Ripple (XRP) and Shiba Inu are two of the most known cryptocurrencies. They are vastly different though, as we will show you in this article.
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably looking to understand the difference between the two crypto assets. Well to begin with, Ripple is a project dedicated to payments, while Shiba Inu is a meme project.
In this guide, we will delve into the details of these differences and help you to clearly differentiate them. If you wish to use them for anything such as investment, this guide will also help you decide which one to go for, so let’s get started.
What Is Ripple (XRP)?
First, we need to make it clear that Ripple is not the full name of XRP. instead, it is the company that uses XRP to make cross-border payments for financial companies globally. XRP serves as a bridge currency, one that provides liquidity.
Ripple uses XRP Ledger (XRPL), a fast and scalable blockchain, to facilitate the fund transfers across the globe. Unlike what many think, XRP is not a proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrency. XRPL has its own unique consensus mechanism known as the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA).
This consensus mechanism is such that it allows the network to be highly scalable, which is a requirement for a payment network. Ripple therefore is able to settle transactions worth billions of dollars within seconds and at negligible costs.
XRP as a token is pre-mined, which eliminates the need for a proof-of-work consensus. Instead, Ripple holds the supply and continues to release the tokens into circulation as it deems necessary.
There are a total of 100 billion XRP tokens created. However, Ripple has only released 55 billion into circulation at the time of writing this article. The company determines how much of the token is released at any given time.
There is also a burn mechanism in place that is meant to keep the number of tokens under check, so that the price of the token doesn’t get too low. The burn mechanism serves to maintain the value of the token.
Apart from being the token for Ripple’s payment network, XRP is also a popular token among investors and has brought significant returns to holders over the years.
What Is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?
Shiba Inu is a meme token, and the second largest by market capitalization. Built on the Ethereum network, the project was inspired by the popular Shiba Inu dog breed which also inspired Dogecoin.
Like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu was launched with no particular use case, it was only made popular by the sentiments of Shiba Inu fans and speculators. The token’s price appreciated significantly based on these sentiments and rewarded many investors well.
However as time passed, the team thought of ways to bring some real life use cases to the project. Since then, it has become a currency for payments on several major stores world wide. It is also considered as a platform to support non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Also with the launch of Shibarium, Shiba Inu has become faster at processing transactions at lower cost than before.
Shiba Inu has a circulating and total supply of close to 600 trillion SHIB. However, the supply has no limit and more of it can be minted anytime, making it an inflationary cryptocurrency. It also has a
Which Is Better?
Both XRP and Shiba Inu are top tokens that investors have rushed to over the years and many have been rewarded massively. However, they are not the same when it comes to potentials as investments for the future.
Ripple has a use case which could make it relevant in the future as more companies continue to use Ripple for cross-border payments. It also has a smaller supply than Shiba Inu, which currently doesn’t have much real use. Therefore XRP may be a better investment in both the short and long term.
