When comparing Ripple vs Bitcoin, the Slant community recommends Ripple for most people. In the question“What are the best cryptocurrencies?” Ripple is ranked 3rd while Bitcoin is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose Ripple is:
In addition to their own cryptocurrency, XRP, Ripple's network can transfer other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, fiat currencies, gold, IOUs, frequent flyer miles and so on.
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Pros
Pro Currency agnostic
In addition to their own cryptocurrency, XRP, Ripple's network can transfer other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, fiat currencies, gold, IOUs, frequent flyer miles and so on.
Pro Real-time international money transfers
Transactions are confirmed in seconds, not minutes.
Pro No mining required
XRP's cap of 100B units has already been generated.
Pro More transparent than banks
Not as good as BTC or literally any decentralized coin/token. But, you gotta hand it to them.
Pro Scalable
Can handle thousands of transactions per second.
Pro Fast
3 to 5 latency.
Pro Huge partnerships
MoneyGram, Bank of America, American Express, Central Banks, etc
Pro Allows issuing debt via IOUs
Pro Can pay directly to Bitcoin users
Pro Most widely accepted cryptocurrency by merchants
Pro Biggest market capitalization
Cons
Con Not Decentralized
It is very centralized, worst than even most banks.
Con The network is proprietary
Con Iffy marketing strategy
Con Concerns of it being a scam
Con 3 people own 20% of all of XRP
Con Traceable
Not anonymous, transactions can easily be tracked.
Con Takes a long time for transaction to confirm
It takes on average 10 minutes for a block to be added to the blockchain. You may want to wait for multiple blocks to be added to the blockchain to be sure that there's no tampering happening with the blockchain. The usual recommendation for larger transactions is to wait for 6 blocks before confirming the transaction which comes down to an hour on average.
Con Mining is expensive
Con Big whales manipulating price
Con Overpriced
Con Volatile
Con Toxicity
Con Terrible for the environment
Bitcoin wastes enormous amounts of energy on each transaction