Ripple (XRP) is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange, and remittance network. It has the third-largest market cap of any digital currency, and a passionate base of Twitter followers. Recently, the cryptocurrency partnered with a number of different financial organizations and institutions, including MoneyGram, FDT Corporation, Mercury FX, and Western Union. According to the Ripple website, the digital currency strives to bring payments out of the disco era and into the present world where “three billion people are connected online, cars drive themselves and appliances can communicate.” But does it live up to all of the hype? Let’s take a closer look.
How Ripple Transactions Work
Ripple connects banks, payment providers, and digital asset exchanges via RippleNet. Unlike Bitcoin, where transactions are verified through a proof of work process that typically takes about 10 minutes, Ripple transactions are confirmed with a consensus protocol that typically takes 5 seconds. If someone tries to submit the same payment through multiple gateways, distributed nodes decide by consensus which transaction was made first, thus preventing the problem of double spend. Furthermore, the transaction fee, at 0.00001 XRP, is much less expensive than that charged by banks processing cross-border payments.
Ripple has two primary products for banks: xCurrent and xRapid. xCurrent, Ripple’s settlement solution for banks, allows the originating bank, the correspondent bank and the beneficiary bank to use a messenger system to coordinate information between banks, while the ILP ledger uses the interledger protocol to coordinate funds movement.
Meanwhile, xRapid uses the XRP asset to offer on-demand liquidity. Describing xRapid’s functionality, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said: “The Bank of Andy can sell $1, buy XRP. That XRP can now be moved to an Argentinian digital asset exchange, you can sell the XRP and buy an Argentinian peso, and now you have good liquid funds in less than 10 seconds in another market.”
With the implementation of xCurrent and xRapid, Ripple is striving to transform global commerce as we know it, and a growing number of partnerships indicate that many organizations and financial institutions are on board.
Ripple’s Growing Partnerships
Over a hundred banks are currently using xCurrent, while five customers are currently testing xRapid. These notable companies and institutions include, but are not limited to: money transfer company MoneyGram, currency specialist Mercury FX, telecom provider IDT, and financial services company Western Union. Western Union CTO Sheri Rhodes expressed enthusiasm about experimenting with Ripple’s technology: “We have a strong platform and system that work well today, but we continue to explore and test whether these technologies could potentially reduce costs and improve the customer experience,” Rhodes recently said, indicating that the momentum for Ripple as both a currency and a global payments solution seems to only be increasing.
Ripple in Your IRA
As Ripple continues to establish itself as a cryptocurrency and an innovative global payments solution, it can also be viewed as a strategic choice for those looking to diversify their retirement portfolio with cryptocurrencies. XRP increased by more than 1,000 percent since the start of December 2017, and bestselling author Craig Beck predicts that the by the end of 2018, the Ripple price is expected to bisect the $2 hurdle at least.
Trevor Koverko, the CEO of securities token platform Polymath, recently told Forbes: “People feel comfortable with the name and the security of Ripple. A lot of people are beginning to realize how big of an opportunity there is between business and the blockchain, and that’s making Ripple the early winner here.”
To capitalize on this groundbreaking opportunity to invest in Ripple for your IRA or 401(k) account, give Bitcoin IRA a call today at 877-936-7175.
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Bitcoin IRA Launches Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, and Bitcoin Cash for Retirement Investments
Los Angeles – BitcoinIRA.com, the world’s first company allowing individuals to invest in cryptocurrency in an IRS-compliant retirement account, is now offering Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for investment.
Alternative coins are gaining ground in the cryptocurrency marketspace. Ethereum alone has grown over 4,000% in 2017, reaching an all-time high of around $400. BitcoinIRA.com first offered altcoin Ethereum (ETH) in April of 2017 and released XRP (Ripple) in August.
Chris Kline, Chief Operations Officer of Bitcoin IRA, commented:
“Bitcoin has become the gateway to a new way of investing and altcoins are further advancing that momentum” said Chris Kline, Chief Operations Officer at BitcoinIRA.com. “The value of cryptocurrencies goes beyond the price of each coin, it’s really the underlying technology that’s going to revolutionize our financial system. We’re excited to offer our customers the chance to capitalize on this technology and build a retirement portfolio with Bitcoin and altcoins.”
BitcoinIRA.com now offers six coins for investment: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, XRP, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash – and individuals can rollover retirement funds into whole coins or into a percentage of each. All cryptocurrency investments are held securely in a BitGo R symbol wallet with three keys kept in cold-storage. BitGo R symbol is widely considered the most secure digital wallet with multi-signature encryption and over $1 Billion transactions per month.
