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Jens Bader, payments expert and co-founder of a brand new payment company MuchBetter, said: “Ripple is somewhat off the pace, both in terms of its market position and its identity as a cryptocurrency. “It might be a good complimentary currency to bitcoin and ethereum, but since it is a centralised system, it does not live up to the brief of what a cryptocurrency is meant to do, and the USPs of blockchain technology.” Greg Adams, proprietor and managing director at blokt.com, a site which reports on blockchain and cryptocurrencys' said: “Ripple was designed to provide cross-border settlement between banks. It is solving the problem of slow settlement speeds and high operational costs. “However, XRP is centralised and was not intended for retail use, it already has an extremely high valuation so I would advise prospective buyers to steer clear for now.”

RIPPLE/COINMARKETCAP Ripple is not seen as a crytocurrency

Cryptocurrency price: A year in charts Mon, March 12, 2018 Compare crypto currencies (Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum, LiteCoin) on value, market cap and supply for the past year Play slideshow coindesk.com 1 of 10 LiteCoin is going down with the market dip

Levi Meade, lead investment analyst at Columbus Capital, a UK based digital crypto asset manager, said: “Ripple I am less bullish on. Ripple’s blockchain is separate from Ripple the currency. Ripple is fundamentally different.” Ripple is currently listed as the the third most valuable cryptocurrency on coinmarketcap. It stands at $1.32 with a market capitalisation of $51,296,823,345 . Market capitalisation refers to the total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares. Bitcoin cash, currently ranked fourth on coinmarketcap, would rise to third if Ripple was removed. Bitcoin cash is a fork of bitcoin.

GETTY Bitcoin is seen as a cryptocurrency as it ticks all the boxes

A fork occurs when miners agree certain rules within the blockchain need to change. Miners then change the regulations and create a fork of the original cryptocurrency. Professionals do seem to hold respect for both bitcoin and ethereum in contrast to Ripple. Mr Meade said: “I think bitcoin will be the longest lasting cryptocurrency. Mainly as it has the longest track record. “It has shown resilience from countries talking about banning it and well known financial individuals giving it a bad press, but still it stands.”