Ripple (XRP) is a cryptocurrency platform for payment systems that focuses on currency exchange operations without chargebacks. It was developed by Ripple and its feature is the consensus registry. The system itself was launched in 2012.
The Ripple protocol supports tokens that represent fiduciary money, cryptocurrency, exchange-traded goods, or other objects, such as frequent flyer miles or mobile minutes. At its core, Ripple is based on an open, shared database and uses a reconciliation process, which allows you to do the exchange in a distributed process.
In Ripple, users make payments between themselves using cryptographically signed transactions denominated in fiat currency or Ripple's internal cryptocurrency (XRP).
For XRP-denominated transactions, Ripple can use an internal registry, while for payments denominated in other assets, the Ripple registry only records the amounts owed with the assets represented as debentures. Ripple is now integrated with various user verification protocols and banking services.
