Bitcoin is a digital currency intended as a payment option for goods and services. Ripple is a payment settling currency exchange and remittance system. The idea is to provide a system for the direct transfer of digital assets that settle in almost real-time. It is a cheaper, more transparent, and secure alternative than transfer systems used by banks today, such as SWIFT.
At the end of this article, you will find out which cryptocurrency is better and if XRP will be replacing Bitcoin.
Basic Information About Bitcoin
What Is Bitcoin Cryptocurrency?
Bitcoin—the first and original cryptocurrency—was launched in 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous developer, built it. Satoshi wanted to create a new payment system that would allow people to send and receive money on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) basis. As a result of the P2P features, the Bitcoin system is decentralized. Decentralized means it is not controlled by any individual, authority, financial institution, or government. Transactions are confirmed by the miners—the contributing Bitcoin community.
How Many Bitcoins Are There?
Bitcoin has a max supply of 21,000,000 BTC. The current circulating supply is 18,992,243 BTC. However, there will never be more than 21,000,000BTC mined. The figure is expected to hit around the year 2140.
Basic Information About Ripple
What Is Ripple Cryptocurrency?
Ripple digital currency was first launched in 2012, three years after Bitcoin’s creation by a company known as Ripple Labs Inc. The purpose of Ripple was to create a payment system that banks could use to make transactions domestically and internationally. Although the main target is the Financial industry, anyone can purchase XRP—the native cryptocurrency of Ripple.
Just like Bitcoin, the Ripple blockchain is decentralized. Ripple network uses a unique consensus mechanism to validate the transaction through a network of nodes by conducting a poll. The network enables an almost instant confirmation without any central authority.
How Many Ripples Are There?
There will be a total max supply of 100,000,000,000XRP. The current circulating supply is 48.12 billion XRP.
Difference Between Ripple and BTC
Technical specifications of the cryptocurrencies are as follows:
Transaction Speed
It takes around 1 hour to confirm the transaction when sending funds in BTC. However, sending XRP from one wallet to another takes a few seconds to be approved, making Ripple faster than Bitcoin.
Transaction Fee
When Bitcoin was first released, the transaction fee was very low, making Bitcoin an ideal payment system. However, as the system became popular, the amount to pay increased. In 2017, during the crypto boom, the transaction fee for Bitcoin was as high as $60. Right now, it is $1.733.
Ripple’s transaction fee is almost free because the cost is 0.00001XRP—$0.000008. Therefore, you can make 100 transactions, and the transaction fee will not be up to $1.
Coin Mining and Circulation
Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work system and mining for realizing new BTC, forming a central part of the validation process. Participants mine new coins, which are added to the supply until the maximum supply of 21 million coins is reached.
While XRP tokens are pre-mined, making the process different from Bitcoin. All 100 billion tokens were created before the launch. Then, Ripple placed 55 billion XRP in escrow and set up smart contracts to release one billion XRP every month. Ripple can sell as many tokens as it wants when released to raise funds, and unused tokens will be placed in an escrow account.
Where to Buy XRP and BTC?
These cryptocurrencies can be purchased on Guarda. You just have to sign up if you are a new user or sign in with an existing account and create the wallets. Then buy the coins with the accepted payment methods.
- Visa/Mastercard
- SEPA
Bitcoin vs. Ripple Which Is Better?
The Ripple system is more popular among financial institutions. More than 300 financial institutions use Ripplenet in at least 45 countries to facilitate overseas payment. It is ahead of its competitors in this aspect. However, Bitcoin is more in demand among the general public.
With these said, XRP is not the new Bitcoin. Bitcoin is Bitcoin, while XRP is XRP. They each have their functionality, and Bitcoin is ahead of XRP in value—over 99.9% higher than XRP.
Conclusion
After the lawsuit with the SEC, things have been pretty slow for XRP. As a result, many traders have their doubts regarding the cryptocurrency. So, investors are hoping the situation gets sorted, and the value of the cryptocurrency increases more than its current value, especially because of its potential.
