Panos

The real estate industry is one of the oldest and most established industries in the world. It is also one of the most opaque and bureaucratic industries, which has made it slow to adapt to new technologies. However, that is changing with the advent of blockchain technology that is transforming this industry, making it easier to buy and sell property, as well as making it more democratic and accessible than ever before.

One of the biggest advantages of blockchain technology is that it enables peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a third party, such as a bank or real estate agent. This not only makes the process of buying and selling property much cheaper and faster, but also opens up real estate to a whole new pool of buyers and sellers who were previously excluded from the industry.

Another advantage is that it makes real estate ownership more secure and transparent. A blockchain is a distributed database that records all transactions that take place on it in a secure and tamper-proof way. This means that real estate ownership can be tracked and traced on the blockchain, making it much harder for fraudsters to sell properties that they do not own.

Blockchain technology has the potential to democratize real estate by making it more accessible to ordinary people. For example, there are now platforms that allow people to invest in real estate without having to go through the traditional channels of banks and real estate agents. This is opening up real estate investment to a whole new group of people and making it more inclusive than ever before.

Tokenization is another area where blockchain is transforming real estate. Tokenization is the process of creating a digital token that represents a real-world asset, such as a property. These tokens can then be bought and sold on exchanges 24/7, which makes investing in real estate much easier and more efficient.

In reality, there are several advantages to real estate tokenization. It's not just about providing liquidity to an industry that has been illiquid and difficult to access. It's also a way for smaller investors to participate in fractional ownership of real estate properties, allowing them to build a diverse portfolio with modest stakes in real estate assets. It's a means for modest investors to get their hands on high-value and high-return investments.

A notable company called ReTok was created for that reason — to provide a solution for people who are interested in investing in real estate or their first house. Investors can use ReTok tokens to assist a whole generation of people become homeowners and be compensated for it. Young families that can't afford houses are at risk of being renters for the rest of their lives, and that's not fair. People with a decent wage should be able to buy a house. ReTok’s goal is to provide an improved alternative to mortgages so that people may purchase their new home.

The real estate industry is changing, and blockchain with tokenization are at the forefront of this change. These new technologies are making real estate more accessible, democratic, and transparent than ever before. It is an exciting time to be involved in the real estate industry, and we are only just beginning to see the potential of what can be achieved.

2021 has been a defining year for the crypto industry. From Web3 and NFTs to DAOs and Metaverse. In 2022, there are many more things to expect and see, new ideas to explore, new applications that we hadn’t imagined before, and much bigger adoption. As we are moving to a new digital era, crypto and blockchain will play a significant role in almost all industries of the world economy.

In the midst of a bull run you can make money with almost every crypto, even the ones that have nothing good to offer. But what matters most is the long term success and projects with solid fundamentals that are solving problems in innovative ways and can survive bear markets. In the short term, the market is mainly driven by speculation and hype, but there are also many projects that keep building and delivering good products and don’t have the attention they deserve, for different reasons. It’s time to have a look at some of them.

1) Avalanche (AVAX) — https://www.avalabs.org/

Avalanche is a Layer 0 ecosystem made up of 3 core blockchains and allows anyone to create their own tailor-made application specific blockchains & DApps, supporting multiple custom VMs such as EVM and WASM. Thanks to its revolutionary consensus protocol, It’s currently the fastest and most efficient smart contracts platform in the industry. The Avalanche (AVAX) token is the native token of the Avalanche platform and is used to secure the network through staking, transact peer-to-peer, pay for fees, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnetworks created on the Avalanche platform. It is one of very few projects where enterprise use still provides utility for the token. Avalanche is basically creating the Internet of Finance, offering the best place to build DeFi applications and not only.

2) Blockzero Labs (XIO)  —  https://blockzerolabs.io/

If Y Combinator was a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), what would it look like? Blockzero Labs has the answer. A Web3 accelerator for the decentralized world. Blockzero Labs is crypto’s first community-driven token studio and accelerator with a mission to give Web3 builders and founders the community, connections, & capital they need to reach escape velocity. Started in 2019, Blockzero Labs has had innovation at its core and has been a pioneer in concepts such as liquidity mining, governance voting, flashstaking, and more. They have also accelerated projects such as UMA Protocol and Ideamarket. The governance token of Blockzero Labs is XIO. XIO token holders vote for which projects Blockzero creates or accelerates. The newly generated yield and native tokens from these projects are deposited into the Blockzero treasury where XIO holders can earn this basket of cryptocurrencies via staking or burning and vote for the next steps of the DAO.

