Bitvavo makes Ripple as easy as possible. Here are answers to common questions to help you make your first steps in the world of digital assets.
Ripple is a company that was founded in 2012 in California. The company works on a payment protocol which is primarily aimed at streamlining transactions between banks. The currency of the Ripple blockchain is called XRP.
The biggest and most important difference between Bitcoin and Ripple is the underlying philosophy and purpose of the relevant cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin has been developed with the aim of allowing two parties to carry out transactions directly and on a decentralized basis, Ripple is designed to improve the existing payment system.
A second difference is that Bitcoin can be mined, which means that people or parties can earn Bitcoin by merging transactions into a block and adding it to the blockchain through which transactions are processed. In this way everyone can have Bitcoin if the required service is provided. On the other hand, Ripple has centralized the issue of XRP with all XRP to be issued already created. All created but not yet issued XRP are managed by the Ripple Foundation.
Ripple is a payment protocol primarily aimed at streamlining transactions between banks. The following example illustrates how this works:
Suppose Bob wants to send money to Alice. Bob uses the Chilean Peso while Alice would like to receive Antillean Guilder. The execution of this transaction requires that the Chilean Peso of Bob is first converted into currencies that are accepted by both Bob's bank and Alice's bank. This will often be a conversion to the USD. After the Chilean Peso has been converted to USD, the value can be transferred to Alice's bank, which will convert it to the Antillean Guilder upon receipt. The exchange process is a time and cost-intensive process.
The alternative that Ripple proposes is to use XRP as the common currency for this. In addition to the transaction costs of converting XRP being much lower than the USD, transactions can also be processed much faster.
Bitvavo makes it as easy as possible to buy digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
1. Sign Up
Create a free account with which you can buy, sell, send, receive and store Ripple. Access your Bitvavo account from every location, on mobile and desktop.
2. Transfer Funds
Verify your account and transfer Euros to your Bitvavo wallet using one of the 8 supported payment methods.
3. Buy and Trade
Buy or sell over 150 digital assets and pay a maximum trading fee of 0.25%. Store your assets in your Bitvavo wallet or send them to your external wallet.
Storing Ripple and other digital assets requires a wallet, but don’t worry: Bitvavo’s hosted wallet allows you to store Ripple without any technical knowledge. Here is a brief overview of the existing wallet options to store your Ripple:
Hosted Wallet
Hosted wallets are wallets where the private keys to your Ripple are managed by a third party such as Bitvavo. Access to your account is protected by a password and other advanced security features. Once you are logged in, you can easily and conveniently manage your Ripple online. Bitvavo offers standard hosted wallets for all digital assets that are offered on the platform.
Software wallet
A software wallet is a program installed on your computer or other device in order to use and manage your Ripple. Using a software wallet gives you full control over your private keys, so you are not dependent on third parties. The risk is that you alone are in charge of the security of your Ripple, and if malicious parties have access to your device, your private keys (and therefore your Ripple) can be stolen.
Hardware wallet
A hardware wallet is a physical device on which you can store your Ripple offline. It is one of the safest ways to store your Ripple, because the private keys are stored on a separate and offline device. Access to this device is often protected by a password. In many ways, a hardware wallet can be compared to a safe in which your Ripple is stored.
You can use Bitvavo's hosted wallet to easily store, send and receive Ripple. Once you have purchased Ripple on Bitvavo, you can choose to send your Ripple from your Bitvavo wallet to your own software or hardware wallet.