About BitcoinIRA.com
BitcoinIRA.com is the world’s first company that allows investors to purchase Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for their IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts. The platform works with leading fintech professionals to provide secure, high-quality cryptocurrency investments.
BitcoinIRA.com is a turnkey, full-service solution to purchase cryptocurrencies while maintaining full IRS compliance. The service includes setting up a qualified cryptocurrency account, rolling over funds from an existing IRA custodian, executing a live trade on a leading exchange and then moving funds into a secured, multi-signature digital wallet.
Bitcoin IRA is privately funded and based in Los Angeles.
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Los Angeles – BitcoinIRA.com, the world’s first company to allow individuals to purchase cryptocurrencies for an IRS-compliant retirement account, has made the digital asset XRP available to clients.
XRP’s value is derived from its utility as the best digital asset for payments, and is one of the largest digital assets by market capitalization. With the addition of XRP, Bitcoin IRA is expanding its cryptocurrency options, which also include Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Chris Kline, COO of Bitcoin IRA, said:
“We’re the only company in the world to offer an XRP feature in this way. Demand from our customers has been immense. XRP is an unique innovation in modernizing cross-border payments using superior blockchain technology. We’re excited to feature XRP and work with BitGo to bring this extraordinary asset opportunity to market.”
Customers who opt for XRP on BitcoinIRA.com will have their XRP stored in a multi-signature digital wallet from BitGo. BitGo is widely considered the most secure digital wallet, with multi-signature encryption.
BitcoinIRA.com is the first company to allow investors to purchase cryptocurrencies for their retirement portfolios. It provides an IRS-compliant solution that includes: setting up a qualified cryptocurrency account, rolling over funds from an existing IRA custodian, executing a live trade and then moving funds into a secured, multi-signature digital wallet. In the coming weeks, Bitcoin IRA plans to announce additional alternative coins including Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, and Bitcoin Cash.
Customers can learn more about digital asset XRP and other cryptocurrencies at: https://bitcoinira.com.
About BitcoinIRA.com
BitcoinIRA.com is the world’s first company that allows customers to purchase Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for their IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts. The platform works with leading fintech professionals to provide secure, high-quality cryptocurrency options.
Bitcoin IRA is a turnkey, full-service solution to purchase cryptocurrencies while maintaining full IRS compliance. The service includes setting up a qualified cryptocurrency account, rolling over funds from an existing IRA custodian, executing a live trade on a leading exchange and then moving funds into a secured, multi-signature digital wallet.
Bitcoin IRA is privately funded and based in Los Angeles.
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Almost instantly after entrepreneurs and techonology buffs discovered the genious behind blockchain technology, they started trying to recreate and improve upon it. Hundreds of new cryptocurrencies are now on the market, but out of the crowd only a few stand out. XRP and the network it is exchanged upon, Ripple, are among those few. XRP is poised to change the world of digital exchanges.
Here are five things you need to know about XRP and Ripple:
XRP and Ripple are two different things
People often confuse Ripple and XRP as being one in the same. In fact, they are two different things. Ripple is an open payment network which connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporations via RippleNet. The network uses blockchain technology, like Bitcoin and other altcoins, but it has modified and improved blockchain to make it scalable and capable of facilitating massive transfers of assets across borders, all over the world.
XRP is a digital currency created by Ripple and transferred on the Ripple Network. It’s a cryptocurrency with a clear purpose – it is designed for financial institutions and payment providers. In short, it’s built for large scale use rather than the peer-to-peer single transfers made on a slow-moving, Bitcoin blockchain.
XRP isn’t trying to replace fiat currency
The aim of Bitcoin and most altcoins is to provide an alternative and eventually overtake traditional fiat currency. In contrast, XRP works with fiat currencies on more than 10 digital exchanges to transfer value across borders. The goal is to provide a faster transfer of funds with real-time traceability and lower operational and liquidity costs.
Today, it takes about 3-5 days to send money from one country to another through a bank, which usually involves high fees the risk of the payment being delayed. XRP can accomplish the same task in an average time of 4 seconds.
XRP isn’t mined like Bitcoin
Bitcoins are created through a process called “mining,” in which massive hubs of computers work to solve complex math problems and are rewarded with a Bitcoin for every solution provided. XRP is not a mined digital asset. Every unit of currency that exists has already been created by Ripple. Most of XRP is owned by Ripple itself with the rest held by companies and individuals.
