What are the three main Ripple products?

Ripple built a cross border payment infrastructure for banks and financial institutions. The three main products of Ripple are xCurrent, xRapid and xVia. They are softwares that doesn’t use the same technology as the XRP token itself, which runs on distributed ledger.  Instead they use the interledger (ITL) technology. Interledger is not a ledger, it is an open source protocol that was created by Ripple engineers in 2015. Interledger protocol enables secure transfers between ledgers and allows anyone with accounts on two ledgers to create a connection between them. ITL is often compared to the internet protocols that transmit information across different types of servers, so users can send emails from Gmail to Yahoo without any problem.

• xCurrent for payment processes designed for banks

xCurrent allows banks to instantly send and receive cross-border payments. The solution includes end-to-end tracking and bi-directional messaging. Banks message each other in real time to confirm details of the payment and confirm delivery once it settles.  xCurrent uses the Ripple network but it doesn’t use XRP the coin.

• xRapid for payment providers like PayPal, Moneygram, Visa

Payment providers and other financial institutions who want to minimise liquidity costs while improving their customer experience can use xRapid to offer on demand liquidity. This is the only Ripple product that uses XRP to improve liquidity for banks.

• xVia for financial institutions except banks

xVia is very similar to xCurrent. It is a software that allows users to send payments. It offers users transparency into their transactions, and it also gives the ability to attach invoices and other payment details. xVia doesn’t use XRP.