xrphodor

Puzzle Pieces Fitting Together: Ripple & XRP

Board puzzles are surprisingly fun – even for those of us that tend to gravitate towards more cerebral entertainment. There’s something cathartic about seeing an entire picture created from various individual parts.

Whatever the case may be – or your perspective on the matter – you’ve got to admit one thing about the latest news around the XRP ecosystem; the puzzle pieces are coming together surprisingly well!

Ripple’s timing of their latest major release of Rippled (the validator software) was during – and directly after – Blockchain Week in New York City. Four of the eight major companies piloting xRapid have released their results confirming the cost savings. SBI Virtual Currencies is about to open its doors. Liquidity – and the general crypto market – is slowly finding its footing once again as prices start to nudge higher across the crypto spectrum.

And of course let’s not forget the big news: xCurrent looks like it is quickly gaining momentum across all corners of the globe in its effort to replace SWIFT’s aging messaging system.

Each of these items individually is big news, but consider how each of the parts inter-relates with one another, and how the entire RippleNet network is growing to a size miguel_vias which is orders of magnitude above the levels we observed just one year ago. 2018 still has many months left; it’s wise to keep in mind the words of Miguel Vias when he first heard about IDT and Mercury FX piloting xRapid: ¹

“I believe the right word for this is traction. 2018 is going to be our year.”

General Crypto News

On Monday, May 28^th, hackers contacted two Canadian banks and demand that a ransom be paid to them.

It turns out they were able to gain access to the bank accounts and personal information for approximately 90,000 different individuals at both the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Simplii Financial, which is an online bank subsidiary to CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce). ^{2 3 4}

The hackers exploited an account recovery mechanism whereby they were able to reset the access to accounts after answering some cursory information that they were first able to obtain without any credentials.

The hackers contacted the banks and demanded that $1 million dollars’ worth of XRP be deposited in a specific address; the deadline passed without payment, however, and it’s not clear if the hackers have actually released the personal information or not. ⁵ BMO released a statement akin to the familiar “we do not negotiate…” theme: ⁶

“Our practice is not to make payments to fraudsters; we are focused on protecting and helping our customers.”

Volcker Rule

The “Volcker Rule” basically prevents banks from making what are considered to be unsafe bets with depositors’ money. According to some stakeholders in Washington – and in banking – the rule is too complex and is onerous especially for small-and-medium-size banks to comply with. The changes would simplify conformance with the law at the same time streamlining enforcement, thereby reducing the amount of overhead associated with the rule.

Keep in mind that the rule was enacted after the banking crisis in 2008.

Paul Volcker himself, the original author of the legislation, and a former federal reserve Chairman, had this to say about the recent effort to change the law:

“What is critical is that simplification not undermine the core principle at stake — that taxpayer-supported banking groups, of any size, not participate in proprietary trading at odds with the basic public and customers’ interests.”

I think we can all agree that this is a worthy goal.

So what effect will this have on banks’ ability to use and/or invest in digital assets? It’s unknown at this time, but I will point out that one Federal Reserve Governor, Lael Brainard, has gone on record in the past in support of the notion of using digital assets in cross-border value transfer. ⁷ Lael Brainard was quoted in this article. Here is what she had to say: ⁸

“The requirement of C.E.O. attestation is critical for this to work, in my view,”

What is CEO attestation? It’s a requirement that banks’ CEOs attest (provide a signed statement) that their bank is adhering to any restrictions on speculative betting. Now, on the surface, most crypto networks will not be jumping for joy at this. When banks’ CEOs are required to personally attest that the bank is not taking undue risks, it definitely pours cold water on the notion of any speculative investment in digital assets by banks.

However, it leaves an open door to the possibility of investment in crypto-assets for the purpose of cross-border value transfer – i.e. utility tokens that could be acquired by the bank. And it also provides a way for banking CEOs to color their speculative investment as well; in other words, perhaps XRP may be considered a speculative investment in its own right, but if banks are holding it and managing the risk as they would with other fiat currency, and it serves a purpose such as cross-border value transfer, then it provides both in reality: A speculative investment and a utility token for bridging fiat currency.

This could be a significant win-win situation for banks, as their XRP assets could climb in value as well as be used for settlement of cross-border payments.

Ripple News

In a previous blog, I covered the fact that Ripple reached a code nomenclature milestone with their release candidate of “Rippled 1.0.0 r.c.” While Ripple emphasized that it viewed the release as it does other ones, it also emphasized that this particular release would be considered the first “major” release into production. The nomenclature involved is defined this way:

MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

So far, we’ve seen five years of production-ready XRP, but Ripple (the company) always considered the code to involve a series of minor releases. The timing of the latest major release is interesting; there are a couple other events and developments within the XRP ecosystem at the same time, including the transition to production for SBI Virtual Currencies (SBI VC). In addition, four of the eight known xRapid pilots have now completed with positive confirmation of XRP’s cost savings.

And now we see that Ripple views their latest Rippled release as the first major release of XRP software. Their own perspective was communicated on the internal location that the company uses to communicate information to those that run Ripple validators: ⁹

“The rippled v1.0.0 release includes incremental improvements to several previously released features. v1.0.0 also symbolizes the growing maturity of the software and the increased stability of the decentralized, growing network of nodes that are running the software all around the world.”

If you haven’t viewed what Ripple communicates as part of their standard procedure, you should take a look and see for yourself, especially since this release serves as a significant milestone in the code-base history:

change_log_1-0

Brad Garlinghouse Hits the Airwaves

He’s no stranger to the spotlight; and it’s something that we absolutely need in a skilled CEO – the ability to spar with interviewers about tough subjects. In addition, Brad Garlinghouse uses the spotlight to position the company and communicate key points and positions about topics, including regulation and banking trends.

Recently, we’ve seen Brad Garlinghouse kick it up a notch, sitting for various interviews and panel discussions in a variety of venues. In the latest panel discussion at the Recode conference, he criticized what he called “religious zealotry” among some in the blockchain technology space. Watching the thirty-minute video, I agreed with all of his points:

Here is Brad’s comment that received so much attention from both the crypto press and mainstream media: ¹⁰

“We may come to find that Bitcoin is kind of the Napster of digital assets. This is transformative technology, but Spotify and iTunes and Pandora rule the day because they engaged with regulators to solve a real problem.”

It’s my belief that this comparison is spot on. In the early days of crypto, some proponents were under the impression that, to effect change, they needed to completely circumvent all laws and create a technology that supported the destruction of the current financial system.

This immature view – that the entire current establishment must be destroyed – is not new. It’s the clarion call of so many religions and political movements throughout history that this blog would easily run into pages if we listed them all. Instead, Brad Garlinghouse wisely predicts a maturation phase to the technology, its proponents, and also its development community. Yes, the Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper was revolutionary; but technology is just that – a bit of ones and zeros that doesn’t care about your politics.

Unchain 2018

According to their own description, Unchain is: ¹¹

“… a 2 day conference, featuring some of the world’s leading Cryptocurrency and Blockchain experts and entrepreneurs.”

The 2018 version of Unchain took place in Hamburg, Germany from May 31^st to June 1^st. It featured a number of panels and speakers, including David Schwartz:

Great talk by CTO @JoelKatz @Ripple at @UNCHAIN_Con #blockchain pic.twitter.com/CluEIbxMJy

— Andreas Koop (@andreaskoop) June 1, 2018

It’s yet one more example of Ripple’s increasing presence at industry gatherings and events where blockchain technology leaders interface with interested parties, including entrepreneurs and businesses investigating the latest fintech innovations.

OnePay App

Remember Santander’s OnePay app? In April, Santander formally announced that they were moving forward with production usage of OnePay, a mobile application that allows end-users to make payments in any currency across borders. ¹² It’s a revolutionary app, and it supports real-time payments across borders using Ripple’s xCurrent solution. xCurrent gives banks the ability to message each other in real-time to confirm payment details before and after payment delivery.

Currently, Santander indicated that the application is available to a subset of their customers in Spain, the U.K., Brazil and Poland; but they also indicated that they plan on rolling it out to larger groups of their customers once additional countries are supported.

Key Facts to Consider

Here’s a couple factoids to keep in mind regarding the Santander OnePay app:

Santander is the 16^th largest bank in the world ¹³
Santander has 14 million (active) customers ¹⁴
Roughly 50% of Santander’s international payments are done using xCurrent ^{15 16}

These numbers are striking; it’s clear from these implied large volume levels that the ILP connectors and processors are scaling horizontally just as predicted, and Santander is able to successfully scale using xCurrent. It’s a reminder of Ripple technology’s growing reach in banking – despite whether or not banks are comfortable at the moment using XRP for liquidity.

