sending value. ^[6]

2012
XRP Ledger launched its native currency, XRP. By June, Schwartz, McCaleb and Britto finished code development, and the Ledger was complete. Once the XRP Ledger was live, 80% of the XRP was gifted to a new company that was set out to build use cases for the digital asset - initially called NewCoin and renamed quickly to OpenCoin.

2013
XRP was created in January 2013 by OpenCoin Inc.

2016
Ripple Labs and Jed Mccaleb reached an agreement to prevent dumping of McCaleb's XRP and subject his resales with multiple restrictions.

2017
In May 2017, Ripple committed to replacing 55 billion XRP in a secured escrow account to create certainty of XRP supply at any given time.
In December 2017, Ripple confirmed that this lockup was completed.^[13]
Ripple stated:

“This move underscores Ripple’s commitment to building XRP liquidity and a healthy and trusted market. Long term, the value of digital assets will be determined by their utility. XRP has emerged as the only digital asset with a clear institutional use case designed to solve a multi-trillion dollar problem – the global payment and liquidity challenge that banks, payment providers, and corporates face.”

2020
XRP Ledger (XRPL) Foundation was established in September 2020 and raised $5.5 million from Ripple, Coil, and GateHub. XRPL Foundation is an independent and nonprofit entity with a mission to accelerate the development and adoption of the decentralized XRP Ledger. ^[12]
Bharath Chari foundation consultant of XRP Ledger said:

“The Foundation is extremely happy to work with stakeholders in the ecosystem for further innovation and use of XRP Ledger. We are committed to providing full support to growing the developer ecosystem."

2021
In Q4 2021, three billion XRP were released out of escrow (one billion each month) in line with prior quarters and the official escrow arrangement. In total, 2.4 billion XRP was returned and subsequently put into new escrow contracts throughout the quarter.

Architecture

XRP’s blockchain operates a little differently than most other cryptocurrencies. Other cryptocurrencies open their transaction ledgers and verification processes to anyone who can solve complex equations quickly. But transactions are secure as the majority of ledger holders must agree with the verification for them to be added.

XRP’s Ripple network somewhat centralizes things and uses a consensus protocol - while anyone can download its validation software, it maintains unique node lists that users can select to verify their transactions based on which participants they think are least likely to defraud them.

As new transactions come in, the validators update their ledgers every three to five seconds and make sure they match the other ledgers. If there’s a mismatch, they stop to figure out what went wrong. This allows the network to securely and efficiently validate transactions, which gives it an edge over other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Mining XRP - Premining

No one can mine Ripple and the only option is to mine other cryptocurrencies first and then look for exchanges that convert BTC to XRP.

XRP was "pre-mined", meaning the XRP Ledger created 100 billion units that are then periodically released publicly.

Ripple owns a portion of XRP in circulation, and that is an incentive for it helps the cryptocurrency grows and be successful over time. Another portion of XRPs is held in reserve for regular release into the market through sales.^[2]
This led to concerns that a lot of XRP could be released at once, diluting the value of other XRP already in circulation because part of what gives any currency its value is its comparative scarcity.

Tokenomics

On December 7, 2017, Ripple Labs completed lockup of 55 billion XRP in its escrow accounts on the XRP Ledger (XRP's native blockchain). Since then, a comprehensive strategy has been employed in order to increase the circulation supply while maintaining and increasing liquidity carefully.

Creation of XRP

On June 2, 2012, Arthur Britto, one of the original three developers of the XRP Ledger, brought to existence 100 billion XRP. 20% was allocated to its founders. In 2017, Ripple locked 55 million XRP into a series of escrows that release a 1 billion XRP each month to the company to provide additional predictability to the XRP supply.

At the end of the month, a new escrow is made for the remaining XRP, and a new month is added to the release schedule.^[7]

Deflation of XRP

As a mechanism to protect the XRP Ledger from spam attacks, every transaction carries a small transaction cost, which is then burned. So, XRP is slightly deflationary. This transaction cost varies depending on the load the transaction puts on the system, or the type of transaction. However, these costs remain very insignificant as the typical payment costs just fractions of a penny, or 0.0004 XRP Projections show that it will take up to 70,000 years before the XRP supply runs out.^[8]

Use cases

XRP can be used like any other digital currency, either for transactions or as a potential investment. The RippleNet can also be used to process other types of transactions, like exchanging currencies.

An alternative to exchanging U.S. dollars for euros through a bank or money-changing exchange is to first exchange U.S. dollars for XRP on the Ripple network, and then use those to buy euros. This can be a faster and cheaper approach, with lower fees than those charged by banks and money remittance organizations.^[1]

• Moneygram International Inc. is a US-based remittance company, the biggest name in the list of Ripple's partnerships. This financial service company used Ripple's products for its cross-border transaction before their partnership ended in March 2021.^[8]
• In 2017, Ripple signed with 10 new banks including Axis Bank and Yes Bank in India, Akbank in Turkey, and BBVA bank in Spain. 47-bank consortium from Japan joined Ripple and other 57 big customers from America and other regions joined the platform. Ripple also received a boost from Kraken adding four different XRP trading pairs, including XRP/CAD, XRP/JPY, XRP/EUR, and XRP/USD.^[9][10][11]