Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, and a network for currency exchange and transfers, open to financial institutions worldwide, created by the company 'Ripple Labs Inc', a technology company based in the United States. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple Protocol, built on a distributed and open-source internet protocol, a consensus ledger, and a native currency called XRP (Ripple). The Ripple network, launched in 2012, aims to enable 'secure, instant, and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks'. It supports any type of credit currency, cryptocurrencies, assets, or any other unit of value essentially, and Ripple is based on a shared public database or ledger, which uses a consensus process that allows for payments, exchanges, and transfers.