Released in 2012, Ripple is built upon a distributed open source protocol

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network created by Ripple Labs Inc., a US-based technology company. Released in 2012, Ripple is built upon a distributed open source protocol and supports tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodities, or other units of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes.

Ripple purports to enable secure, instant and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks. Using the consensus ledger, anyone can process transactions using the network's native digital asset, XRP. For XRP to function as a medium of exchange, it does not need to be pegged to any other currency.

According to Ripple, there are over 100 banks signed up to use its network for processing international payments including Santander, American Express and UBS. In November 2017 Spanish bank Santander became the first major bank to launch a product using Ripple's technology. The app called One Pay FX uses xCurrent which is Ripple's enterprise software solution that allows banks to instantly settle cross-border payments with end-to-end tracking. The service is currently available in the UK, Spain, Poland and Brazil with more countries expected to be added in 2018.