Ripple’s Video

Ripple emphasized how Santander’s application doesn’t compromise on the smooth end-user experience:

“It’s about the fluid, easy customer experience for mobile users. It’s what consumers require and expect in today’s market — whether it’s sending a secure message to a friend, hailing a rideshare or sending money across borders.”

In addition to the acknowledgement of the app on their Insights page, Ripple released a video of the app being used to process a payment:

Now let’s shift gears and talk about something equally exciting: SBI Virtual Currencies.

SBI Virtual Currencies

As expected, the beginning of June has brought some changes to the SBI Virtual Currencies site.

The public opening of of SBI VC – which uses XRP as a primary base currency – is an event that is anticipated by XRP fans. SBI Virtual Currencies is currently serving a very limited number of customers, but it is nearing its release date. The launch date for SBI VC was postponed due to concerns that security for the exchange be airtight, especially in light of the NEM theft that happened at Coincheck.

What was the time frame mentioned for the formal launch? When a reporter asked SBI_CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, the CEO of SBI Group, if the launch date for SBI VC would be late spring or early summer, Mr. Kitao had a three-word response: ¹⁷

“It is so.”

Of course, during that same interview, the following quote also made headlines:

“When we do it, it will be number one in the blink of an eye…”

The first comment about the timing of SBI VC’s production release was somewhat overshadowed by his comments on how SBI VC might be eagerly anticipated by the market. Given the comment about the timing of the formal release, however, many XRP fans were keeping watch on the SBI VC site as time marched forward into June. They were rewarded with some visible changes to the SBI site, and it has prompted a new round of speculation about the SBI VC launch date. One fan on Reddit wrote: ¹⁸

“Although it is not live, the site has been updated and it looks customer ready. They now have many sub-pages, including a service overview, a guide on how to deposit/withdraw money, a Q&A about Cryptocurrency Virtual Currency, the risks associated with CryptoCurrencies and how to secure your CryptoCurrencies.”

However, the formal launch has not yet been communicated; we’ll have to wait for further news from SBI as we progress into June.

XRP News

Voting on the new symbol that will represent XRP started on June 1^st. It will proceed until midnight on June 7^th (EST), at which point the top three choices will then make it to the final voting round. The final voting round has yet to be scheduled by @xrpsymbol.

The voting process and overall community selection is being administered by @xrpsymbol (Twitter handle).

The voting site is here: https://xrpsymbol.com/

XRP_symbol2

For weeks prior to June 1^st, @xrpsymbol oversaw the submission of many suggestions for the new XRP Symbol, and was responsible for the (very) unpopular task of narrowing the selection to those choices that met certain criteria. The criteria he used to narrow the available choices included the following: ¹⁹

You agree that you are submitting your original work, and that the work you submit is licensed under a Creative Commons 0 license.
Images may not contain defamatory, controversial or graphic imagery.
Submissions may not contain trademarked components. Submissions that impinge on existing marks will be removed prior to voting.
Images must be easy to write by hand, and need to scale well (think 8 point font).
A brief, written description of the symbolism must accompany each submission.

I’ve blogged about the submissions previously; many incredibly creative and artistic representations of XRP were put forward. Everybody’s taste is personal, and I had four favorites that I really liked. Recently, I logged into the website and voted and was able to see which selections were the most popular. Every selection seemed to have a subset of fans, however, so it’s up to those participating in the voting process to champion the ones they prefer and make a case for them.

My advice? Set aside a few minutes to log in and make your preference known.

Exchange News

Coincorner is a small exchange that reports its volume to coinmarketcap.com. ²⁰ Although the volume on their exchange is relatively small, they recently added XRP support to their pairings, announcing the move on Reddit through their corporate account:

coincorner_XRP

Even though it’s currently a small exchange, moves like adding XRP support indicate that the owners of the exchange have their eye on increased volume. It will be fascinating to circle back in three months to compare the overall volume of the exchange.

GMO Mobile App

GMO is a very large Japanese crypto exchange. The exchange added XRP in November of last year, and recently, they announced the creation of a new mobile application. ^{21 22}

The current trend in cryptocurrency trading – and in many other financial sectors – is to place customer-facing functions on mobile applications. We’ve seen enormous growth specifically in crypto trading on these mobile applications, and it makes sense from a convenience standpoint; traders can focus on their regular nine-to-five jobs if they can also have easy access to making real-time decisions about investment directions. Sometimes traders need to make split-second decisions, and having access to a mobile trading platform supports that need.

GMO calls its new application “GMO Coin Virtual Currency Wallet” and it is said to support both crypto choices and fiat – notably the Japanese Yen.

Liquidity

In May, history was made when Bitbank became the number one exchange by volume bitbank for XRP. ²³

It’s a Japanese exchange, and it signals a more balanced volume distribution originating from Asia; historically, South Korea has been the steady leader in XRP volume. This trend is starting to fade, however, as the volume from South Korea is starting to plateau, and Japan’s appetite for crypto trading is now starting to challenge South Korean dominance. ²⁴

The Puzzle is Almost Complete

What are the components necessary for the entire apparatus to quickly scale? What does xRapid need?

If we look at all the facts and progress, along with the business deals and mechanisms that Ripple has carefully put into place, each one may seem meaningful in itself; however, it’s wise to look at the situation from a holistic point of view. The question you should ask is “Does Ripple have everything it needs to make xRapid work at scale?”

xRapid, to support truly global levels of commerce, will need to have high-volume exchanges where pairings of various crypto-to-fiat trading takes place. Or perhaps there is some technique where additional software can overlay individual exchanges and create liquidity pools? There has been much speculation about such an endeavor, but Ripple has been silent on that topic.

Do banks have adequate custody solutions for safely handling (and storing) crypto? We know that Ripple has talked about this factor independently of the overall topic of xRapid adoption, but think about it in context; banks are usually not keen on building software themselves. They are also new to handling digital assets. These are real obstacles that must be overcome, and Ripple was the first organization to not only spot these obstacles, but actively plan for them.

We are quickly approaching the point where the puzzle will reveal the entire picture; I am prepared – and anticipating – what will happen to XRP liquidity and volume when that happens. Are you?

Sources:

xRapid Tipping Point Reached?

The use of the term ‘tipping point’ is used to designate when momentum behind a new idea’s adoption becomes unstoppable.

Has xRapid, Ripple’s solution for sourcing liquidity with the cryptocurrency XRP, reached that point? Brad Garlinghouse doesn’t pull any punches when he points out the differences between the industry’s first mover – Bitcoin – and the newer network that doesn’t depend on mining to secure its transactions – XRP. But he is also realistic about what it will take to get banks, one of the most conservative customers, to use digital assets: ¹ brad_garlinghouse3

“I think the same thing will happen in banking. People who are invested in us love xCurrent but they’re not sure about xRapid… I think it’s just the beginning.”

He compared xRapid adoption to a ‘crawl-walk-run’ situation, highlighting how remittance processors will be the first ones to verify and document XRP’s cost savings.

And he’s right. Thus far, four of the confirmed eight (yes, eight) remittance processors have verified and published their positive verification of xRapid’s cost savings:

xRapid_Pilot_Progress

^{2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11}

For clarity, understand that hundreds of banks are signing up to use Ripple technology. So many that Ripple discloses new xCurrent customers in batches; xCurrent is Ripple’s replacement for most of the functionality behind SWIFT’s messaging system. I like Ripple’s quiet confidence regarding xCurrent and xRapid. If even XRP fans are left guessing which banks will be the first ones to flip the switch on using XRP as a bridge asset, you can rest assured that analysts from SWIFT are wondering the same exact thing.

When correspondence banking starts to utilize xRapid for sourcing liquidity, and a who’s who of the world’s largest banks are using ILP for messaging, it’s a sign that SWIFT’s glory days are now in the rear-view mirror along with the status quo. Changing an industry is never an easy task, and it’s taken Ripple more than five years to finally convince conservative financial institutions that using a digital asset can result in real-time payments that settle in less than four seconds.