XRP operates at a much greater scale and speed than Bitcoin
Bitcoin blockchain technology can only process 7 transactions/second. A single transaction may require a processing time of 10 minutes (even up to two hours). A traditional payment service, like a credit card, averages 2,000 transactions per second. Bitcoin’s scalability has long been a subject of debate and is what lead to the hardfork on August 1, 2017, which created Bitcoin Cash. The slow transaction time is one of the largest hurdles preventing Bitcoin from replacing traditional fiat currency.
The XRP blockchain ledger can process more than 1,000 transactions per second. It can scale to the same throughput as Visa and process in real-time.
XRP is the future of global asset exchanges
The speed, scalability, security and low costs of the Ripple Network and XRP all but guarantee that banks and financial institutions will eventually make the switch. It is the goal or Ripple to someday be the platform for day-to-day operations for these institutions. Ripple is solving the issues involved with cross-border payments and changing the way we make exchanges of assets. Its solution involves creating a common standard for payments and using XRP as the digital asset that will bring together currently disconnected ledgers and blockchains. Check out the current XRP prices.
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Alternative coins – also known as altcoins – is a term describing all cryptocurrencies created following the launch of Bitcoin in 2009. After seeing the value of a decentralized, peer-to-peer system, it was a natural progression that others would try to recreate, improve and capitalize on the algorithm and concept behind Bitcoin. Today, there have been hundreds of altcoins created. Many of these Bitcoin alternatives will (or have already) fail to take hold; however, there are a few altcoins that have emerged as major players in the market space.
The most significant and revolutionary aspect of Bitcoin was its blockchain technology. The altcoins that have succeeded are those who have taken the blockchain concept and applied it to more diverse and challenging use-case scenarios.
This article will take you through the top altcoins and the unique features and characteristics for investors in cryptocurrency to consider.
To understand the foundation on which every altcoin is based, let’s have a closer look at Bitcoin.
Basic characteristics of Bitcoin (BTC) and Cryptocurrencies
Decentralized digital currency: Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, which operates independently of a central bank and is not linked to a government fiat currency.
Limited supply: Traditional currency is subject to inflation. Government agencies control the supply and distribution of fiat currency and can simply create more at any time, thereby decreasing its value. Bitcoin has a cap of 21 million coins – there will never be any more created and it will never be devalued by inflation.
Ease of set up: Opening a bank account requires jumping through a number of hoops created by banks or government bureaucracy. In contrast, a Bitcoin account can be set up in seconds without unnecessary identification, personal information, or fees payable.
Anonymous: A Bitcoin account is largely anonymous. Users can hold multiple Bitcoin addresses that are not linked to name, address, or other personal information.
Transparent: All Bitcoin transaction are stored on the blockchain, a public ledger visible to anyone. The Bitcoin addresses and transactions made are visible, however no one knows the individual to whom they belong.
Extremely low: A traditional bank profits greatly from transaction fees and holding transactions before allowing them to go through. Conversely, Bitcoin has minimal transactional fees.
Fast transfers: In just minutes, transactions can go from an individual wallet to anywhere in the world. As soon as the Bitcoin network processes a payment, money is transferred immediately.
These characteristics of Bitcoin are what make it unique and attractive to investors who do not want to be subject to the fees, regulations, and inflation of traditional currency. Every altcoin created operates largely on these same principals and expands on the features and scalability of cryptocurrency. The most prominent altcoins that have taken hold in the market space are Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC).
Ethereum (ETH)
Vitalk Buterin outlined his plans for the Ethereum network in 2015. The basis for the network was that blockchain technology was capable of much more than transactions between two people. Ethereum features smart contract functionality, which is a custom blockchain designed to live in distributed networks.
The digital currency is called Ethereum (ETH) and as of 2017, it is considered the second most valuable form of digital currency. Ethereum features a powerful, high-level language, where developers can create and implement their own smart contracts on distributed autonomous networks. It is a standalone blockchain and Solidity revolutionized the world of blockchain and distributed letter technology, much the way Bitcoin did when it was created.
How Ethereum is different from Bitcoin?
At a first glimpse, Ethereum closely resembles Bitcoin; however, experts argue that its potential may be greater than Bitcoin, owing to its creation of “blocks” at a much faster rate. Ethereum advocates believe that Ether is more efficient for transactions and not for storing value.
