Opinion:
XRP and Ripple, together created a buzz in the financial system, especially in the remittance sector with their blockchain solutions.
XRP has faced all the major cryptocurrencies and has triumphed to become the second cryptocurrency by market capitalization in space. The only other thing left to do XRP is to overthrow the defending champion, Bitcoin [BTC], which obviously had the advantage of the first move and the feeling of the people.
Proof of work of Bitcoin [PoW] Vs. Protocol of distributed agreements of XRP Ledger
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that was created and uses the PoW algorithm, ie the way in which transactions are verified and solves the problem of "double spending". The PoW algorithm is made up of miners, who validate transactions by entering their resources and are therefore rewarded for them. This process, which seemed good enough, will be relatively rejected by miners as the reward for mines decreases after extracting every 210,000 blocks.
In the end, the miners will be left with no option, but to exit. Furthermore, the PoW algorithm uses massive resources, which extrapolate a heavy tribute to the world in which we live. Moreover, the miners that are spread all over the world is what makes the Bitcoin network decentralized, but it is also what makes it less decentralized and susceptible. to attacks
Since Bitcoin has gained a lot of notoriety, its mining Bitcoins have suddenly attracted attention, forcing many miners to pool their resources to extract the coin, generating large pools with enormous resources. If some of these pools decided to collude, they could easily perform an attack on the Bitcoin network, create a second chain, double expense, stop / cancel transactions, etc.
Ethereum Classic, a PoW-based cryptocurrency, has recently dealt with a brutal 51% attack, with a loss of assets of $ 2.1 million. The attacker has had enough hashes to stop the original chain and double the resources.
Unlike Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH], XRP uses a distributed consent protocol or a consent protocol. XRP solves the problem of double spending more efficiently than PoW cryptocurrencies. It uses a distributed agreement protocol that is based on validators to group transactions into ordered units and to agree on an order of this type.
These validators are widespread throughout the world and, unlike Bitcoin miners, these validators are not rewarded for grouping transactions into ordered units.
In addition, XRP Ledger requires a total of 80% of all validators of the entire network to support and vote for a change for a period of two weeks before it enters into force. The two-week period provides an incentive for users to update their software to adapt to change. If the change is not agreed by 80% of users, it will not come into force.
Furthermore, Schwartz said that if more than 20% of the nodes are not in agreement with the majority, the network would stop and reconfigure a new list that has a majority of nodes in agreement. This would create more than one ledger and the ledger that has superiority will be selected as the final ledger.
Furthermore, if validators become selfish and colluding to disrupt the normal flow of transactions, users should agree on a new list that provides sufficient overlap so that they can continue to interact.
David Schwartz, CTO of Ripple commented on the matter [about attacking XRP Ledger] in a tweet, he said:
"This has never been a problem for any blockchain in the past, and is required by every blockchain when previous agreements are not sufficient." Decentralized systems basically allow interoperability only among people who continue to agree on a large number of things. "
"Surprisingly, the lack of incentives in the XRPL design really makes it a lot easier.All honest participants want the network to work well and have perfectly aligned interests.There is no power over anything to give, no reward for discussing the split or similar ".
So, compared to other PoW cryptocurrencies, XRP is better to resist collusion attacks or bad actors, as it does not provide any opportunity for a person to develop control of the ledger because of its consent protocol. In addition, XRP Ledger uses a deterministic protocol that makes it impossible to change transactions.
Other advantages of XRP that make it a higher cryptocurrency than others would be the speed and cost of the transaction. XRP can execute 1500 transactions per second, while Bitcoin can only do 6 transactions per second and Ethereum can only make 15 transactions per second. Below is a chart that illustrates the same.
Cryptocurrencies, even bitcoins, have been created as an alternative payment by centralized and controlling authorities and, for their success, they should have a higher transaction speed with negligible commissions. XRP controls all these boxes, while Bitcoin and Ethereum, on the other hand, struggle with these characteristics while struggling in terms of scalability.
Hodor, a contributor to the XRP community, said it's better in a blog:
"While Bitcoin maximalists will aim to overlay software such as Lightning, there have been numerous intractable problems with the use of secondary software to interact with POW networks.The use of a secondary network to scale does not solve the problem. of using a completely inadequate base-level technology. "
Bitcoin alias transaction fees soared when the currency reached its all-time high in December 2017. The average transaction fee for Bitcoin reached a maximum of $ 55.
In addition, XRP facilitates the settlement of cross-border payments within seconds and also provides solutions to various remittance problems with Ripple's blockchain solutions such as xRapid, xVia and xCurrent. With over 200 partnerships in more than 40 countries, Ripple and XRP are on their way to becoming the world standard in payments and finance.
All the facts mentioned above converge in a single conclusion, ie XRP is becoming more decentralized while other PoW cryptocurrencies are trying to reach XRP. It is only a matter of time that XRP becomes a widely accepted form of payment, surpassing Bitcoin even with its first mover advantage.
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