3) Vulcan Forged (PYR)  —  http://vulcanforged.com/

Vulcan Forged is an established NFT game studio, marketplace and dApp incubator with 8+ games and 15,000+ users. They are also building their own blockchain, Elysium, which will be specifically built for gaming and metaverse projects. Vulcan Forged offers a full suite of tools for game development, and it’s on the verge of becoming the biggest decentralized gaming ecosystem. It combines gaming with blockchain, NFTs and metaverse. Their native token is PYR and has only 50 million maximum supply, making it one of the projects with the lowest supply across all Virtual Worlds projects. PYR empowers a growing list of 8+ games and all elements of the Vulcan Forged ecosystem.

4) Safe Haven (SHA)  —  https://safehaven.io/

Safe Haven is a decentralized B2B2C platform built on the VeChainThor blockchain and is building asset management and inheritance solutions on the blockchain. With their solution, they are tackling a growing problem that every crypto investor will face at some point. Safe Haven encrypts data and assets until predetermined conditions are met such as death, illness or other, and then grants access to these funds. Safe Haven is building various products and services integrated with its platform under the term “crypto asset management” and its flagship product is Inheriti Platform which is the first and only decentralized inheritance solution. The Safe Haven ecosystem is powered by their native token called SHA.

5) Trader Joe (JOE) — https://traderjoseph.com/

Trader Joe is a one-stop decentralized trading platform on the Avalanche network that offers leveraged trading by combining DEX services with DeFi loans. Since its launch, the platform has attracted over 4 billion in assets and is now the #1 DEX on Avalanche. Their governance token, JOE, has unique tokenomics and offers many rewards, passive income opportunities and access to early-stage projects.

6) LTO Network (LTO)  —  https://www.ltonetwork.com/

LTO Network is a Dutch GDPR-compliant hybrid Blockchain for securing, verifying and exchanging business-critical information. It is a trustless blockchain that focuses on creating connections and collaborations between businesses. With this hybrid approach the LTO Network has become the first blockchain that is data privacy and GDPR compliant. It is the easiest to integrate Blockchain technology in the market and enables its customers to upgrade and interconnect their business systems seamlessly for a fraction of the costs of its competitors. LTO Network’s increasing adoption rate in B2B coupled with very interesting deflationary token economics and a low market cap gives it great potential.

7) Quant (QNT)  —  https://www.quant.network/

Quant is a technology provider, delivering enterprise-grade interoperability for the secure exchange of information and digital assets across any network, platform or protocol, at scale. Quant developed Overledger, the world’s first blockchain operating system (OS) that not only inter-connects blockchains but also existing enterprise platforms, applications and networks to blockchain and facilitates the creation of internet scale multi-chain applications otherwise known as mApps. It provides enterprise and developers with what Quant calls “universal interoperability”. Quant’s Overledger isn’t a blockchain, but a blockchain Operating System that runs on top of blockchains to provide scalable Any-to-Any interoperability. It enables interoperability across many blockchains and legacy networks to be processed in parallel rather than being restricted to just 2 connected networks. The QNT token is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) as a utility token and has only 14.6 million maximum supply.

8) IoTeX (IOTX) — https://iotex.io/

IoTeX is building the first decentralized ecosystem where humans and machines can interact with guaranteed trust, free will, and privacy. With its own EVM-compatible blockchain, It has the potential to lead the blockchain-IoT sector. IOTX is the native coin that governs the underlying blockchain protocol while being used as the gas for the blockchain protocol. Burndrop (http://burndrop.iotex.io/) is a unique economical design that leads to deflation of IOTX while the number of devices orchestrated by IoTeX increases.

9) Colony (CLY)  —  https://colonylab.io/

Colony is a decentralized, community-centric VC fund for the Avalanche Ecosystem. It provides early-stage funding to Avalanche-built projects and liquidity to established DeFi protocols operating on Avalanche. It also purchases and stakes AVAX in the Avalanche network and operates an index fund comprised of selected Avalanche projects designed to offer diversified exposure similarly to an ETF. All these rewards and returns go back to the holders of the governance token, CLY.

