Ripple vs. Ethereum • Benzinga (2024)

Explore the key differences between Ripple and Ethereum to see which crypto investment aligns better with your goals.

Ripple and Ethereum are two of the most popular digital assets in the cryptocurrency market which have gained significant attention and adoption over the years. Both cryptocurrencies have their own unique features and use cases, making it important for investors and enthusiasts to understand the differences between the two. Whether you prefer the streamlined efficiency of Ripple's cross-border payments or the versatility of Ethereum's smart contract platform, these two digital assets continue to play a significant role in shaping the future of finance.

Let’s take a closer look at the key similarities and differences of the two in this Ripple vs Ethereum comparison guide.

Ripple vs. Ethereum: An Overview

What Is Ripple?

Ripple is the name of boththe company and the cryptocurrency. Ripple the company, doing business as Ripple Labs, Inc., provides global payment solutions —a faster and less expensive way to transfer moneyanywhere in the world.

Ripple coin, which trades asXRP, is the cryptocurrency used with some of the company’s payment systems. The company describes Ripple network as1,000 times faster and 1,000 times cheaper than a Bitcoin transaction.

Notably, XRP transactions are also much less expensive than traditional methods of transferring money and allow transfers to be completed in seconds as opposed to hours or even days for traditional bank transactions.

Ripple (the company)has formed partnerships with over a hundred banks to use its current payment settlement system, which settles cash transactions with nearly real-time efficiency. In early 2018, the company announced thatMoneyGram, one of the world’s largest money transfer companies, will be using XRP in its payment flows.

What Is Ethereum?

Ethereumfinds its roots in Bitcoin. Bitcoin was born during the financial crisis of 2008 and sought to answer a need for a currency that didn’t require a bank. The network became the bank, with each node (computer server) holding the full ledger of Bitcoin transactions.

By decentralizing, no central entity has the power to corrupt the network. This is why so many developers want to latch on to the chain and build their dApps on top of it. Exchanges, derivates and many more financial applications can all function without a central authority, and users across the globe can interact peer-to-peer.

Ethereum’s ability to expand its functionality in ways we haven’t yet imagined is part of what has made it so popular in such a short amount of time. It’s not just another alternative currency, and if adoption rates continue, itcould prove to be a disruptive technology.Ether is the internal network currency for Ethereum, although the currency is often instead referred to as Ethereum, making the term Ethereum a broad term that might describe the network and technology or the currency.

Ripple vs. Ethereum: Similarities

There are more differences between Ripple and Ethereum than there are meaningful similarities.

• The two currencies are based on blockchain technology but serve different goals. Ripple aimed primarily at banks and large corporations that need to transfer money, whereas Ethereum is as much a platform for decentralized applications as it is a currency.
• Both coins are in the top ten cryptocurrencies in regard to market capitalization. Currently, Ethereum boasts a 412 billion market capitalization, while Ripple’s total market value is 33 billion.
• Both crypto coins support smart contracts. Ripple Labs has its own open source project for smart contracts, called “Codius”, which aims to interact with any type of cryptocurrency. Ethereum supports smart contracts natively, while the Codius project from Ripple labs aims to add the ability to attach smart contracts to any cryptocurrency.

Ripple vs. Ethereum: Key Differences

Ripple Is Centralized — At least for supply

The debate continues about whether Ripple is centralized or decentralized. In regard to supply, there is no debate. Ripple Labs created the entire Ripple supply and can flood the market with XRP, however unlikely that might be in the short term. Ripple supporters say such concerns shouldn’t worry investors.

Validation of Ripple transactions, on the other hand, promises to be more decentralized than some other cryptocurrencies as time goes on due to the consolidation of the hashing power that validates blockchain transactions for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others placing more control over those currencies in fewer hands.

Ethereum Is Decentralized

For now, it’s fair to call Ethereum a decentralized currency. No single authority controls the supply or transaction verifications. The system, however, falls short of a true democracy because as the difficulty of mining increases, it requires more resources and specialized hardware and hashing power is increasingly represented by fewer mining pools.

Ethereum Can Be Mined

This makes Ethereum an expanding supply, currently based on “Proof of Work” (PoW), which requires miners to solve encrypted codes to add transactions to the blockchain. Ethereum is transitioning to a “Proof of Stake” (PoS) system that requires miners to own a qualifying amount of Ethereum to mine more Ethereum. With the change from PoW to PoS, mining difficulty will change as well, opening opportunities for mining to more people and wresting control away from the larger mining pools.

Ripple is a Fixed Supply — but Ripple Labs Holds Uncirculated Ripple in Escrow

A small amount of Ripple is destroyed with each transaction, making Ripple a shrinking supply — albeit by minuscule amounts relative to the overall supply, which includes the Ripple still held in escrow. One hundred billion Ripple coins exist, with about 55 billion of those in circulation.

Ethereum on Coinbase

Building a position in Ethereum is easy. Ethereum can be purchased with a credit or debit card as one of a handful of coins available on Coinbase and GDAX, Coinbase’s trading platform.Ripple is available through some smaller exchanges, some of which require Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase Ripple. Purchasing Ripple isn’t quite as straightforward as buying Ethereum, but active cryptocurrency investors shouldn’t find any difficulty in navigating transactions.

Final Thoughts

Both Ripple and Ethereum share enthusiastic markets, with investors propelling the value of the cryptocurrencies from relative obscurity into the top 10 of all cryptocurrencies. For ease and inconvenience of transactions, it’shard to beat Ethereum and its easy access on exchanges such as Coinbase.

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