Ripple (XRP)
Ripple connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporations, with the intent of providing one frictionless experience to send money globally.
Mining/Staking
We have no information about the consensus mechanisms for this project. We do know that Ripple Labs did a 100% pre-mine, and that almost sixty billion of the 100 billion total coin supply are currently locked in escrow, being released at a rate of one billion coins per month. Since network fees accrue to holders, this means that a large percentage of network fees are going directly back to Ripple.
Development Team
The Ripple Corporation has some really heavy hitters from traditional finance on both the management/operations side, and on the Board of Directors.
Criticisms, Caveats, and Competitors
Many people complain that Ripple is far too centralized, and that power of the asset is concentrated in the hands of traditional finance and banking firms. There is also speculation about the need for the actual Ripple tokens within this ecosystem. Most of the organizations on RippleNet are users of xCurrent, which does not have any need for XRP tokens. Finally, the premine and the escrow release schedule have stirred up a great deal of controversy.
Additional Resources
The project's main website: https://ripple.com
Link to Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)
Link to Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ripple
Link to Twitter account: https://twitter.com/Ripple
Link to Team information: https://ripple.com/company
Link to data on Live Coin Watch: https://www.livecoinwatch.com/coins/XRP
Whitepaper: https://ripple.com/files/ripple_consensus_whitepaper.pdf
More Articles & Links relating to Ripple:
Ripple and Bitcoin: A Use-Case for Collaboration
https://www.quernus.co.uk/2018/01/02/ripple-and-bitcoin