As a consequence, the technology behind Ethereum supports computer applications, whereas bitcoin only supports the BTC currency on its network. Bitcoin makes trading BTC seamless, but Ethereum can also be used as a decentralized storage network – think of it like Dropbox with a twist. The potential of Ethereum is huge. Startups are already using the blockchain to build apps and raise money for start-ups with their ICOs.
Like Bitcoin, there are two coins in the Ethereum network: Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
In 2016, the DAO app built on the Ethereum blockchain, managed to collect about $150 million in a crowd sale. $50 million was stolen by hackers, triggering a riot among investors eager to build their companies on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. The money was never withdrawn by the hacker, because of the 25-day withdrawal conditions of Ethereum.
With the help of Ether miners, the Ethereum Classic organization set up a hard fork, changing the code and restoring the money to the original investors. However, not everyone agreed on the fork, which led to a split and the creation of Ethereum.
XRP / Ripple
XRP is digital currency and Ripple is the open payment network within which that currency is transferred. It is a distributed open-source protocol which espouses the goal of creating a financial transaction system free of the restrictions, fees, and processing delays associated with traditional banks. Bitcoin is best described as a decentralized P2P network independent of any financial institution or government. Ripple, on the other hand, is a protocol structured to help and support the global financial system.
Major financial institutions and leading banks are already using Ripple to make cross-bank and cross-border transactions seamlessly and boosting security levels in real time.
Ripple’s chief cryptographer, David Schwartz,explains:
“Payment systems today are where email was in the early ‘80s. Every provider built their own system for their customers and if people used different systems they couldn’t easily interact with each other. Ripple is designed to connect different payment systems together.”
Ripple and its connection to the global financial system
Major companies like Santander, UniCredit and UBS use the Ripple protocol as a settlement infrastructure technology. From the point of view of a bank, Ripple is a distributed protocol system that features several core advantages over cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The global financial system’s inefficient and outdated IT infrastructure means verifying a single transaction can take weeks; fees associated with most transactions range from $30 to $50. Also, transactions initiated through the SWIFT network can get lost, not to mention that confirmation must be done manually.
Ripple uses blockchain technology to streamline the process. Its token concept is meant to help simplify global banking. As a consequence, several banks around the world support Ripple’s strategy and vision to improve the system.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is often described as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. Launched in 2011 by a former Google employee, the motivation behind Litecoin was to speed up the process of blockchain transactions.
Bitcoin and Litecoin – the gold and silver of the crypto world
How different is Litecoin from Bitcoin? It all begins with block generation. As previously mentioned, generating a block with Bitcoin can take up to 10 minutes. Conversely, Litecoin can perform the same task in 2.5 minutes. Thanks to this faster block generation, Litecoin can handle a higher volume of transactions. For Bitcoin to match the speed and volume of Litecoin, significant changes would have to be made to the network.
The increased speed of block time also reduces the risk of double spending attacks – a theoretical scenario in which both Bitcoin and Litecoin have the same hashing power.
Another difference is the overall amount of produced coins. Bitcoin is capped at 21 million coins while Litecoin’s upper-bound is 84 million. More coins equals room for more investors.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Since inception, the world has been debating Bitcoin’s scalability. The debate has centered around the slow movement of blockchain technology, which can only process 7 transactions/second. A single transaction may require a processing time of 10 minutes. As the network of users grows and more people trade bitcoins, the wait time increases. Bitcoin Cash was born out of a desire to make the cryptocurrency operate faster.
An overview
On August 1st this year, ahard fork initiativewas put in place by Bitcoin miners, which created Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
In July, about 80% of the Bitcoin community pledged to include a technology called segregated witness (SegWit2x). Its purpose was to shrink the data amount needed to verify each block, removing signature data required for processing transactions. Signature data accounts for 65% of the data needed to process each block. The size of the blocks was supposed to double from 1mb to 2mb by November, thus making Bitcoin more scalable.
Things took an unexpected turn on August 1st, when the hard fork was initiated. Bitcoin miners implemented an astounding increase of 8mb to Bitcoin’s block size, speeding up the transactional verification process and taking down the initial SegWit2x technology. The argument for this action was that SegWit did not address the cryptocurrency’s main concern of scalability, nor did it adhere to the initial roadmap outlined Satoshi Nakamoto.
That’s how Bitcoin Cash was born. In simple terms, BCH is the fork between bitcoin blockchain and a scalable continuation of Bitcoin as a P2P digital currency.
