Ripple is the name of both a blockchain network and that network´s native cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency is commonly abbreviated XRP.
Important: The digital currency exchange Coinbase de-listed XRP in December 2020 due to legal issues within the United States.
Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, Ripple can not be mined. The total number of XRP is fixed at 100 billion. Half of this (50 billion XRP) is being made available to users, while the other half is retained by the Ripple team.
Another distinguishing feature regarding Ripple is that, unlike many other cryptocurrency teams, the Ripple team do not shun banks. It is actually quite the other way with Ripple, as the Ripple team is actively seeking out opportunities to form working relationships with traditional financial institutions. At the time of writing, the Ripple team is working together with an impressive selection of well-established financial corporations. For some crypto coin users, this is a big plus. For others, it is a minus and they prefer to use cryptocurrencies such as Monero.
Using Ripple in an online casino
Ripple is not as well-established as the giants Bitcoin and Ether (Ethereum), but it is a well-known cryptocurrency and quite a few online casinos are currently accepting both Ripple deposits and Ripple withdrawals. Once you have made your deposit, be prepared to have the actual wagers denoted in another currency (e.g. EUR or USD) because very few online casinos have the necessary framework to actually denote wagers in Ripple.
You pay a fee for each XRP transaction. The fee is percentage-based, so you are not stuck having to be a big fixed fee if you are doing small transactions in and out of online casinos.
Before you decide to use XRP for your casino transactions, please be aware that like most cryptocurrencies, XRP is a volatile currency. Therefore, keeping XRP will expose you to swings in the market. If you wish to reduce this risk, you can make a habit of converting your XRP into another (more stable) currency as soon as you withdraw them instead of letting them sit in your e-wallet. Of course, many casino gamblers are risk-takers and actually enjoy the XRP swings. If you have the right combination of skill and luck, Ripple can boost your casino winnings with the help of these market swings. Naturally, there is also the risk of your casino winnings decreasing in value.
About Ripple
The Ripple network is a real-time gross settlement system and currency exchange that relies on a distributed open-source protocol. It was launched in 2012 and is thus one of the older cryptocurrencies on the market. (The pioneer Bitcoin was launched in 2009.)
The Ripple network supports not just the transfer of XRP, but can also be used to transfer tokens that represent the traditional currency or commodities/assets. As an example, it has become quite common to transfer tokens representing mobile minutes through the Ripple network.
While Ripple can be used for gambling online, it is chiefly associated with international remittances. A lot of people who are working in one country and wish to regularly send money back to their family in another country use Ripple to avoid high transaction costs. Using Ripple is not free, but it is cheaper than conventional methods such as Western Union. This is especially true for small transactions where even a fairly modest fixed-fee would eat up a large portion of the money. With Ripple, the fee is always percentage-based and not fixed.
Background
To understand what Ripple is and how it works, it is a good idea to know a bit about the history of this cryptocurrency. The Ripple network and the Ripple cryptocurrency was created by Opencoin, a company founded in 2012. (Since 2015, this company is known as Ripple Labs Inc. It is based in San Francisco, USA.) The history of Ripple, however, has roots going back to the mid-00s.
In the mid-00s, Ryan Fugger began building a decentralized monetary system and gave it the name RipplePay.com. In 2011 – when Bitcoin was already well-known – Jed McCaleb started working on a digital currency system that would be similar to Bitcoin but without the mining aspect. After joining up with Chris Larsen in 2012, McCaleb approach Fugger who eventually handed them the reins for RipplePay.com, and OpenCoin was founded to develop the Ripple Protocol RTXP and the Ripple Payment & Exchange network.