Ripple and Ethereum have always been competing since they’re considerably similar. While it’s true that Ethereum is difficult to be overthrown due to its impeccable media coverage and online presence, some of its features made investors look for alternatives such as Ripple.
Saying which is better is out of the question because, despite their comparable features, both cryptocurrencies and blockchains offer different benefits and objectives. Investors compare them because Ripple can be considered a suitable alternative to Ethereum. While it has certain perks that Ethereum lacks, Ripple’s media coverage and presence are far from making it famous and bringing it into the mainstream.
Here’s why.
Ethereum, the ecosystem with a strong community
Ethereum was released to the market in 2015, and its creator wanted to make something better than Bitcoin but with a similar base. Therefore, both cryptocurrencies leverage peer-driven networks and use cryptographically-secured ledgers. Before the switch to PoS from Ethereum, both assets had the PoW consensus mechanism. Now they’re two of the most famous and used cryptocurrencies, but Ethereum is second to Bitcoin.
Ethereum added many unique aspects to the crypto sector, such as the use of smart contracts, making it entirely programmable. At the same time, Ethereum is faster than Bitcoin in a matter of transaction speeds. And let’s not forget that it’s constantly updating the blockchain and the network’s scalability.
However, all the fame came with a price. Due to the increased number of users on the network, it became so congested that gas fees skyrocketed so that people couldn’t use the platform for smaller transactions. This also led to slower transaction times due to their high volume.
Ethereum’s situation made many users seek cheaper alternatives because it wasn’t justifiable anymore for people to invest time and resources in poor transaction features. That’s when Ripple appeared as a solution.
Ripple, the cheap and efficient cryptocurrency
Ripple was built earlier than Ethereum in 2012, but its stable release occurred later in 2018. Its main objective was to provide instant and costless transactions globally. These features increased in popularity over time, becoming one of the best cryptocurrencies for beginners and users to develop portfolios.
But Ripple’s image was tarnished by a lawsuit with the SEC in 2020 when the institution claimed that Ripple is selling tokens as unregistered securities. This year, the court decided that XRP can’t be included in the contract, transaction or scheme category, which are necessary requirements for an investment to be legal. The problem started from the confusion made between Ripple being a security or commodity, a frequent problem in the world of cryptocurrencies. SEC also considered that while Ripple is centralized and its executives are selling coins to fund the company, the lawsuit has become even more intense.
Ripple’s CEO tried addressing the allegations and misinterpretations linked with the cryptocurrency, stating that XRP is a security and accusing the institution of spreading propaganda. Consequently, many exchanges delisted the coin, such as Coinbase, leading to a decrease in the coin’s usage and popularity.
Main differences between Ripple and Ethereum
Ripple and Ethereum made considerable improvements in the blockchain sector by leveraging smart contracts. Both of these features operate uniquely, but their main procedure relies on programmable products and services. When it comes to differences, here’s what separates them.
Ripple’s functionality purpose is to facilitate global payments and serve as a currency exchange system. On the other hand, Ethereum has various use cases ―it’s a store of value, an ecosystem for DeFi, dApps and NFTs and also a global computing platform. This aspect makes Ethereum a multi-tool that provides cross-products in a single channel.
In terms of performance, Ripple outshines Ethereum because transactions are instant, taking up to five seconds for the processing to be done, all with the help of the federated consensus mechanism. Ethereum switched to PoS recently but still faces scalability issues, so gas prices increased due to competition for the procession of transactions.
There’s also a significant distinction in transaction fees between the two cryptocurrencies. While Ethereum’s prices depend on the network’s condition, Ripple has a fixed cost of 0.00001 XRP that is not intended to change. The team behind Ripple wanted to maintain lower fees to benefit banks for carrying large transactions.
Despite their benefits, investing in both may be the best
Some investors choose to build their portfolios only on Bitcoin and Ethereum as they’re the safest options to go with. However, this is not a preferable choice when it comes to diversifying a set of assets because there’s not enough security and stability in that portfolio.
A wise investor who wants to conduct proper investing and trading should expand their views and get interested in diverse digital assets. Because there are so many of them, each has different features and needs to be leveraged accordingly. For example, Bitcoin may be the best and most used coin. Still, its high price volatility can burden most investors, so it’s important to add stablecoins into the portfolio since their value is pegged to another currency.
Ethereum is considered a stablecoin, but it has gained a lot of importance and is, therefore, in the same rank as Bitcoin. So, investors can research the market and learn the most famous stablecoins at the moment and what their benefits are to bring balance to the portfolio.
That’s why Ripple cannot replace Ethereum but can surely provide less risky services. Cheaper assets might not offer high returns but are instead safer than more significant cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. At the end of the day, investing in cryptocurrencies will always have a certain level of uncertainty. Still, considering the rapid level of depreciation of fiat money, crypto has become the new financial safety net.
What do you think about Ripple and Ethereum?
Ethereum is the second-best cryptocurrency, while Ripple is far from being that famous. However, they complete each other by providing the latest technologies within the crypto market. Ethereum has a vast environment, and Ripple ensures cheap transaction fees, so there’s no way of saying which is best.