10) Merit Circle (MC)  —  https://meritcircle.io/

Merit Circle is a DAO focused on growing the blockchain gaming economy. Its mission is to maximize value accrual across different games in the metaverse. It is creating a platform at the intersection of capital (investors), expertise (platform and managers) and players (gamers). The project aims to create a new era of gaming where users can make money by playing the games they love. MC is the governance token of the Merit Circle DAO and is also used as a play-to-earn index where each MC token represents a share of the DAO’s treasury. Through MC tokens, users also gain exposure to multiple gaming NFTs .

11) XRP — https://xrpl.org/

Αlthough XRP is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, there is a lot of misinformation about it and it is one of the most misunderstood projects. Created in 2012, XRP is a cryptocurrency that was mainly designed for payments. XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), an open-source, permissionless and decentralized blockchain technology. XRP can settle transactions in 3 seconds and It was built to be a better Bitcoin — faster, cheaper and greener than any other crypto asset. It is also deflationary as every transaction fee is burned. XRP is used by a wide range of individuals, developers, companies and institutions, who ought to develop innovative value-adding solutions in a decentralized manner. The XRP Ledger has a built-in Decentralized Exchange (DEX) which has been operating since 2012 and makes it the first ever DEX. Apart from all these, NFTs, native smart contracts and sidechains will also be added on the XRPL this year. Finally, the unfair lawsuit that the SEC filed against Ripple, a company founded after XRP by some of XRP’s developers, is going to end soon with Ripple probably being the winner. This will be very positive for XRP, as it will gain regulatory clarity and will give the green light for bigger adoption and usage.

12) VerseX —  https://versex.io/

VerseX is building the first complete metaverse and NFT ecosystem on the XRP Ledger with the goal to offer a fully immersive experience for their users. They are targeting brands and businesses so they can utilize the VerseX features and provide goods and services through their virtual world. VerseX has a dual-token economy with XVR being the native and governance token that will be used for all purchases in-game and the marketplace, while XMEN gives access to the 3D NFT characters that will be used in their metaverse and provides special earning rights and extra abilities in-game.

13) xSPECTAR —  http://xspectar.com/

xSPECTAR wants to build the most innovative virtual economy on the XRP Ledger. A multi-purpose metaverse built with Unreal Engine 5 and hyper-realistic graphics and avatars. It has a great team, delivering fast and they are working on multiple things.

Crypto and blockchain technology are changing the world and disrupting a lot of industries. This technology is changing the way we perceive money and value, the way we transact, and they allow us, for the first time in history, to actually own our money, assets and data. This technology allows us to become our own banks and institutions. Web3 is opening doors for millions of people to participate in a new wave of value creation with new business models that benefit creators. We should look for ways to integrate this technology in our daily lives and take advantage of it.

For more visit my personal website and follow me on social media: http://panosmekras.com/

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. I hold all these crypto projects and not planning to liquidate any positions in the short-term.

On October 31st 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper on the cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com describing a digital currency, titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. On January 3rd 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Satoshi mined the starting block of the chain. And the rest is history.

Litecoin was the second cryptocurrency that was launched in October 2011, and after that came XRP. The underlying technology of XRP, XRP Ledger (XRPL), was the second major blockchain system and consensus mechanism that was different from Proof of Work that Bitcoin and Litecoin used.

The XRPL was launched in June 2012 by three bitcoin developers who saw the potential problems of bitcoin and Proof of Work and wanted to build something that would not use Proof of Work and mining to validate transactions. The goal was to create a better bitcoin, with a more sustainable and advanced consensus mechanism. The XRPL uses the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) model as its consensus algorithm and it's called XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol.

Bitcoin's maximum supply is 21 million and XRP's maximum supply is 100 billion. The difference is that all XRP were created in the first day, all are in existence today and no more than the original 100 billion can be created. Until Bitcoin's supply reaches its maximum, they are created through the mining procedure, each block generates new bitcoins, which are distributed to the miners as rewards. That's how bitcoin's supply is increasing, while XRP works differently. There are no rewards, no more XRP can be minted and it is also deflationary, as every transaction cost is burned/destroyed, which slowly reduces its supply.

Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm uses the mining procedure to validate transactions. Bitcoin miners act as the network’s transaction validators and verify all the transactions before including them in a block and then adding the latter to the blockchain. By verifying transactions and adding new blocks to the blockchain, miners earn block rewards. This is how new bitcoins are created and are distributed to miners as an incentive to validate transactions and secure the network.

On the other hand, the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol relies on validator nodes, which are basically servers, to record and verify transactions without incentivizing any party. XRPL Validator nodes are nodes running as a validating server – meaning they are configured to participate in the consensus process for validating transactions and the governance of the network.

Validator nodes are different from miners, because they aren’t paid when they order and validate transactions. For consensus to be reached on the network, at least 80% of the validator nodes must agree. This means that there isn't a 51% attack on the XRP network like on Bitcoin network. Furthermore, on Bitcoin network whichever miner finds the blocks, they are unilaterally responsible for which transactions are approved and go into that block, while on the XRP network (XRP Ledger) the transactions and changes have to be approved by all the validator nodes (>80% for consensus) and not by a single node, like it happens with miners on Bitcoin. This means that the XRP network has a better, more robust and more decentralized structure than Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. But overall, both networks are decentralized, as they have no central authority and no single party can control their networks.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation in the crypto space, especially against XRP, and it's good and recommended for everyone to fact-check everything and do their own research. This article can help you clear up some of the XRP misconceptions: https://write.as/panos/why-xrp-is-the-most-misunderstood-cryptocurrency

On average, one bitcoin block is mined every 10 minutes, but a transaction can take much longer, especially if there is a congestion on the network and high usage. The transaction cost can also vary from few dollars to tens of dollars. On the other hand, the XRP Ledger settles transactions in 3 to 5 seconds with a transaction cost of less than a penny (0.0001 XRP on average), and it can process 1500+ transactions per second.

Here you can see the main differences:

Another difference is that the XRPL has a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX), operating since 2012 and making it the first ever DEX. The XRPL has many great features and you can also issue tokens, IOUs, NFTs and use its smart contract features like escrow and checks.

Bitcoin was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto to be a P2P digital currency system. His/her/their vision was to use Bitcoin for P2P transactions and as an alternative payment system that had no central authority. But after some time, people started to realize that its consensus mechanism, Proof of Work, has many flaws, which lead to bitcoin becoming slow and expensive for what it was designed for. Furthermore, Proof of Work is not a sustainable system and consumes huge amounts of energy, which makes it non eco-friendly.

That's why the XRP creators built XRP and the XRP Ledger as a more advanced, scalable and sustainable system that would be closer to the real Satoshi's vision, regarding P2P transactions. The underlying technology of XRP uses a unique consensus algorithm, which makes it faster and cheaper to send transactions without having to rely on mining, thus making it more secure, eco-friendly and decentralized. In bitcoin, if someone gains over 51% of the mining power, then they can double spend and reverse transactions. Something that is not possible on the XRP Ledger, as it works differently, and over 80% of validators must agree for any change to occur. And there is no way to reverse transactions and double spend like you can do on bitcoin network. This is one of the most important problems of Bitcoin and Proof of Work that the XRP creators solved with the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol.

Today, many people see Bitcoin as a store of value and a hedge against inflation and not as an efficient system for P2P transactions anymore. Either way, Bitcoin was the first in the market, it started this revolution and it's the reason we are all here today. It opened the way for this technology to show what it can do and allowed for more experiments to be done and better technologies and decentralized consensus mechanisms to be created. There is no reason for tribalism and maximalism. There are countless use cases, markets and problems to be solved by this transformative technology, and each cryptocurrency does its own thing. Like Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, all are focusing on different things and use cases. There will not be only one winner. We are in a new internet era.

In the end, blockchain is a revolutionary technology and it is transforming the world. Cryptocurrencies are the evolution of money and finance, and for the people who are here for the technology and the vision of decentralization, must let hatred and tribalism aside and support each other.

