The Ripple network employs a unique distributed consensus process in which participating nodes poll each other to verify the transaction's legitimacy instead of using the blocking mining concept.
Ripple established XRP as a faster, less expensive, and more scalable alternative to other digital assets and conventional monetary payment networks such as SWIFT.
The global XRP Community maintains RippleNet's ledger, with Ripple as an active member. The XRP Ledger processes transactions every 3-5 seconds, or whenever independent validator nodes agree on the order and validity of XRP transactions – as opposed to proof-of-work mining, which is used by Bitcoin (BTC). Ripple validators can be anyone, and the list currently includes Ripple and universities, financial institutions, and others.
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) does not use a proof-of-work (PoW) or proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm like the Bitcoin blockchain or the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain. Instead, the XRP Ledger uses the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol to validate account balances and complete transactions. The XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol is said to be more efficient than other methods of blockchain consensus.
Use of Native tokens in the ecosystem
Ripple Labs' products use XRP as their native coin. Its solutions are used for payment settlement, asset exchange, and remittance systems similar to SWIFT, an international money and security transfer service provided by a network of banks and financial intermediaries.
The XRP Ledger is built using C++. Other SDKs are supported with various interfaces/libraries written in Javascript.