General Crypto News & Impacts on XRP

On May 21^st, several news outlets covered a statement made by Bruno Le Maire, France’s Finance Minister. In an interview with Alex Stachtchenko, He stated: ¹²

“I was a rookie a year ago, but now, I’ve been seized by a sudden passion. It took me a year. Let’s teach this knowledge to our fellow citizen to make France the first place for blockchain & cryptocurrency innovation in Europe.”

This statement arrives on the heels of France’s decision to decrease the tax rate on cryptocurrency sales from 45 percent to 19 percent. The French government also has announced that it will look at creating a special regulatory framework to assist entrepreneurs with overcoming obstacles to starting new blockchain businesses.

Coincheck

Coincheck suffered a black eye from the adverse publicity arising from the NEM hack in January of this year. ¹³ As a result of the hack, Coincheck received a business improvement order from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) on March 8^th. ¹⁴ The exchange was allowed to continue operations as they made improvements, including implementing stringent KYC and AML requirements.

To comply with KYC and AML, the exchange made the decision to de-list all trading of privacy tokens, due to the fact that the technology allows ease-of-use for those attempting to launder money or otherwise avoid detection. In fact, no exchanges that have applied to the FSA have listed any privacy coins.

If you want to own and trade in XMR, ZEC, DASH, or REP, you’ll need to work with an exchange outside of Japan. How does this affect XRP? It shouldn’t impact XRP, other than the general benefit of a narrowing of choices on the exchange.

While XRP can be anonymized by usage of a technique called “Pathshuffle,” it does not contain any native code for the purpose of anonymity. In other words, to anonymize an XRP payment, the technique would involve obfuscation of sender and/or receiver through a method of using the network. It’s not an inherent capability, and this puts it in the same category as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies that Coincheck will continue to support. ¹⁵

Ripple News

Block Show is a series of events and conferences sponsored by Cointelegraph. The latest one occurred in Berlin, Germany, from May 28^th through the 29^th. Among the attendees and participants were David Schwartz (@joelkatz on Twitter and other social media) and Tiffany Hayden (@haydentiff on Twitter).

The conference organizers live-streamed a presentation by a number of panelists including David Schwartz, on May 29^th:

When the panel discussion started, the facilitator asked David Schwartz immediately about the level of decentralization of the XRP Ledger, along with the utility of XRP. David Schwartz provided his perspective on those topics in a very intuitive manner.

Here’s a portion of that introduction:

Question: “Is it (the XRP Ledger) centralized?”

Answer (David Schwartz): “I don’t think so. I think that’s a buzzword that people define to create a criterion that their favorite project sort of “passes,” and the projects that they like less, fail.

I think that when people want a system that is decentralized, what they want is a guarantee that the system will treat everybody fairly; that there isn’t someone who can arbitrarily change the rules; that the system will behave the same way next year as it does today.”

As always, David Schwartz provided his intuitive perspective on complex topics in a way that nicely summarized the logic – or lack thereof – of some of the points. Not every venue captures the genius behind his problem-solving skills, but this panel seemed to be a great example of his ability to quickly frame up complicated issues.

xRapid Pilot Results for Currencies Direct

You may not have known about this xRapid customer – I know it was a surprise to me when I saw the announcement; Currencies Direct has been a part of a pilot using xRapid for sourcing liquidity while making cross-border payments. In addition to being an unannounced xRapid customer, Currencies Direct issued a statement about their initial trial, saying: ¹⁶

“Our goal is to offer the best possible service. We believe that utilising cryptocurrencies in this way – as a transfer of value, rather than as a store of value – is the next logical step for our industry. It is, after all, the intended purpose of cryptocurrencies and we’re proud to be leveraging new technology to deliver the most convenient and seamless experience for our customers.”

The announcement then went on to explain the mechanics behind XRP’s use in xRapid, which was a refreshing primer for any readers that didn’t already understand the basics.

How big is Currencies Direct? Its reach extends to eight countries and they handled $4.5 billion in currency swaps last year. They pride themselves on providing better rates on currency swaps than traditional banks. ¹⁷

With all of the remittance processors using xRapid and unanimously validating the cost savings associated with XRP’s use, I predict that XRP owners won’t have long to wait before utility-driven demand makes itself known.

Japan Society of Monetary Economics

XRPWorld recently discovered that SBI Ripple Asia was due to speak at the Japan Society of Monetary Economics.

SBI Ripple Asia to speak at Japan Society of monetary economics #XRP #ripple #xrpthestandard #cryptocurrency #crypto #bitcoin https://t.co/ZZb52W6HaM

— XRPworld (@XRPworld) May 26, 2018

Reyc, the author of the article, noted the following: ¹⁸

“Interestingly, SWIFT will speak right before Mr. Okita on the subject of ‘Global Payments Innovation’ presented by Hiroshi Nakatake representing MUFG Bank”

I agree that it would have been quite interesting to see the SWIFT presentation and then Mr. Okita back-to-back. ¹⁹ Perhaps it was an intentional ordering of the presentations, so that listeners could be apprised about facts regarding the status quo vs. the new technology that is now being adopted en masse by global banks.

The meeting was scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 27^th at the University of Senshu in Tokyo, Japan. ²⁰ From a few quick searches, it doesn’t look like the Japan Society of Monetary Economics posts videos of their conferences, but perhaps eventually an audience member may upload a video of the conference.

Bank of America?

An XRP fan noted on Reddit that he’d come across a reference to Ripple technology in recent Bank of America collateral. On May 17^th, Bank of America held its “Development Day;” this included a presentation on the topic of Blockchain technology and its use in trade finance. The author of the Reddit post provided two direct quotes contained in the presentation: ²¹

“Ripple provides an opportunity to reduce complexity of integration to enabled partners, standardise data protocols and formats and eliminate errors and reconciliation through use of blockchain distributed ledger technology”

and

“Pilot to enable more efficient cross-currency payments by reducing lengthy/unknown settlement times, eliminating multiple layers of cost and providing greater transparency over FX, fees and data shared between originator and recipient.”

While there is no specific mention of xRapid, I would assume that BOA is piloting xCurrent for usage as a replacement for SWIFT messaging. I also placed a question mark at the beginning of this section, because even though this second-hand account of the presentation is encouraging, there has been no formal confirmation or announcement of BOA as a Ripple client.

Hopefully we’ll see BOA or Ripple make a formal announcement in the near future.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) Joins RippleNet

Banks worldwide are joining RippleNet in greater numbers; among this list are many banks based in the middle East, and that list includes at least one central bank as well. The latest bank to join the network is the Kuwait Finance House, or KFH for short. ²²

KFH was established in 1977 as the first “Islamic Bank” in Kuwait. ²³

What is an “Islamic bank?” An Islamic bank is a bank that handles its affairs and its investments in compliance with Sharia, or Islamic law. This gives it some unique characteristics, such as following the Muslim restrictions on “riba” or “usury” which essentially prohibits interest on loans. That’s just one example of what sets apart an “Islamic” bank from an ordinary bank. ²⁴

KFH is heavily owned by the Kuwaiti Investment Authority, which essentially handles investments for the Kuwaiti Sovereign Fund. KFH’s reach extends internationally to several other countries, such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Malaysia. The addition of KFH exemplifies that RippleNet is connecting all parts of the global banking system, including those economic powerhouses that exist in the Middle East.

National Bank of Kuwait

The National Bank of Kuwait was established in 1952, and has grown into one of the largest regional banks. It manages total assets of roughly $79 billion, and posted revenue of $3.2 billion in 2016. ²⁵ On Tuesday, May 29^th, the National Bank of Kuwait’s Twitter account formally announced their membership in RippleNet:

NBK leads the way in Kuwait in a partnership with RippleNet to offer instant cross-border payments to customers@Ripple pic.twitter.com/YCbDtmxnqV

— National Bank of Kuwait (@NBKPage) May 29, 2018

The Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and the National Bank of Kuwait both announced their RippleNet membership within three days of each other.

Coincidence? Unlikely.

XRP News

Coinome is an Indian-based exchange owned and operated by IndiaIdeas.com Ltd (BillDesk). ²⁶ Because their volumes are not included in coinmarketcap.com, I don’t know how large they are, or what impact they will have on overall XRP liquidity. It’s nice to see their enthusiasm on display in their Twitter announcement:

The Wait is Over, Ripple is now LIVE on Coinome.