Some useful links to learn how Bitcoin and XRP operate:

Bitcoin: 1. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf 2. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page 3. https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

XRP: 1. https://xrpl.org/intro-to-consensus.html 2. https://xrpl.org/xrp-ledger-overview.html 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo8ZScrXFZE&feature=emb_title 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3nJ6HFGYY&t= 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1aXZEVq_v8

Ever since the first Bitcoin exchange, Bitcoin Market, launched in February 2010, exchanges have been in a strange love-hate relationship with crypto users. With the Mt. Gox meltdown in 2014, and the countless stories of how exchanges disappeared or went bankrupt as a result of hacks, platform glitches, exit scams or even founder deaths, served as reminders that money would never truly be safe in the hands of an intermediary or centralized party. As a result, decentralized exchanges or DEXs emerged as a viable alternative to centralized exchanges (CEXs).

With your typical centralized exchange, you deposit your money, either fiat (via bank transfer or credit/debit card) or cryptocurrencies. When you deposit crypto, you give up control of it. Not from a usability standpoint, as you can still trade it or withdraw it, but from a technical standpoint – you cannot spend it on the blockchain. You don’t own the private keys to the funds, which means that when you withdraw, you ask the exchange to sign a transaction on your behalf. When you’re trading, transactions don’t occur on-chain – instead, the exchange allocates balances to users in its own database.

A decentralized exchange changes the narrative of how people buy and sell crypto to each other. Instead of proprietary software with closed-source codes that CEXs run, DEXs usually use smart contracts to allow orders to be settled automatically and directly from blockchain wallets. In simple words, Decentralized exchanges are autonomous decentralized applications (DApps) that allow cryptocurrency buyers or sellers to trade without having to give up control over their funds to any intermediary or custodian. With no intermediary or counterparty to hold on to any funds, users retain sole ownership of their private keys and, thus, their assets. This does come at the cost of independence: you need to trust the exchange with your money. As a result, you expose yourself to some counterparty risk.

At the heart of the emergence of DEXs in the crypto narrative was a simple but all-important fact in their makeup: non-custodial wallets and fund management. This continues to be the most obvious difference today between DEXs and CEXs.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) was the first DEX in the history, which was built in 2012 and still operates without issues. It uses on-chain order books and it is a fully-functional built-in (native) exchange where users can trade XRP, XRPL tokens or issued currencies with each other. Unfrotunately, due to the non-stop misinformation and lack of reporting by the crypto media, the majority still does not know that the XRPL has a DEX, among other great features. Users can interact with the XRPL DEX through different interfaces such as XUMM app, xrptoolkit.com , sologenic.org and Gatehub.net .

Some of the most popular DEX platforms right now are Uniswap, SushiSwap, 1inch, Binance DEX, 0x, Kyber Network.

Pros and cons of DEXs

Pros

1. Privacy – No KYC

KYC/AML (Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering) compliance is the norm for many exchanges. For regulatory reasons, individuals must often submit identity documentation and proof of address.

This is a privacy concern for some and an accessibility concern for others. What if you don’t have valid documents on hand? What if the information is somehow leaked? Since DEXs are permissionless, no one checks your identity. All you need is a cryptocurrency wallet.

2. Sovereignty

Sovereignty, or control over one’s funds, can be exercised freely in DEXs. Users will have full custody of their funds and will be able to use them as they please. Concerns like exchanges freezing their assets or blocking withdrawals rarely happen in DEXs. It needs to be noted that not all decentralized exchanges are created equal, and in practice they range from quasi-decentralized to fully decentralized.

3. No counterparty risk

The primary appeal of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges is that they don’t hold customers’ funds. As such, even catastrophic breaches like the 2014 Mt. Gox hack won’t put users’ funds at risk or expose any sensitive personal information.

4. Financial Inclusiveness

Many centralized exchanges restrict people from certain jurisdictions from using their services. This is not an issue for DEXs because anyone from anywhere in the world can utilize them. This creates a much more inclusive and fair ecosystem.

5. Unlisted tokens

Tokens that aren’t listed on centralized exchanges can still be traded freely on DEXs, provided there’s supply and demand.

Cons of DEXs

1. Low Liquidity

Liquidity is achieved by centralized exchanges through enormous capital. DEXs often have a problem on this end because, unlike centralized exchanges, their liquidity heavily relies on the number of users actively trading on the platform. They also often do not have access to any fund which they can move around to facilitate trades.

