The first thing to note is that the name Ripple belongs to the company behind the cryptocurrency. So, the cryptocurrency is XRP, although people often refer to the coin as RIPPLE.

Ripple’s XRP and Bitcoin are both cryptocurrencies, digital alternatives to currencies issued by governments, but there are variations between them. They differ in their objective, creation, and the cost and time involved in carrying out a transaction using each one.

Although bitcoin remains at the top of the pile in terms of market cap and adoption rates, altcoins continue to surge ahead thanks to growing adaptability and varied applications.

Bitcoin vs. XRP
The bitcoin network is based on the blockchain concept, a public ledger of verified transactions and record-keeping. Miners verify transactions on an ongoing basis and add them to the bitcoin blockchain, which serves as a ledger for all network activity. In exchange for their time and computing power, miners are rewarded with BTC upon successfully validating certain quantities of transactions.

XRP, on the other hand, is a technology that is mainly known for its digital payment network and protocol. Aside from the cryptocurrency, XRP, Ripple is perhaps even better known as a payment settlement, asset exchange, and remittance system that works more like SWIFT.

Transaction Validation
Instead of using the blockchain mining concept, the Ripple network uses a unique distributed consensus mechanism through a network of servers to validate transactions. This enables almost instant confirmations without any central authority, which keeps XRP decentralized and faster and more reliable than many of its competitors.

While the bitcoin network is accused of being energy-hungry due to its mining system. The Ripple system consumes insignificant power owing to its mining-free mechanism.

Processing Times and Costs
It takes 10 minutes to confirm a transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain and may be associated with high transaction costs. XRP transactions are confirmed within seconds at low costs. BTC has a total supply of almost 21 million crypto coins, and XRP has a total of 100 billion pre-mined crypto coins.

Mining and Circulation
The crypto coin release mechanism is different for both BTC and XRP. While bitcoins are released and added to the network through mining, a smart contract controls the release of XRP.

Ripple planned to release a maximum of 1 billion XRP tokens each month as governed by an in-built smart contract; the current circulation is over 50 billion. The remaining XRP coins in a singular month will be moved to an escrow account. Similar to the bitcoin transaction processing fee, XRP transactions are charged.

Each time a transaction is performed on the Ripple network, a small amount of XRP is charged to the user. The primary use of XRP is to facilitate the transfer of other assets. A growing number of merchants also accept it for payments in a way similar to accepting bitcoin.

Real-World Applications
While bitcoin is being used by more individuals and organizations as a virtual currency, the Ripple payment system is more popular among banks. The Ripple network comprises more than 200 financial institutions, based in more than 40 countries, allowing for easy cross-border payments.

Closing Nuggets.
The Ripple system is loved for its faster processing time and lower transaction fees. On the other hand, BTC is more popular than XRP, giving it an upper hand. Bitcoin remains a public system that is not owned by any individual, authority, or government. While the Ripple network is owned and operated by a private company with the same name. Despite both having their unique cryptocurrency tokens, the two popular virtual systems cater to different uses.