On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. XRP (XRP) is an open-source blockchain and cryptocurrency built for cross-border payments. XRP offers global liquidity providers and financial institutions a scalable platform for cheap transactions with fast settlement finality. The XRP blockchain uses validator nodes to secure the network and validate transactions, through an efficient consensus mechanism. According to Ripple’s policies, there will crypto new coins only be 100 billion XRP ever. All XRP tokens are meant to supplement payments and business transactions on the RippleNet. Low: $ Underpinning XRP is not one of the commonly used POW of POS protocols. Rather, XRP utilizes a consensus system, comprised of anyone that desires to run an XRP node. Despite Ripple Labs controlling the majority supply of XRP, the ability for anyone to set up a node gives credence to the argument that the cryptocurrency is indeed, decentralized.