Deposits are now open, and XRP/INR trade will start at 1 PM, followed by XRP/BTC at 5 PM tomorrow (30th May). @Ripple @CoinomeOfficial #ripple #Cryptocurrency #blockchain #XRP #coinome

— Coinome (@CoinomeOfficial) May 29, 2018

It appears from its currency pairings that Coinome offers fiat support for INR (Rupee), although I have yet to receive confirmation from Coinome on whether this applies to XRP as well. Regardless, this new listing is a welcome addition to XRP’s presence on the subcontinent, and hopefully it adds to the amount of INR trading that we can utilize for the overall XRP network.

European Meetups

If you’re in Europe and want to participate in an XRP meetup, you’ll be interested to know that Claire Arthurs Kart, Ripple’s Head of Community, is organizing three potential gatherings. Ripple hasn’t committed to anybody specifically for these meetups, but is planning on fielding company representatives to meet with fans:

To participate, please access and fill out one of Clair’s questionnaires so she can plan for an appropriate venue and other factors. It’s great to see XRP’s European fans have an opportunity to meet with representatives from Ripple, as well as have an opportunity to connect in the brick-and-mortar world with each other.

XRP Symbol Voting Starts June 1st

The community effort at submitting XRP symbol designs for inclusion in the final vote has been happening steadily over the last two weeks, and the Twitter account leading the effort – @xrpsymbol – has communicated some high level information about the timeline:

“Voting is set to start on June 1st and last for one week.”

That means there is only one day left for new submissions at the time of this writing. Those that wish to submit a last-minute design need to keep in mind that there are some stringent guidelines before their proposal will be included in the formal vote:

Images may not contain defamatory, controversial or graphic imagery.
Submissions may not contain trademarked components. Submissions that impinge on existing marks will be removed prior to voting.
Images must be easy to write by hand, and need to scale well (think 8 point font).
A brief, written description of the symbolism must accompany each submission.

The information about the voting and submission timeline(s) can be found in the “FAQ” section of the website: https://xrpsymbol.com/

Voting itself will require users to authenticate with their Twitter login credentials. If they are a confirmed Twitter account, they will be allowed to vote once. @xrpsymbol indicated that three XRP community members helped him with the website, along with the subsequent Twitter authentication.

Any effort to arrive at a new design – for anything – necessarily involves personal taste and aesthetics; Not everybody will agree with the winner, but I can’t wait to see which symbol obtains the most votes.

Apple Stocks App

Apple Stocks is an iPhone application that allows users to keep up to date on finance information such as stock prices. Apple recently added XRP to their app, listing it with value pairings against other cryptocurrencies. One article speculates that this comprehensive listing is a signal that new global exchanges have decided to list XRP. ²⁷

Whatever the reason or background, the listing on the Apple Stocks app created a certain level of buzz following the high-profile appearance by Ashton Kutcher on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Naga Wallet

Those that follow news about initial coin offerings (ICOs) may already have some cursory knowledge of the Naga wallet. The Naga ICO closed in December of 2017. They are now executing their business plan and have created a multi-currency wallet to allow investors to purchase and store various cryptocurrencies.

On May 24^rth, the Naga team tweeted an announcement that they would be adding support for XRP:

The NAGA Team🌶 is excited to announce a newly supported cryptocurrency! Ripple is now available to store, exchange and deposit on NAGA WALLET. Stay tuned for more updates soon. The future is NAGA! #NAGA #NGC #Wallet pic.twitter.com/Oxau3w9VYA

— The NAGA Coin (@naga_coin) May 24, 2018

The Naga wallet is one of the centerpieces of their ICO, and it is described as supporting a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including XRP: ²⁸

“NAGA WALLET users can store, send, and withdraw all of the major cryptocurrencies, as well as 1,200+ ERC-20 tokens.”

There are several highly-reputable wallets that support XRP, however it’s always great to add another highly-functional option to the list. I look forward to hearing about the user experience of the first adopters that choose to purchase and store their “zerps” with this wallet.

Send XRP Via Text: Enhanced Website

The innovations were developed quickly by two XRP Community developers: @WietseWind and @baltazar223. While WietseWind developed a method whereby users can text XRP to other users – even those without an XRP wallet – baltazar223 developed an application that integrates with another popular messaging platform: Telegram.

The XRP community reacted with enthusiasm, helping to promote and use the two methods, and assisting with content for a central website to house user instructions, educational material, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). If you’re interested in sending XRP to another person over SMS or Telegram, refer to the website here:

https://xrptext.com/

IMPORTANT WARNING: Usage of the SMS Text app is not free – the service is provided by Twilio, so fees are involved. Also, the two developers emphasized on the website that the project, while impressive, is still considered a ‘beta’ project. They issued this warning on the website for new users: ²⁹

“Please note! This project is in public beta. There may be glitches.
I (we) won’t accept liability for any loss of funds.”

Other Developers Take Note:

In addition to providing yet another facet of the XRP ecosystem, these two projects also blazed a trail for other developers to follow. If you are a developer in search of some sample code or if you’re just plain interested in how they went about it, you can refer to the Github repository(s) here:

SMS Text XRP: https://github.com/WietseWind/xrp-text
Telegram XRP: https://github.com/N3TC4T/Ripple-Telegram-Bot

Tipping Point Achieved?

XRP will reach its tipping point with momentum to spare, and in fact it may have been reached already. What inspires my confidence regarding XRP’s success, and why do I believe that the tipping point for adoption of this digital asset is close – or even in the past already?

Malcom Gladwell is a Canadian author and speaker, and a noted expert in various sociological phenomenon. He’s authored numerous books, including “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” (2013) and “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” (2000). ³⁰

He stated: ³¹

“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts”

What are these gifts?

Connectors: The people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions.
Mavens: The people we rely upon to connect us with new information.
Salesmen: The charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills.

When I look at the above descriptions of the three groups largely responsible for social change, I cannot help but overlay the descriptions onto various people in both the XRP Community and those that work directly for Ripple, the company. In fact, I’d venture to say that some individuals seem to possess all three characteristics.

And when it comes to company leadership, each executive within Ripple rates highly against each of these three descriptions. When you conduct your own research into various other cryptocurrency networks, teams, and projects, look for yourself at the composition of the individuals involved and determine if they rate as strongly as the team that comprises Ripple. When it comes to real, tangible business results, there is no other fintech company that has achieved what many naysayers thought was impossible: the utilization of blockchain technology to achieve real-time settlement of payments across borders.

Thanks to four remittance companies verifying its cost savings, we are now looking to the world’s correspondence banks to follow suit; it’s time for the worlds’ economies to benefit by usage of XRP.

Sources:

Mainstream Adoption of Blockchain Tech and Crypto Asset Investing

Marco Krohn from genesis mining recently tweeted about a billboard outside Warren genesis_mining_CEO Buffet’s office. It was a humorous tweet; sometimes even the most serious of crypto analysts take time to share a joke once in a while. Here’s what it said: ¹

“Some new billboards outside Warren Buffet’s office!”

The picture included with the tweet was of this billboard that somebody financed to display outside Warren Buffet’s office:

warren_buffet_sign

Did Genesis Mining purchase the billboard? Unknown: But I consider it a likely scenario. You may have forgotten, but it was Genesis Mining who financed the memorable mock “banker demonstration” against Bitcoin on the opening morning of Blockchain Week in New York City: ^{2 3}

bankers_against_bitcoin

The protest was fake, of course, but it afforded an opportunity to steer many onlookers and curious people to a website where alternative viewpoints to popular finance gurus could be communicated. The effort is part of a multi-year effort by Genesis Mining to raise public awareness of cryptocurrency & blockchain technology.

It’s one of many steps that need to happen to invite cautious investors from mainstream finance. Is this type of marketing a good idea? Will it appeal to groups that have not already expressed an interest in digital assets and fintech?

I believe the answer is yes. We need to see more of these types of guerilla marketing efforts that will shake up the status quo; blockchain technology is revolutionary, but no technology – no matter how incredible – will sell itself. We need viral applications. We need advertising. And we need to make it safe for ordinary investors, along with traditional financial organizations, to own cryptocurrency.

General Crypto News & Impact on XRP

Amber Baldet is a former member of JP Morgan’s blockchain technology group. While JP Morgan’s lead executive Jamie Dimon makes disparaging remarks about investing in cryptocurrencies, its former blockchain guru left and started her own company, Clovyr.

Here’s what Amber Baldet had to say about the banking industry’s reluctance to implement or use blockchain technology: ⁴ Amber_Baldet

“I think it’s coming sooner than people probably think…But even where the will is, the legal and regulatory framework is challenging.”

