Ripple the hottest Competetior of Bitcoin in 2018.

What is Ripple?

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system , currency exchange and remittance network by Ripple. Also called the Ripple Transaction Protocol or Ripple protocol, it is built upon a distributed open source Internet protocol, consensus ledger and native Cryptocurrency called XRP . Released in 2012, Ripple purports to enable "secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks." It supports tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodity or any other unit of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes. At its core, Ripple is based around a shared, public database or ledger, which uses a consensus process that allows for payments, exchanges and remittance in a distributed process.

As of Wednesday morning, that market cap had more than doubled to $18.1 billion. Prices for an individual Ripple XRP are considerably more affordable than its alternatives, making it even more attractive to cryptocurrency speculators. ... Both Ripple and Litecoin are still far below Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Bitcoin's astonishing run in 2017 attracted headlines and hype, as the digital currency's price soared and turned early investors into crypto-millionaires.But another cryptocurrency's rise shook investors at the year's end as a currency known as Ripple capped an annual rise of more than 36,000 %, doubling in price in the last week of December.Ripple's growth came after reports its payments system was being tested with a host of global banks, with Japanese and Korean credit card companies confirming they would pilot the technology.Each unit of Ripple is now worth around $2.20 on online exchanges. While this is markedly less than Bitcoin's mammoth valuation of more than $13,800 per coin, Ripple has increased from $0.06 twelve months ago, and the total value of its supply makes it the second valuable crypto currency.