XRP Price Chart

XRP is the native digital currency of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a distributed ledger technology designed for fast and efficient transactions. This public ledger can theoretically handle about 1,500 transactions every second.

XRPL was created by Ripple Labs, a blockchain-based financial technology company that allows the transfer of digital and fiat currencies globally. It uses the XRP coin to facilitate fast and low-cost transactions on its network.

A Brief History of XRP

The California-based financial technology company Ripple Labs, formerly known as Opencoin, was co-founded by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb in September 2012. OpenCoin officially changed its name to Ripple Labs, Inc. in September 2013.

Ripple’s developers were concerned about Bitcoin’s high energy usage and scalability limitations. They created XRPL, a distributed ledger specifically designed to overcome these issues.

One of XRPL’s primary features is its use of a unique consensus mechanism to validate transactions. Unlike traditional blockchain, XRPL relies on a pre-selected group of entities called validators. These validators work together and agree on the validity of transactions based on a set of fixed rules. This method allows the XRP Ledger to handle a high volume of transactions.

On May 5, 2015, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fined Ripple Labs Inc. $700,000 for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). About five months after the fine, Ripple Labs Inc. changed its name to Ripple.

Despite regulatory challenges and legal battles, Ripple’s steadfast commitment to innovation has set in motion XRP’s evolution into a resourceful digital asset. Nonetheless, its legal hurdles add a layer of uncertainty to XRP’s future.