Conclusion
Bitcoin is still king of the cryptocurrency mountain and toppling it from that position is extraordinarily unlikely. Despite the improvements that altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin have made, Bitcoin has widespread awareness and global adoption that other coins have yet to match.
However, altcoins provide a unique opportunity for investors to create a diverse cryptocurrency portfolio. At Bitcoin IRA, we offer the ability to roll over your funds and invest in Bitcoin and percentages of Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin to mitigate risk and capitalize on growth potential. With our Bitcoin calculator, you can see the growth potential of your investment with Bitcoin IRA.
Get started.
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UPDATE June 11, 2019: Image updated with June 2017 data.
Since its inception, Bitcoin has had the potential to “upset the apple cart” of traditional fiat currency. It has steadily grown in value and adaptation across the world. The first purchase made on a commercial product by a consumer took 10,000 Bitcoins. Today, Bitcoin is worth over $4,000 and its value is predicted to only keep growing. By design, Bitcoin climbs in value as more people hop on the bandwagon. It’s cap of 21 million Bitcoins ensures that it will never be subject to inflation.
Bitcoin’s creation lit a fire in the investment world. Naturally, it’s success and potential brought out a litany of entrepreneurs creating alternative coins (altcoins) which tried to replicate and improve upon the technology of cryptocurrency. There are now over 700 altcoins on the market, but only a few have been able to match the potential of Bitcoin and Bitcoin’s value.
Bitcoin remains the giant in the industry, but there’s room for growth for all cryptocurrency. As this infographic shows, Bitcoin is currently valued at over $66 billion and the total valuation of all cryptocurrency has reached $142 billion.
This infographic puts Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in perspective against all money, stock markets, and even individual billionaires like Bill Gates. It’s apparent that the marketshare of cryptocurrencies has incredible room to grow.
Imagine its value once Bitcoin surpasses gold and begins to match the valuation of the stock market. Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, and Jeremy Liew, renowned venture capitalist, have projected Bitcoin will reach $500,000 in value by 2030. One thing is for certain, crytpocurrencies are here to stay and we’ve only just begun to see their potential.
Take a look at our Bitcoin calculator to see Bitcoin’s past performance and how a small investment now could mean a large return in the future.
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BitcoinIRA.com, the only company offering cryptocurrency-based retirement investment portfolios, has negotiated first-of-its-kind agreements with leading retirement and cryptocurrency companies to allow customers to invest in Bitcoin or Ethereum with their IRAs and 401ks.
Bitcoin IRA’s accomplishments with leading retirement custodian Kingdom Trust and leading cryptocurrency wallet BitGo™, represent a first for the industry. Together, this partnership creates a secured multi-signature encryption wallet from BitGo™ that enables Kingdom Trust to provide custodial services with a self-directed IRA.
The COO of Bitcoin IRA, Chris Kline, said,
“These are unique set-ups that no other retirement custodian is able to replicate. Our partnership with BitGo and our custom configuration with other partners provides a secure, one-of-a-kind investment opportunity for individuals that can’t be replicated in the marketplace.”
Bitcoin IRA has been featured in leading publications including the Wall Street Journal, QZ.com, Barron’s, Investopedia and popular Bitcoin publishers CoinDesk.com and CoinTelegraph.com.
In one of the articles, Drew Pierson from CoinDesk wrote,
“Cryptocurrency IRAs are no different than IRAs invested in more traditional options like stocks and bonds. The firm Bitcoin IRA is the only option for investors who wish to hold cryptocurrencies in their IRAs directly.”
Recently, Bitcoin IRA also launched Ethereum IRA, a similar investment product for Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency. The company has been evaluating releasing new cryptocurrencies on its proprietary SDIRA platform, along with new features being driven by demand from existing stakeholders and clients.
About Bitcoin IRA
Bitcoin IRA is the only Bitcoin-based retirement investment portfolio that allows people to invest with actual bitcoins for their IRA or 401(k). The platform works with leading fintech professionals to provide secure, high-quality Bitcoin investments.
Bitcoin IRA offers both traditional and Roth IRA options, which offer the same tax incentives as regular IRAs and 401(k)s. The company differentiates itself from other bitcoin investment products in multiple ways. Unlike Bitcoin ETFs and investment funds, Bitcoin IRA offers an opportunity for individuals to invest in real bitcoin at a much lower fee. In addition, investors keep total control over their Bitcoin deposits, with no holding fees and the ability to withdraw once the term is over.
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