The article’s author then went on to analyze some of the factors that are causing the current delay in banks and other regulated finance organizations using digital assets:

“Amongst banking culture, many are still shying away from it…security is the primary cause of concern.”

eToro Survey

eToro is a popular platform for crypto trading, and it supports XRP among many other cryptocurrency choices. For a while now, the company has been tracking its user’s preferences for specific digital assets; and on May 20^th, a news site published their findings, indicating which investments were popular according to age group. Here are the results: ⁵

Age 18 – 23: XRP
Age 24 – 35: XRP
Age 36 – 54: XRP
Age 55+: XRP

I’m seeing a trend here.

The article went on to break down the demographics tracked by eToro, saying:

“Male investors dwarf female investors 91.5% to 8.5%.

(of investors), 30% are out of the job market. Of the professional workers, nearly an equal percentage are in sales and marketing versus computer and IT services. People working in the finance sector represent 8.48%.”

These demographic trends are what we’re used to seeing; crypto markets are currently composed of a very limited representation of the larger population, and are heavily skewed towards the younger male population. While I’ve quoted these demographics in the past and decried how it exemplifies that mainstream retail investors haven’t yet entered the market, the progress towards a more representative slice of investors continues.

Hopefully when we see the next survey – from whatever source – we’ll observe some statistically-significant changes in demographic composition. Until then, however, it’s at least encouraging to see new investors hungry for the smartest, most logical choice in crypto; XRP.

Ripple News

On March 27^th, Ripple donated $29 million to Donor’s Choose, a site that organizes “classroom requests” for donations to teachers. Every single classroom request in existence at that point was filled by Ripple’s donation. This act resulted in immense amounts of gratitude from the site’s founder, along with the individual teachers whose projects were now fully funded. ⁶

Continuing on this philanthropic trend, on May 23^rd Ripple donated $4 million dollars to the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund via a special appearance of Ashton Kutcher on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. ⁷

ellen_Ashton

Not only did this donation make headlines throughout mainstream media, it solidified once again Ripple’s commitment to using their treasury holdings of XRP not just to build out liquidity but also to help improve the world through philanthropic efforts. I was ecstatic over Donors Choose, and I’m equally as excited with Ripple’s donation to Ellen’s Wildlife fund.

Mainstream News Coverage of Ripple’s Donation

The donation to Ellen’s Wildlife fund made international headlines, and resulted in a surge of those curious to learn more about Ashton Kutcher’s tech fund as well as Ripple and its technology. One XRP community member researched Google trends to see if there was a significant increase in interest about XRP. ⁸ Here’s what he found: ⁹

Google_trends

It hit its peak on the day of the announcement; Google trends is not an intuitive measure however, so even though it’s maximum percentage of searches occurred on the 23^rd, the absolute number of searches kept increasing as the day wore on. ¹⁰

Even though publicity is not the goal for philanthropic donations, and advertising tends to be much more focused and direct, this free coverage is also quite positive as the search engine statistics exemplify.

XRP News

For those that don’t already know, Uphold now supports XRP trading.

In January, when Gregg Kidd recently invested in Uphold, it was announced that part of his $57.5 million capital infusion would be used to insure the deposits of the exchange. ¹¹ This was welcome news, and the official statement from the CEO of Uphold, Adrian Steckel, indicated that the money would also be used to fund something called “Uphold Labs,” to conduct R&D on consumer solutions, as well as creating new “Ripple-centric projects.” Uphold also decided to list XRP in its trading of digital assets.

Furthering this progress, Uphold announced that it would move to “full support” of XRP. This means that traders would have the option to withdraw their XRP to an external wallet if they chose. This was something that many in the XRP community were waiting to see – an easy-to-use cryptocurrency trading application where they could also withdraw their XRP for safekeeping. ^{12 13}

uphold_withdraw_option

With more application-based exchanges entering the market such as the RobinHood application, Uphold is taking smart steps to support its leadership in the trading of digital assets. It will be interesting to see the customer adoption numbers for Uphold alongside its competitors in this space.

LMAX Opens Exchange

LMAX opened the first cryptocurrency exchange that specifically targets only institutional investors. According to their own press release: ¹⁴

“LMAX Exchange developed LMAX Digital at the request of its existing institutional clients, who desired a credible, efficient and trusted platform on which to trade digital currencies with like-minded institutions.”

The exchange will start out offering only the most liquid of the cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Ethereum, Bitcoin (Core), Bitcoin (Cash), and LiteCoin. Unlike other high-value exchanges, however, it’s not clear if LMAX will be considered an over-the-counter market or a real-time open market that will report its volume and prices to CMC. It does not appear to be an OTC market due to this information published within its formal communication:

“Full custodian solution” (most OTC markets do not handle custody)
Matching latency under 350μs
High throughput >100,000 messages/second
Superior exchange performance: uptime 100%
All orders time-stamped in microseconds (receipt to execution)

All of these features point to a real-time exchange, not an OTC market.

True to its public-facing information, I don’t remember seeing any institutional-only exchange with these features. The part I’m curious about is its eventual levels of volume and liquidity – can institutional-only membership really drive volume at significant levels? The company’s CEO David Mercer claims that their trade platform moves trillions: ^{15 16}

“Over $10 trillion of FIAT has been traded on our exchanges to date.”

Clearly this is one exchange to watch; will it be included in Coinmarketcap listings and other price & volume consolidation sites? It should be, especially if the exchange can draw the level of volume mentioned in the news release.

FUD Bingo

In crypto market parlance, “FUD” stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. More to the point, in crypto, it refers to when one or more individuals intentionally spread fear or try to infer something negative about a cryptographic network with no reputable source of information.

FUD is an unfortunate occurrence for any cryptocurrency, and for XRP, the community has created what it considers to be accurate responses to the most common misconceptions about the XRP network by new users. To consolidate this list, the XRP Community’s most famous developer – Wietse Wind – created a website to host the responses to these common questions.

fundbingo

As you can see, it has a very intuitive interface, with the most common statements or causes of FUD listed, along with an easily-accessible response to each. I’ve already referred to the site on several occasions to address the points that tend to be repetitive. The website is located here: https://fudbingo.com/

Where Will You Be When Mainstream Investors Adopt XRP?

The question is meant to be a humorous statement reflecting the fact that mainstream adoption does not happen when people are looking. It takes a series of events, news stories, regulation, and other events to sway the general public. We’ve made great progress in 2017 and 2018, with the SWELL conference and other high-profile blockchain gatherings, but this trend must continue at an even more intense level to convince the most conservative and skeptical of those in traditional finance.

As time passes and they observe the progress that the crypto markets are making and how blockchain technology like Ripple and XRP are engaging the market, they will start to be convinced, slowly but surely.

In crypto, we need companies, cryptographic networks, academics, and corporate stakeholders to help champion the adoption of not only crypto market investing, but also the technology that underpins decentralized and distributed systems and applications. Adoption of new technology doesn’t happen on its own, and it has been (and continues to be) met with resistance from traditional stakeholders that derive income from broken technology or processes.

It will take time, but remember Brad Garlinghouse’s admonition: ¹⁷

“It’s incredibly important that the entire industry recognizes that we have to work with the regulators , we have to work within the system. The blockchain revolution is happening from within the system – it’s not going to happen from outside the system.”

It’s wonderful to be reminded that Ripple, the organization that is responsible for championing the adoption of XRP, is led by a man who possesses laser-sharp accuracy for judging what it takes to truly champion an entire industry’s shift in public perception.

Sources:

XRP: The Best Crypto Choice for Long-Term Investors

The pivot was quiet.

Ripple is a fast-moving, decisive private company, which means that it can respond to opportunities and threats much faster than other types of organizations like nonprofit foundations or a decentralized network of developers. They don’t have to run things by a committee; if they believe that a change in focus is needed, or a re-ordering of steps in the building of the next global payments network, they can simply act on it.

And they did. BradG_5

Brad Garlinghouse might be the author of the Peanut Butter Manifesto, but he also knows when a strategic shift in resources and battle plan is in order.

Banks are reluctant to experiment with digital assets for the moment. Right now, remittance companies are blazing the trail across the landscape when it comes to using XRP to lower their payment processing cost, and settle cross-border transactions in real-time. Banks will come around only after the regulatory landscape is cleared of potential issues. In the meantime, xRapid is moving forward, but not in the order that most analysts expected.

