Overview

You already know what a blockchain is — a shared record that nobody owns and everybody can trust. This module answers the natural next question: so what's XRP, and what's this "XRP Ledger" everyone keeps mentioning?

By the end you'll be able to explain both in plain language, say why people choose this particular network for moving money, and untangle three names that get mixed up constantly: the XRP Ledger, XRP, and Ripple. No coding, no jargon — just the mental model a curious newcomer actually needs.

What is XRP?

XRP is a digital asset — money that lives entirely online, with no physical coins or notes. Think of it the way you'd think of cash in a digital wallet: you can hold it, send it to someone on the other side of the world, or trade it for other things of value.

A helpful way to picture it: every blockchain network tends to have one "native" currency that belongs to it. Ethereum has ETH; Solana has SOL. XRP is the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger. It's the currency the network was built around.

XRP has a fixed supply — 100 billion units were created at the start, in 2012, and no new XRP is ever "mined" or printed. That's a deliberate contrast with traditional money, where central banks can create more, and even with Bitcoin, where new coins are produced over time. With XRP, the total amount is known and capped from day one.

Its main job is simple: to move value quickly and cheaply. Sending XRP from one person to another settles in about 3–5 seconds and costs a tiny fraction of a cent. Inside the network it also does some quiet plumbing work — it can act as a "bridge" between two other currencies when someone wants to trade one for another, and a small XRP fee on every transaction helps keep spammers from flooding the system.

What is the XRP Ledger?

If XRP is the money, the XRP Ledger (often shortened to XRPL) is the system that money lives in — the network of computers around the world that keeps the shared record of who owns what and confirms every transaction.

It launched in 2012, built specifically to fix the limitations earlier cryptocurrencies had for real financial use — above all, payments. It's open-source (anyone can inspect or build on it), decentralized (no single company runs it — hundreds of independent computers, run by universities, businesses, and individuals, keep it going), and it has run continuously since launch with no successful security breach.

Here's the part that trips people up most, so let's name it directly. Three different things share similar names:

The XRP Ledger is the network — the blockchain itself.
XRP is the digital asset — the native currency that moves across that network.
Ripple is a private company that builds financial products and happens to use XRP. Ripple is just one of many organizations building on the XRP Ledger — it doesn't own or control it.

Keeping these straight is one of the most useful things you can take from this module.

How is it different from Bitcoin or Ethereum?

You may have heard that Bitcoin uses enormous amounts of electricity. That's because of mining — a global race where powerful computers burn energy competing to confirm transactions. The XRP Ledger doesn't work that way at all. There is no mining.

Instead, a known group of trusted computers around the world simply compares notes and agrees on each new batch of transactions — a process called consensus. Because nobody is burning electricity to "win," the network is dramatically more energy-efficient, with a very low carbon footprint. This is why people describe XRP as a "green" cryptocurrency.

A few other practical differences worth holding onto:

Fast. Transactions settle in about 3–5 seconds, versus minutes (or longer) elsewhere. It feels closer to tapping a card than waiting for a bank transfer.
Cheap. Each transaction costs a fraction of a cent, so moving even small amounts makes sense.
Purpose-built for value. Where some networks were designed as general-purpose computers, the XRP Ledger was designed from the start to move money — payments, currency exchange, and tokens — and comes with those tools built in rather than bolted on.

The shorthand the community uses: fast, cheap, and green.

What can you actually do with it?

This isn't theoretical — the XRP Ledger handles real activity, with billions of transactions settled and millions of people holding XRP wallets worldwide. A few of the everyday things people use it for:

Send money across borders. Move value to family, friends, or businesses internationally in seconds, without the days-long delays and steep fees of traditional bank transfers — a major reason it's popular for remittances.
Trade and exchange. The XRP Ledger has a built-in exchange — a marketplace baked right into the network where people can swap one asset for another directly, with no separate company sitting in the middle.
Represent other things of value. Beyond XRP itself, the ledger lets people create tokens — digital stand-ins for currencies, stablecoins, collectibles, and other assets — so all sorts of value can move with the same speed and low cost.
Explore apps. A growing world of applications is built on top of the ledger, from wallets and marketplaces to tools for businesses.

You don't need to be a developer or an investor to benefit. Many people simply use it as a fast, low-cost rail for sending and exchanging value.

The ecosystem

XRP and the XRP Ledger are just the foundation. Around them sits a whole ecosystem of companies, communities, and projects — wallets, exchanges, payment apps, marketplaces, and more — built by people all over the world.

The best way to feel the scale of it is to look. The XRPL Ecosystem Map is an interactive directory of projects building on the ledger. Browsing it turns "XRP is a fast payment network" from an abstract sentence into something concrete: real teams solving real problems on top of the technology you just learned about.

Check

You're done when you can comfortably explain — out loud or in a few written sentences — what XRP is (the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger, built to move value fast and cheaply), what the XRP Ledger is (the open, decentralized network it lives on, launched in 2012), and why it's different (fast, cheap, and green — no mining). You should also be able to tell apart the XRP Ledger, XRP, and Ripple without hesitating.

For your artifact, write a short note (just a few sentences) explaining XRP and the XRP Ledger to a curious friend, and list 3 projects from the ecosystem map that caught your interest and what they do.

What Is XRP & the XRP Ledger?