Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network created by Ripple Labs Inc., a US-based technology company. Released in 2012, Ripple is built upon a distributed open source protocol, and supports tokens representing fiat currencycryptocurrencycommodities, or other units of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes.[2] Ripple purports to enable “secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks”. The ledger employs the native cryptocurrency known as XRP.