Ripple’s Pivot to Internet Companies, Remittance Processors, and Micropayments

Instead of banks bravely forging the way, they acted as they always have – with timidity towards new technology, and with a conservative “I’ll wait to see what happens” mindset towards digital assets. In the meantime, Ripple’s strategy is following these steps:

Build out the banking network with RippleNet via ILP solutions (xCurrent & xVia)
Pilot xRapid with remittance processors (xRapid)
Support new use cases for XRP through Internet companies (Xpring)
Support new use cases for XRP through enabling micropayments (Coil)

Once the regulatory landscape has a number of rulings and case law, the last step can be accomplished: Integration of xRapid into the correspondence banking system.

This strategy reflects a very pragmatic view towards building out the network of organizations that currently use XRP as a bridge asset, and as a form of settlement. The entire XRP network is growing in average daily volume year over year; however, much of this volume is based on trading and speculation in the crypto market as a whole; the utility-based demand has not yet shown itself in a noticeable way.

The first step – building out the banking network with ILP solutions – has been under way for more than a year, and banks are signing up at a fast clip. Ripple has branded its ILP-based solution as “xCurrent.”

Banks Love xCurrent

In the SWELL conference last year, banking executives and staff indicated that they were very enthusiastic towards blockchain technology in general, and that they wanted the ability to do what xCurrent allowed them to do – settle cross-border transactions with other banks in the RippleNet network at a very lost cost – all in real-time.

However, they indicated that they were not going to forge ahead with utilization of XRP until the regulatory landscape around digital assets – and cryptocurrencies – was more well-established. This made sense to me when I heard those comments; banks are conservative, and they need to have a well-established path to using proven technology before many of them are comfortable with it.

In the meantime, Ripple has signed up well over 100 banks so far, with new announcements seemingly every week; it’s so frequent that Ripple has taken the tact of announcing new customers in batches.

xRapid Pilots

After Ripple branded their XRP-liquidity-sourcing solution as xRapid, most XRP owners started to closely follow which of Ripple’s customers might use it to address Nostro-Vostro account replacement. After all, the initial cost analysis paper from years ago had studied correspondence banks’ cost of payment processing across borders, and the cost savings implied a replacement of Nostro-Vostro account holdings as part of the promised cost savings.

Instead, we noticed something profoundly different about the initial organizations interested in using XRP to source liquidity; they were cross-border remittance (payment) processors. These are not considered banks, although their global reach exceeds all but some of the larger correspondence banks. The trend of xRapid announcements was unmistakable: Ripple was going after remittance processors: ¹

xRapid_pilot

^{2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10}

This is great news for XRP owners; remittance processors should add enormous volume to the XRP ecosystem. XRP is the undisputed leader in digital assets that are capable of supporting global transaction levels, and these companies have done their homework.

Xpring

Ripple saved several high-profile business announcements for Blockchain Week in New York City. One of those was the introduction of Xpring. Similar to the RippleNet Accelerator Program, Ripple is using its treasury holdings of XRP to stimulate development on the XRP Ledger. In their own words:

“Xpring is a new initiative by Ripple that will invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs.

Every entrepreneur will use the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the open-sourced, decentralized technology behind XRP, to solve their customers’ problems in a transformative way.”

Basically, Xpring will finance the development of projects that run on the XRP Ledger.

Not only that, but Ripple is making it crystal clear – to entrepreneurs who want access to the incubator funds – and to XRP investors – that this program will require the use of XRP. It’s exactly what the XRP community wants to hear, as these projects should do the job of increasing demand organically. So what type of companies is Ripple looking to assist with financing and resources? Here is a brief statement: ¹⁸

Question: “Do you support just companies or individuals as well?”

Answer: “We’re focused on investing in projects with needle-moving business plans. Those projects may be existing companies with proven success or new companies founded by entrepreneurs with great track records building successful companies.”

I interpret this as an astute communication informing interested parties that the program is not a free-for-all, and that Ripple is going to have some very specific requirements before considering a project for inclusion in Xpring. That being said, there are a number of community-driven projects and applications that probably are worthy of consideration, in addition to those that are considered formal businesses or stakeholder organizations.

A Dedicated Internal Ripple Team

Prior to Xpring’s announcement, we’d heard about some significant investments made by ripple. This included a massive infusion of capital to Omni, a household storage and sharing application that runs on mobile devices. However, these investments were announced as one-off decisions that indicated a “fire and forget” sort of approach similar to how venture capitalists approach new projects.

But Ripple’s investments are different; they are specifically placed to encourage development using XRP, and because of this, it’s not ‘just about money’ – Ripple has made the decision to create a new division within its company whose purpose is specifically to oversee these investments and then support the downstream integration of XRP into the financed businesses and projects: ¹¹

“In order to offer the best support, we need a great team.

That’s why we’re bringing on Ethan Beard as a Senior Vice President to lead Xpring and Ripple’s developer program. Before moving into an advisor role at several technology companies, Ethan served as Director of the Facebook Developer Network from 2009-2012, where he oversaw worldwide developer relations, operations and product marketing for the Facebook API.”

The team within Ripple that has been tasked with Xpring management is in charge of reviewing business opportunities that will benefit XRP liquidity. That’s it’s purpose.

The importance of this development on future XRP liquidity cannot be overstated. In the last paragraph of their announcement, here’s a hint that Ripple drops:

“While the Xpring team is already vetting hundreds of amazing projects, they remain open to hearing from serious entrepreneurs and businesses.”

and then continuing on the new Xpring website: ¹²

“…These characteristics make XRP and the XRP Ledger game-changing innovations that entrepreneurs could apply across identity, trade finance, gaming and virtual goods, provenance, real estate, insurance, digital media and many more industries.”

New Use Cases

Remember Stefan Thomas’s quote about getting into the specialty token use cases? That comment was made in response to a question on Quora in 2017. ¹³ In addition, The Xpring announcement was telegraphed by Brad Garlinghouse at Asia Money 2020 when he stated: ¹⁴

“We, Ripple, will stay focused on solving that institutional use case, but we would certainly partner with companies that are looking to use XRP in lots of different ways.”

Subsequent to these statements, it’s apparent that Ripple is following through in a very major way. Here are the use cases that are explicitly mentioned on the Xpring website: ¹⁵

Identity Management
Trade Finance
Gaming
Virtual Goods
Provenance
Real Estate
Insurance
Digital Media

This list brings to mind a variety of areas where new market entrants could add significant demand – and liquidity for – XRP.

New Development Portal

All of these use cases will require a massive building effort on the part of third parties and new businesses. To support this increased level of development, Ripple recently redesigned its developer portal website to accommodate for ease-of-reference:

dev_portal

If you’re a developer, this redesign is welcome news; the old site was also quite functional, but the new design sports a more modern look and feel, along with an intuitive navigation style. It was a good step for Ripple, and it allows stakeholders to quickly locate resources to help them address questions or obstacles.

Ripple’s Goal with Xpring: Make XRP A One-stop Shop

Perhaps you run your own company. If that’s the case, then you can identify with having to deal with limited time and resources to get things done. And you can also identify with the benefits of the “KISS” principle: In business, “KISS” stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” It’s a phrase that is jokingly quoted when solutions to problems become too convoluted to execute or maintain.

In business, it also pertains to a lessening of complexities in ares where your business is not strong – like developing software, for example.

When banks, financial institutions, and other large businesses opt to incorporate blockchain technology into their business, will they want to deal with four or five different companies – and specialty cryptocurrencies – or will they prefer to deal with one company? You already know the answer – and so does Ripple.

Coil

While Xpring’s purpose is to start out new businesses that will significantly grow demand for XRP, one of its projects should be considered in a league of its own.

What is Coil?

stefan_thomas Stefan Thomas is the creator of the concept. He envisions a new type of Internet experience for those that want to opt out of invasive advertising and other current models of content financing. Stefan Thomas wants to allow Internet browsers (people and their browsers) to be able to access and pay for content and services without human interaction.

It’s a revolutionary idea, but he thinks it just might work.

