What Is Ripple? - for Beginners

Ripple is a financial technology that facilitates exchange of currency and remittance by financial players or institutions.It is also called Ripple protocol.
Ripple was designed and created by Britto and David. It was released in the year 2012.
Ripple succeeded Ripplepay( developed by Fugger in 2004). Its intention was to enable secure and instant financial transactions. The protocol has been increasingly adopted due to its lower fee and secure network ( same ledger with independent servers ) over cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Its transactions are also much quicker and does not rely on exchanges that are centralized. Ripple facilitates exchange of various currencies such as Euros,US dollars, Rupees etc.It has its own currency called XRP.
This currency facilitates transfer of funds. Negligible fees are attached. The parties involved in the transaction are market makers ( Hedge funds) and a financial institution( keeps funds on customers' behalf).Ripple has a ledger( Database ).The contents on the ledger are decided by consensus. Ripple has received positive reviews for globalizing the banking sector.