Hi steemians,
I want to personally thank @yohan2on for the wonderful lecture on "Altcoins". I had no knowledge of what it meant or what is was until I went through the lecture post,which was highly educative.

For this homework post,I shall be discussing on "Ripple (XRP)". I will be explaining what I researched and what I already know in my own words,hope you enjoy the post.

RIPPLE COIN

Before you find out about what Ripple is and how it works, here are some notable facts about the coin’s history and adoption.

"1)The Bank of England conducted a proof of concept test with Ripple, integrating the company’s blockchain technology for simulated cross-border payment.
2)Work on the Ripple payment protocol first started in 2004 (5 years before Bitcoin was released) under the project name “Ripplepay”.
3)A Ripple transaction can involve non-Ripple assets, any currency, cryptocurrency, or other digital assets like airline miles.
4)American Express and Santander have partnered with Ripple for cross-border payments between the U.S. and the U.K. by using blockchain technology.
5)Ripple Labs were involved in a lawsuit with rival platform developers R3." ^Source

WHAT IS RIPPLE?

Ripple as talked about in the lecture by @yohan2on is an Altcoin . It was founded in 2012.
Ripple is the name for both the digital currency XRP and the open payment network within which the currency is transferred.
It wasn't designed to compete with Crypto and Fiat currencies, rather it's meant to complement them.
The currency itself ,XRP has consistently been one of the five largest cryptocurrencies by market cap and it's goal is to enable instant,secure and cheap global financial transactions.

HOW IS RIPPLE DESIGNED?

• Ripple is designed to work with the Ripple Network (RTXP).
• This network uses a process called an issuance to allow real world assets to be transferred between two parties. For example,a bank may want to transfer a real-world asset, like gold or silver ,to another institution. To do this,the bank adds the gold to the Ripple Network and then transfers the asset to a "trusted party" who can reclaim the goods.
• This allows the trade to happen without any transaction fees.

HOW ARE RIPPLE TRANSACTIONS PROCESSED?

• Ripples are irrevocably destroyed after being taken during each transaction. This prevents users from spamming the network with requests.
• In simple terms: Bitcoin and Ethereum are more like bank accounts. Users can trade them in exchange for goods and services,while ripples are designed to be a passage-way for transactions to take place and as a link between other digital currencies. It was actually never intended to be like Bitcoin and Ethereum

HOW WAS RIPPLE MADE?

The cryptocurrencies"Ripple (XRP)" is not mined or made, unlike many other cryptocurrencies. Instead,all Ripples were generated at the beginning of the project. XRP is not designed to be traded in the same way as Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
Instead,it helps convert real-world assets into digital issuance and also acts as a way to protect the system from spam.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RIPPLE AND BITCOIN

RIPPLE (XRP)	BITCOIN(BTC)
Purpose--Centralized enterprise block chain solution for banks, payment providers and digital asset exchangers.	Decentralized digital currency
Founded-2012	2009
Founder-Ryan Fugger	Satoshi Nakamoto(alias)
Market cap-over $20 billion	over $300 billion
All time high-$1.35(12/17)	$19,850(11/20)
All time low-$0.0002(07/14)	$0.06(07/10)
Supply cap-100 billion	21 million
Initial distribution- All XRP were instamined	Mining
Mining method-Ripple is not mined	ASIC
Consensus method- proof-of-correctness	proof-of-work
Network hash rate- N/a	up to 100 Qh/s
Difficult increase- N/a	Every 2,016 Blocks

Ripple cannot really be compared to Bitcoin,since it is not mined.

ATTACK ON RIPPLE

"Ripple? Just before Christmas in 2021, the departing SEC chairman Jay Clayton decided to sue Ripple over early sales of XRP as unregistered securities. This attack on Ripple hit the cryptocurrency headlines strong, leaving many advocates question the future of Ripple. The coin’s price experienced a sharp drop to under $0.19 for the first time since April 2020. That said, the future outlook for Ripple is not as daunting as worried sellers may make it seem. The new SEC chairman Elad Roisman is known as ‘pro-cryptocurrency’, and following Elon Musks’ taunting of the SEC, Ripple has an opportunity to defend its ground with concise communication." ^Source

CONCLUSION

Research was done from here,but written in my own words and understanding.

All photos are from pixabay

Thanks to @yohan2on for this opportunity,hope my homework interests you.

cc: @yohan2on
cc: @bright-obias
cc: @stephenkendal
cc: @xpilar