I’ve talked about the concept of “pay-for-content” in other blogs, but suffice it to say that, in order for this concept to work – and work with XRP no less – we have to be able to configure browsers to do this. Currently, even the new W3C Consortium’s “Web Payments” API is not enough. According to Stefan Thomas: ¹⁶

“We’ve worked with Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, and others to create the W3C Web Payments Request API that has been rolling out to billions of iOS and Android devices but we can go so much further. With the technologies we’ve helped build at Ripple — XRP and Interledger — we can process trillions of transactions per second without any central authority. What if we managed to apply these tools as a way to offer an alternative to today’s ad-supported web? Imagine an open protocol that provides a third option outside of the advertising and site-by-site subscription models”

So, essentially, Coil has its work cut out for the foreseeable future. Their path must include:

Championing a new Web Monetization Standard for browsers
Building the API for Web Monetization
Integrating the API with Browsers

It’s an audacious goal, and one that will be challenging from a code perspective as well. The API(s) will need to integrate with the Interledger Protocol (ILP). Stefan Thomas once again set the bar very high for Coil’s eventual micropayment solution:

“With the technologies we’ve helped build at Ripple — XRP and Interledger — we can process trillions of transactions per second without any central authority.”

While I knew that Payment Channels were horizontally scalable, to hear the former CTO of Ripple talk about “trillions” of TPS is amazing. Currently, XRP supports up to 1,500 TPS on-chain, but XRP Payment Channels can scale horizontally, and was clocked at over 50,000 TPS in its initial load tests. Trillions is a number of orders of magnitude above even that number; perhaps he was only talking about ILP speed, but suffice it to say that it will be fascinating when Coil publishes the first version of its API!

Coil Website: https://coil.com/

Impact on XRP Demand and Liquidity

Let’s review what just happened:

Ripple created an internal company division with the specific goal of funding and championing external third-party projects that directly use XRP in some way.
Xpring funded Omni, which will use XRP for settlement
Xpring funded Coil, which will build new ILP APIs that will utilize XRP for micropayments
Coil was formed by the former CTO of Ripple, and includes an impressive team out of the gate: at least 2-3 former Ripple architects and developers will be joining Coil

These announcements were all planned for Blockchain week in New York City; Ripple saved these announcements, kept them quiet in top-secret fashion, and then successfully announced them on the first day of Blockchain Week. It’s a demonstration of how important they viewed these communications.

Xpring Will Supercharge XRP Liquidity

Will projects from Xpring happen overnight? No. They will take time to design, build, and deploy. Coil will need to work with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to convince other stakeholder groups that adding support for Web Monetization is the right thing to do. Businesses like Omni that plan to use XRP will need to make it easy for customers. All of these efforts take significant time and effort.

For those that are tempted to judge individual projects’ impact on volume: It’s not just one project or application adding liquidity to the XRP ecosystem; its about making it easy for others to build on XRP and add new viral apps on their own.

Can Apps and Other Use Cases Add Significant Liquidity?

In a word, yes. The case study for this is Ethereum.

While XRP was targeting its payment use case with laser intensity for multiple years, Ethereum was focused on building apps (DApps) on its blockchain, and supporting ICOs (initial coin offerings). While these sources of activity are nowhere near the amounts of liquidity that we’d expect from business use cases such as remittance processing, correspondence banking, or ForEx trading, look at the effect on Ethereum volume: ¹⁷

“CryptoKitties, an online game that debuted on Nov. 28, is now the most popular smart contract — essentially, an application that runs itself — on ethereum, accounting for 11 percent of all transactions on the network.”

You may snicker at “Crypto Kitties,” but the application literally caused performance issues on the Ethereum network because its popularity.

This constant foot traffic through the Ethereum network has increased the daily volume for its token substantially; while Ethereum may be a slow network compared to XRP, it’s a case in point when trying to understand what you should expect from new use cases on the XRP Ledger; gradual but steady increases in daily volume.

Daily Volume Contributions in XRP

When we take a look at the entire XRP ecosystem, and then factor in these new future sources of liquidity, we can see a massive swell of demand incoming.

I decided to chart out a conservative scenario all the way to 2021, starting with the current proportions comprising XRP volume, then I gradually progressed the possible shift in volume composition as new sources of liquidity come online: ¹⁹

2018 – $400 million average daily volume 2018

Organic Speculation
Some Remittance Processors
ForEx (arbitrage between exchanges & market making)

2018-2019 – $3.3 billion average daily volume

Organic Speculation Growth
Remittance Companies
Internet companies (starting with Omni)
Micropayments (using Coil APIs)
Derivatives Market (banks and others using Codius)
ForEx (arbitrage between exchanges & market making)

2020 – $11 billion average daily volume 2020

Organic Speculation Growth
Additional Internet companies
Micropayments – additional companies
Additional Derivatives
Correspondence Banking – 1^st Adopter Banks
Nostro-Vostro Replacement – 1^st Adopter Banks

2021 – $270 billion average daily volume 2021

Organic Speculation Growth
Additional Derivatives
Correspondence Banking (XRP captures 5% of market)
Nostro-Vostro Replacement (XRP captures 5% of market)

To view the detailed analysis for the above volume scenario, please refer to the XRPChat forum: https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/23782-volume-scenario-analysis-2018-2021/

Ripple’s Track Record

Things to keep in mind when looking at these additional future sources of liquidity:

Does Ripple have an established and well-documented history of accomplishing what it sets out to do? Yes.
Does Ripple do things quickly? Yes. They do things quickly and with high quality – a combination not ordinarily found paired together in technology.
Does Ripple have the resources to make good on their investments? Yes. According to their own published XRP reports, they should have as much cash on hand as four large-sized ICOs.

Traditional investors looking to add crypto to their portfolio will be looking at the cryptographic networks with the strongest future prospects. When fund managers, bank executives, and CEOs look through the blockchain technology space, what will they find? Which company has the history and the reputation to back up its claims?

We know the answer to that question. Now consider which network has unequaled on-chain performance metrics.

Is there any doubt in your mind which digital asset that astute financial analysts and investors will be investing in? Do your homework; and after doing your own research, see for yourself if you agree with me: XRP is the only cryptocurrency with the characteristics that are necessary to support global levels of commerce for a wide variety of use cases and applications. Yes, it’s the best cryptocurrency for settlement, but something tells me that speculators will soon prefer this digital asset over others for a store of value as well.

Sources:

Ripple, XRP, and Blockchain Week in NYC

Blockchain Week in New York City brought out a myriad of companies, people, products, swag, and general party-goers. The week started off with big news items almost immediately, along with some publicity-seeking promotions by various blockchain technology companies and exchanges.

What energized me the most about this particular Blockchain Week – and perhaps it’s not completely fair to generalize like this – was the overwhelming feeling of celebration as the events – both crypto and Ripple specifically – unfolded. ripple_icons_blockchain_week

It was very refreshing to see XRP community members meet the Ripple heroes that are championing XRP adoption, as well as see the mainstream press coverage that resulted from many of Ripple’s high-profile announcements.

Consensus Attendance Growth

One of the largest gatherings was the Consensus Conference, which has been organizing gatherings about blockchain technology for a few years now. Here’s an interesting info-graphic about the level of increasing interest in the conference over the last few years:

consensus_attendence

It’s only one of several measurements of the increasing level of mainstream interest in blockchain technology – and the ticket prices also reflect this level of enthusiasm. ¹

Unfortunately, the high price tag to attend has resulted in negative publicity, with Vitalik Buterin saying:

“The conference costs $2-3k to attend. I refuse to personally contribute to that level of rent seeking.”

I applaud him for taking a stand – ticket prices that high are probably why content from Ted Talks finally made its way into the public domain. While authors should be paid for content – and the conference should be able to cover its costs – price tags in the thousands will restrict the conference to only the well-heeled. Perhaps it’s not what authors of Bitcoin (the Satoshis) originally intended.

On a more positive note, a data analyst recently created an info graphic about the level of buzz on Twitter regarding Consensus-related news items and attendees. I want to share this, because other than the Twitter account that sent out a picture of the mock banker protest on Monday morning, the other top buzzwords included JoelKatz (Ripple’s Chief Cryptographer David Schwartz), Ripple, and Tiffany Hayden, perhaps the highest-profile XRP supporter on social media: ²

Blockchain_Week_Buzz_Twitter

It will be interesting to see how mainstream media covers Blockchain Week, and what headlines result from all of the significant announcements – both for crypto generally, and for XRP in specific.

General Crypto News Impacting XRP

Blockchain week was an epic mix of headline news for crypto, educational talks, presentations, and high-profile interviews and panels. I’m still going through all of the various live-streams of the events as well as leafing through all of the news items that pertain to crypto generally, and of course XRP.

