Ripple

Ripple acts as a real-time gross settlement and remittance network built by Ripple company and founded in 2012. It allows payments between parties in seconds. It operates with its own coin, known as Ripple (XRP), and also supports non-XRP payments. Ripple has proposed a new decentralized global network of banks and payment providers, known as RippleNet. This network uses Ripple's transaction settlement technology at its core. RippleNet is proposed to be independent of banks and payment providers, setting a standardized network for real-time payment settlement.

Ripple networks consist of various nodes that perform each of their own defined tasks. The first nodes that facilitate the system are called user nodes. The user nodes use Ripple for payment and transactions, such as to make and receive payments. The second type of node in Ripple is the validator node. These nodes are part of a consensus mechanism in the Ripple network. Nodes in the unique node list (UNL) are part of the Ripple...