$XRP

The cryptocurrency XRP is traded on the Ripple distributed ledger. It is secured by what the project refers to as a network of validators. Anyone can be a validator, but unlike the operators of nodes in other cryptocurrency projects, this activity is not financially rewarding. Therefore, validators are often institutions that wish to ensure the security of the Ripple network, or developers or large investors.

Additionally, to participate in securing the network, validators must be approved by their peers. Ripple also recommends trusting a unique list of nodes to validate transactions. This is a carefully selected list of validators. Of course, in such a context, XRP cannot operate with an energy-intensive algorithm like proof of work or what is known as mining, which is used by Bitcoin.