Fortunately, the decentralized finance (DeFi) space has come up with a solution to this through liquidity pools that DEXs can tap.

2. No fiat on/off ramps

Unlike centralized exchanges where you can deposit money directly through your card or bank account, there is no such option on DEXs. You need to necessarily use a CEX or a service that will deposit your money directly to your wallet, but they usually have high fees. Hopefully this will change in the future.

3. Your Responsibility

Assuming that DEXs and DeFi are free of risks and issues, it’s still not responsible for your mistakes. DeFi transfers responsibility from intermediaries to users. If you lose your private keys or funds by mistake no one will be responsible, hence, creating some tools to prevent human errors and mistakes might be needed in the DeFi space. With freedom comes a lot of responsibility, and many users are not used to having to take care of themselves in this way, which can lead to them losing funds or being scammed.

In conclusion, many decentralized exchanges have emerged over the years, each iterating on previous attempts to streamline the user experience and build more powerful trading venues. Ultimately, the idea seems heavily aligned with the ethos of self-sovereignty: as with cryptocurrencies, users don’t need to trust a third party. With the rise of DeFi, Ethereum-based DEXs have seen a massive uptick in usage. If the momentum continues, we’ll likely witness increased innovation in the technology across the entire industry. Both centralized and decentralized crypto ecosystems work hand in hand. However, the paradigm is gradually shifting in favour of DEXs, with more people realizing the value of decentralization.

If you want to have access to exclusive financial and crypto content, video tutorials and more, join my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/panosmek

Over the years, XRP has been criticized and accused of being “centralized” and a “bankers' coin”, among other things. But what is the actual truth and why do many people avoid doing their own research?

Let's begin with the history of XRP. In 2011, three bitcoin developers, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto, began developing a blockchain technology that would not use Proof-of-Work and mining to validate transactions and would not have its limitations. They called this technology XRP Ledger (XRPL). It was a public, open-source, permissionless blockchain network. The goal was to create a better bitcoin, with a more sustainable and efficient consensus algorithm, to transfer value almost instantly and inexpesnively. And they did it. They built the XRPL based on the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) consensus algorithm. The XRPL settles transactions in 3 seconds with a transaction cost of less than a cent (0.0001 XRP on average), can process 1500+ transactions per second and is energy-efficient. XRP is also deflationary, as every transaction fee is burned/destroyed, which slowly reduces its supply.

On June 2nd 2012, they created 100 billion XRP, with no way to create more, and later they decided to start a company (now called Ripple) to work with the community and also pursue its own mission and business model building on top of XRPL. It was still the early days, so they were trying to figure out what worked best and how to do the distribution of tokens as it was the first of its kind. They started with a vision of creating a global decentralized exchange for any type of asset, but ultimately, they decided to focus on cross-border payments and improving the banking infrastructure, as the banking system was running on an old, broken and corrupted system (SWIFT). They wanted to improve the financial system and solve a multi-trillion dollar problem. You can read the whole history here: https://xrpl.org/history.html

Today, Ripple uses XRP and the XRP Ledger mainly for cross-border payments and liquidity management and, through it, it offers instant payments and settlement to financial institutions. There are tens of financial instutions, at the moment, that are using XRP on daily basis though Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution. You can read more about it here: https://ripple.com/ripplenet/on-demand-liquidity/

Most importantly, Ripple is currently just one of the hundrends of projects building on top of XRP Ledger and using XRP.

XRP vs Ripple vs XRP Ledger vs RippleNet

Ripple is a company building a payments infrastructure, crypto solutions and software. RippleNet is their own system that financial institutions use. It's like SWIFT has its own system and network of financial institutions. RippleNet consists of many products/services, with the main ones being xCurrent and On-Demand Liquidity. The XRP Ledger is the underlying blockchain technology of XRP. So, do not confuse these 4 different things.

XRP is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) — an open-source, permissionless and decentralized blockchain technology. Ripple might be an important party in the XRP ecosystem, as everything began from them, but they are not alone. Right now, XRP and its technology are being leveraged by an increasing number of other companies and developers. There are already hundrends of projects that are building projects on top of XRP's blockchain