[mharter]

OK, so I have been hearing about Ripple (XRP) from time to time around the cryptosphere, so I decided to take a look. Seems to be very different from the other cryptos out there. From what I gathered, and I may be wrong, the RTXP (Ripple Transaction Protocol) is a new financial protocol for financial institutions to communicate and transfer funds. I feel that is pretty significant.

So from here, it got a little hazy for me. Is Ripple (XRP) itself just a digital representation of the currency you use to purchase it?

My next question is, how is Ripple created and is there a set number of coins available? Or is it simple a digital voucher for physical currency, mind you a currency agnostic digital voucher?

My last question is based on my understanding of Ripple as a digital voucher. How does the value of Ripple increase and decrease on the exchanges?

I am sorry if some of these questions may seem elementary, but I am curious about this crypto and thought that members of this community are the perfect people to help feed my curiosity.

[cyberdexter]

To be honest, I don't know much about Ripple but, looks like that might change cause you made me look it up. Seeing Matthias Kröner (CEO of the Fidor Bank AG in Germany) supports the project is all I really had to see. The man is an institution in Germany and if there is one thing that Fidor certainly isn't then that's a scam or lack of resources / finances.

It also appears that Ripple is cooperating with Saldo.mx which (afaik) means that US users are able to pay their bills through Saldo.mxwith Ripple.

My next question is, how is Ripple created and is there a set number of coins available? Or is it simple a digital voucher for physical currency, mind you a currency agnostic digital voucher?

Not sure yet but check out https://ripple.com/knowledge_center/how-ripple-works/ - I'm still reading

[mharter]

Thanks for the input. I checked out the Ripple site and skimmed thru all of the info. Now that it is the weekend, I can afford some more time to dig into a little more. From what I gathered, it is fairly different than all other cryptos. I'll study it up a little better tonight and report back tomorrow.

[cyberdexter]

Please do. You raised my interest and I also want to find out more. Surprised that nobody else has chimed in yet. Anyone?

[bubbamark]

I was trading ripple for a while, however the devs seem to be doing some interesting things, the only worry is they hold 70% of the coins and can sell when ever they like. However I am holding some for a later date

[mharter]

I was understanding that the only way to obtain them was from the devs (originally, that is), meaning that there is no form of mining. But I am taking a deeper dive into its inner working and functionality, so I will report back later if I am a babbling fool or not.

[cyberdexter]

Can you stake the coin?

[bubbamark]

Not what I know of, i am a little confused with it, but the devs do have some banks on board for processing transactions

[quigley]

I was understanding that the only way to obtain them was from the devs (originally, that is), meaning that there is no form of mining.

I have to admit, I like this method. Don't get me wrong, I love mining, but 100% premine makes it much easier to control the coin's value, much like our respective governments do with their fiat currencies. It's neat to see the principle applied to cryptocurrency.

[cyberdexter]

@bubbamark yepp seeing Fidor AG on there raised my interest.

I have to admit, I like this method. Don't get me wrong, I love mining, but 100% premine makes it much easier to control the coin's value, much like our respective governments do with their fiat currencies. It's neat to see the principle applied to cryptocurrency.

You know what? You got a point and as sad as it might sound "mining" might not be the future for cryptocurrencies. Staking might be but even that is not a "corporation" thing. I can see us moving away from mining in 2015 for a number of reasons one certainly being market manipulation and coin ICOs with a coin dump by the developers down the line.

I wouldn't even mind using a 100% pre-mined, regulated and stable coin as long as it can be used and is from a reliable processor. Visa for example

[quigley]

You know what? You got a point and as sad as it might sound "mining" might not be the future for cryptocurrencies. Staking might be but even that is not a "corporation" thing. I can see us moving away from mining in 2015 for a number of reasons one certainly being market manipulation and coin ICOs with a coin dump by the developers down the line.

I like mining and staking, but we already know that miners are a PoW coin's greatest challenge, and I'm not entirely convinced that staking isn't the same problem writ over a longer time frame. Pre-mined coins have a bad reputation because terrible people ran them with the intent of ripping investors off. Ripple appears to be a 100% pre-mined coin, though, and is currently second (behind Bitcoin) in market cap, and has been going strong for 3 years. I think instead of looking at whether a coin is pre-mined, perhaps we should look at who's doing the pre-mining.

[cyberdexter]

I think instead of looking at whether a coin is pre-mined, perhaps we should look at who's doing the pre-mining.

I couldn't agree more. The question is where would that leave mining or staking and I guess the answer would be "your hardware is no obsolete". However, if a different distribution and alternate means to secure the network would instead result in a stable currency, would that be such a bad thing? It's certainly pretty much against everything we or the crypto industry stands for now but technologies evolved and things change so who knows how digital money will be created and handled 5 years down the line.

I can see why a Bank would for example not put the faith of their network on miners securing the network, they would just fie up 5,000 nodes across the globe themselves and optimize them, thing done.

[tankjnr]

Ask me anything about nipples. Love em

[Bitminertopia]

Its been a while, about 2 years(?) since i did my research & all. What i do know is i have to keep 20XRP in my account.
It was a 20/80 split with the 20 held & the 80% that went to Ripple Labs for distribution,& they have 25 of the original 100M. < those numbers might have changed so dont quote me. I actually liked that they held, as at the time there were a lot of POW coins that were not backed after mining..you just had to mine & hope. So i actually got edgy as they went past the halfway mark & was glad they stopped at 45M..they are in good hands IMO. They planned the coin with the aspect of supply.demand in mind that is why it is not mined further nor as far as i know will it be POS. Again not an XRP expert about the technical aspects, but it is a very legit coin & i have actively traded it for around 2yrs now.

[Bitminertopia]

https://www.ripplelabs.com/

https://ripple.com/files/ripple_primer.pdf

https://ripple.com/knowledge_categories/announcements-release-notes-and-known-issues/

https://www.rippletrade.com/#/

[Allen1980s]

I would love to spend one day with Kroener just talking about the various possible financial and social applications of crypto.

[cyberdexter]

You can spend a day with me talking about he same stuff

[Allen1980s]

Sounds like an invitation to come back to Europe to me!

[doweger]

Ripple has a few similarities with XPY. In that they are both centralised, resulting in very fast transactions (as you do not need everyone confirming txns), they both are heavily "premined" , and a massive amount of the currency is own by the governing body of the currency.

However they begin to differ after that. Ripple has many of the qualities that some of the newer coins like Mastercoin and ethereum has, like protocols on protocols, additional features that make the coin more than just a currency.

Ripple does not have any mining qualities, you have to buy them or get issued them from those who already have it which is similar to NXT. There is no inflation either.

It's an interesting coin, has alot of promise and technologically superior the most alt oins, but not for long eith the introduction of cryto 2.0 stuff coming along.

[vic]

Looks interesting, especially for remittances, may need to check it out a lot more closely - thanks for the info!
Need a new project soon