XRP Basics
The XRP token has a long history that actually goes back farther than the development of Bitcoin. Today, the founding company "Ripple Labs" is still the main driving force behind software development, as the XRP token sources liquidity for their bank clients - on demand in real time particularly for cross-border payments - without them having to pre-fund nostro accounts. According to Ripple Labs, when used with their products xRapid/xCurrent, this can reduce both the transaction costs and settlement times for the banks significantly.
As an investor in the XRP token, you hope to participate in Ripple's tremendous and ongoing success to sell their financial clearing solutions to banks and other financial institutions. As a digital currency itself, XRP belongs to one of the fastest and cheapest solutions for value transfer, along with several others like Stellar, Nano, and increasingly Bitcoin's Lightning Network.