Ripple is a privately held US company focusing its efforts to create software for a global network of financial institutions and banks. To this end, this company is intensively developing the RippleNet blockchain software with the goal of reducing the costs of international payments. The team behind the Ripple project calls this global network the "internet of values".

The cryptocurrency community uses the term Ripple in two ways. The first one refers to the digital currency XRP, which is an open payment network in which this virtual currency is transferred. The second meaning of the term Ripple is to describe the holding company that is behind the entire project.

One of the fundamental foundations of Rippe's philosophy is that this project is inherently opposed to what they call "gated gardens". The Ripple team by this term means a global network of financial institutions that includes banks, credit card providers and other institutions such as, for example, PayPal. The creators of Ripple believe that all of these entities tend to restrict money flow through high commissions, currency exchange fees, but also slow transaction processing rates.

The XRP platform is an open source product. It was designed and then created to solve one of the most serious problems related to international payments, namely the pre-financing of nostro / vostro accounts. Ripple has developed a solution that allows banks around the world to use XRP for real-time liquidity. Payment providers are currently able to use Ripple's software architecture to expand the reach of their business activities to new markets, deliver faster payment settlements, and lower currency conversion costs.