An Overview: How Is Ripple Different From Bitcoin?

Posted on Sunday, January 24 2021 @ 10:18 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
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Have you ever wondered what is the difference between a ripple and bitcoin? In the world of distributed ledger, blockchain, and cryptocurrency, there is one name that makes everyone confuse and that is the ripples. Let us know and understand what is ripple and how different it is from bitcoin.

Ripple vs Bitcoin
Ripple is a currency exchange, payment settlement, and remittance system that is designed to make a more efficient method of transferring money, either internationally or domestically. While bitcoin is digital money that is used to pay for services, goods and can be traded.

Ripple is a private-owned company that is responsible for developing the RippleNet network and cryptocurrency XRP. Ripple is both a platform for payment settlement and cryptocurrency. Whereas, bitcoin is created by a person with an alias of Satoshi Nakamoto and is a database that is shared by many people with different locations.

As for practical application, ripple helps in making money transfer faster, cheaper, and more convenient to customers and institutions around the world. Whereas, bitcoin helps in making payments for goods and services. And bitcoin can be profitable in terms of investment.

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Key Differences Between Ripple and Bitcoin
To further understand, we will differentiate Ripple and Bitcoin through their key differences. Here are the key differences between Ripple and Bitcoin.

  • Control on Coin Issuance
    Ripples have the sole control of the whole supply of XRP or ripple network tokens and occasionally sells selected amount in the market. While the bitcoin can be extracted by solving a computational math problem on a computer. The supply of bitcoin is not controlled by any group but has a limited supply.

  • On Technology
    A consensus ledger with a network of validating servers is what ripples uses. The servers or validators are examined and chosen by Ripple and are key to the validation process of a transaction. In contrast, the bitcoin network depends on blockchain technology. Which is a shared public ledger that consists of all confirmed transactions and the mining concept of validating transactions.

  • Supply
    The whole supply of Ripple was minted when it was first unveiled, while the bitcoin’s supply is stopped at 21 million.

  • Usage
    In terms of usage, ripple’s main functions are remittances, currency exchange, and international or domestic payment. It offers a much cheaper, faster, and hassle-free method to exchange currencies and send money across borders. As for bitcoin, primarily a currency that includes no central authority and third parties that control the supply and demand. It has various usage, from paying for goods to booking hotels.

  • Speed of Transaction
    For the speed of transactions, ripple has the fastest and cheapest transactions that allow a low cost, payment settlements, high-speed currency exchanges, and remittances. And also, it only takes seconds in confirming XRP transactions. In contrast, bitcoin works as a decentralized digital currency rather than transaction speeds. It concentrates more on its resistance to centralization and censorship.

    As a recap, ripple is a cryptocurrency and platform for payment and remittance, while bitcoin is digital money that can be bought, sell or traded. Can you now differentiate ripple from bitcoin?