What is the XRP Ledger?
It is a public distributed list of all existing XRP accounts - also called wallets.
The balances and settings of all existing XRP accounts are listed on every newly created public ledger. A new ledger is created by consensus approximately every 3 seconds which means that transactions on the XRP Ledger are, in general, executed in that timeframe.
What is an XRP wallet?
An XRP Ledger wallet (sometimes also called a Ripple address, Ripple account or XRP address, XRP account) is a public address on the XRP Ledger. Once created, an account exists in the XRP Ledger’s data forever.
What is an XRP Ledger client?
A client is software that allows interaction with the XRP Ledger. The interaction with the XRP Ledger is executed through an address.
GateHub, is among other things an online XRP Ledger client, however, there are also other online and desktop clients with different user interfaces.
What is a gateway?
“XRP Ledger Gateways are businesses that provide a way for money and other forms of value to move in and out of the XRP Ledger network. Gateways can be banks, money service businesses, currency exchanges, or any other financial institution.” Some gateways, like GateHub, feature a dedicated client.
Who owns a wallet?
Whoever has the secret key.
“Funding an account does not give you any special privileges over that account. Whoever has the secret key corresponding to the account’s address has full control over the account and all XRP it contains. For some addresses, it’s possible that no one has the secret key, in which case the account is a black hole and the XRP is lost forever.”
GateHub cannot access your secret key or recover any lost secret keys.
Is a wallet on the XRP Ledger free?
It can be created for free. A wallet/address becomes active when at least 20 XRP are deposited on it. Each active wallet must hold at least 20 XRP. This is called XRP reserve. Once a wallet is active, there are no additional costs to own it.
What is XRP reserve?
The XRP Ledger requires that each active address holds a small amount of XRP at all times. This is called the base reserve and its purpose is spam protection (currently, the reserve is 20 XRP).
Who can access the 20 XRP reserve?
No one, the 20 XRP are locked on an active account and can not be withdrawn.
Can gateways benefit from reserved XRP?
No, gateways do not benefit from XRP reserves on any address on the Ledger.
Who funds a wallet with XRP?
A wallet can be funded by anyone. Most often, a wallet is funded by its creator / secret key owner.
Can a gateway fund a wallet?
Yes, it can, but this is not mandatory. A Gateway can fund a wallet with XRP to welcome new users.
What are the transaction costs?
A small amount of XRP is consumed by every action on the XRP Ledger. This is called Transaction cost (can be viewed as a network fee). This fee is not credited to anyone and is irrevocably destroyed.
Can a gateway implement any other fees?
Yes, a gateway can implement additional fees called transfer fees for trading and sending their issued currencies as a source of revenue.
What is an issued currency?
A gateway can issue a currency, for example, GateHub USD or GateHub Fifth BTC, that can be traded and sent over the XRP Ledger to other addresses. In order to receive and hold an issued currency, the corresponding trustline has to be set in the receiving wallet.
What is a trustline?
In order to receive currencies other than XRP you need to extend “trust” to that currency issuing address. Each trustline set to a wallet requires a 5 XRP reserve (owner reserve).
A trustline can be disabled when the currency balance is zero and the owner reserve is released.
