This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2013.

“At its core, Ripple is a distributed global ledger that creates a distributed open source payment network and the world’s first distributed currency exchange. Ripple solves the double spend problem through a process of consensus rather than Bitcoin’s concept of mining. Ripple furthers the Bitcoin mission with faster transactions (confirming in seconds, not minutes) and a multi-currency design that allows for any currency to be traded within its exchange. In fact, Ripple is so versatile, it’s the best place to hold and use Bitcoins.”