Comments from Governor Lael Brainard

Lael Brainard is a member of the US Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. She’s a former faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has worked for McKinsey and Company. ³

On May 15^th, she gave a speech at the “Decoding Digital Currency Conference” in San Francisco. ⁴

Here is an excerpt:

“…it is not obvious what additional value a Fed-issued digital currency would provide…”

“Even though the case for a digital currency for general use may not be compelling, opportunities for more targeted and restricted use may nonetheless prove to have value.”

But the most promising quote(s) in my view:

“Such wholesale digital settlement tokens could potentially reduce the time and costs required for wholesale financial transactions. This is being discussed, for instance, for the use cases of interbank payments, securities settlements, and cross-border transactions, where the introduction of a digital token native to a platform may facilitate certain types of settlement.”

and

“For cross-border transactions, the process for sending payments via the existing correspondent banking network can add time and money. Distributed ledger technology could potentially lower the costs and time it takes funds to reach the recipient through more direct connections, reducing the number of intermediaries required to effect the transaction.”

For those of us familiar with Ripple, it’s hard not to see how XRP is being discussed here. In fact, I’d bet that Ripple technology and XRP are specifically what the Federal Reserve Governor had in mind. However, keep in mind that the Federal Reserve has been careful in the past to avoid crowning any specific company or technology, and has stated as part of their Faster Payments Task Force that they prefer to let the market decide on the eventual solution.

Comments from James Brian Bullard

On the same day that Lael Brainard was giving her speech in San Francisco, The Federal Reserve’s President, James Brian Bullard, was giving a speech on blockchain technology in New York City as part of Blockchain Week. In concert with Lael Brainard’s comments, he also took a disparaging view of a “Fedcoin,” noting that there would be no reason for the central bank to do something like that. ⁵

He provided a mix view – positive and negative – of the innovation of cryptocurrency: ⁶

“People have not liked that kind of thing, they want a uniform kind of thing. A dollar is a dollar”

and ⁷

“The Fed is not a monolithic organization. We have different businesses – we have cash, we have payments, we have monetary policy, and regulation as well. It is possible that blockchain will have a role in the future of any of those.”

To some extent, James Bullard has a point; when talking to each other about the value of a tangible or intangible item, it’s very convenient for people to have some sort of common way to measure it. The US Dollar has so far served this purpose, not just in the United States, but internationally as well.

However, he makes one critical error in judgement; personal preference.

If you give individuals the choice on which currency to hold, most would like to hold one that does not diminish in value. The US Dollar, while being a convenient common basis for value measurement, has historically only gone in one direction when it comes to value: It loses it. This concept is called inflation, and it’s become almost an accepted part of the ecosystem of the US Dollar since the gold standard was abandoned. while the decision to abandon the gold standard was not a democratic one, the choice of whether to own crypto currency certainly is.

And throwing out the blanket term “monetary policy” is not going to impress many people after the mortgaged-backed security mess was followed by three rounds of quantitative easing. ⁸

No, people are probably not going to ‘choose’ the US Dollar for very much longer; but the question is ‘how long?’

Ripple

Ripple held off making many major announcements about Coil and Xpring until Blockchain week. This definitely proved wise, as the buzz around some of these moves reverberated in both the crypto and mainstream press, and maximized much of the free publicity that resulted from the various events.

One of these events was a live demonstration of xRapid.

Live xRapid Demonstration by David Schwartz

xRapid is Ripple’s software solution for sourcing liquidity when moving money across borders. It utilizes XRP, as XRP was specifically designed to serve as a bridge asset while converting one fiat currency – like US Dollars – into another fiat currency – like Mexican Pesos.

In between this transaction is XRP, and Ripple’s xRapid solution automatically uses it to transfer this currency at rates that currently result in better margins than the traditional correspondence banking system. And it does it in real-time.

Ripple took the opportunity during Blockchain Week to demonstrate xRapid for those attendees interested in seeing how it all works together to bring a smooth end-user experience to banking and remittance customers. How many people attended? Enough so that it was standing room only: ⁹

xRapid_demo_David_Schwartz

We heard from actual attendees that Monday’s demo proceeded flawlessly, exemplifying how much the customer experience is improved from its current limitations using the traditional correspondence banking system. In addition to it’s overall value proposition, David Schwartz discussed a hot topic that has been debated occasionally on social media: Volatility.

Volatility of XRP within xRapid

One of the questions that’s been posed occasionally is “why would a business hold XRP if the value gyrates so wildly?” In his demonstration of xRapid, David Schwartz explained how the current implementation doesn’t require organizations to buy and hold XRP:

“So, the most common question that we get from our customers: What about volatility? Digital asset markets are so volatile. Price moves up and down. Well, the beauty of this product, is that our customers don’t have to hold XRP directly. They can initiate payments in their domestic currency, dollar, euro, or anything else. And then xRapid in the back end uses XRP as the bridge to convert between domestic currency that it originated from and the beneficiary currency that they want to receive payment into.

So, the fact that xRapid does not require our customers to hold XRP allows our customers to enjoy all the positive benefits of blockchain technology and digital assets such as security, speed, and transparency, without necessarily being exposed to volatility.”

This aspect to volatility management – the dynamic acquisition of XRP on exchanges – benefits both the organizations using xRapid, and also those of us that own and have invested in XRP from a speculation standpoint.

Congratulations to Ripple and David Schwartz on a demonstration that effectively highlighted XRP’s strengths.

MUFG

We knew that Standard Chartered and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) were customers of Ripple, but we didn’t know they planned on teaming up on cross-border payments between these three banks – until the formal press release on May 14, 2018. ¹⁰

In the formal press release, it was revealed that these three banks will be building an application under the Bank of Thailand’s Regulatory Sandbox Framework. This location of the development will avoid any conflict with regulatory bodies in the other countries where MUFG and Standard Chartered are based.

The pilot has the goal of:

“…making cross-border payments more convenient and further improving the capital efficiency of corporate groups.”

and

“…to improve cash management with a real-time, multi-currency, multiple-bank platform.”

To me, “cash management” sounds a lot like the funding of Nostro-Vostro accounts. However, it’s a general term that could indicate the speed of cash flow and velocity of money as well.

Here are the details about the pilot that MUFG published in their press release:

MUFG_Press_Release

Usually we’re content to report on banks and other Financial Institutions joining RippleNet to use Ripple’s existing products; a press announcement about a very specific alliance between RippleNet members is intriguing, especially since the back-end will be RippleNet. ¹¹

Xpring

Are you ready?

Ripple is now pivoting in a major way towards XRP-specific use cases. This isn’t just an accelerator fund. It’s not just an incentives program. It’s a division of Ripple’s company specifically tasked with the goal of assisting projects that will be built on the XRP Ledger. What is Xpring in Ripple’s own words? ¹²

“Xpring is a new initiative by Ripple that will invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs.”

Ripple made the decision to create this company division after many projects have already been started independently by others; this includes Omni, Blockchain Capital Fund, Coil, and a new one you may not have heard of previously: SB Projects.

SB Projects is headed by Scooter Braun, an entertainment talent manager. This is the same man that managed Justin Bieber. ¹³ His goal is to utilize the XRP Ledger to monetize and manage artists’ content. He had this to say:

“Blockchain technology and digital assets like XRP will provide artists with new distribution channels and revenue streams. This creates more space for artistic freedom, and I’m excited our team is among the first in the entertainment industry to lean into the blockchain movement. This is only the beginning as we will continue to build out more use cases for XRP. ”

Mainstream news media also covered the new Ripple division. TechCrunch ran the following analysis on Monday when Xpring was announced: ¹⁴

“You can bet that Xpring, while outside of Ripple’s core financial services focus, will be a very key focus for building a community and ultimately usage for XRP.”

Get ready for more of these announcements as Ripple takes XRP adoption and liquidity to a new level in the second half of 2018: I predict that they will have double this number of investments by the end of the year – based on the Ripple investment trend we’ve seen so far.

Coil

Coil is the vision of its creator, Stefan Thomas. stefan_thomas

Stefan Thomas envisions a different kind of Internet than you currently experience. Remember the headlines about Facebook selling your data? That’s the price that we all actually pay for what previously was considered a ‘free’ networking service. Instead of paying Facebook, it was considered ‘free’.

But the word ‘free’ implies that there is no cost; we now know that’s not true.

The cost is the loss of personal data, privacy, and living a life with curtailed liberties. It’s something that rubs us the wrong way, in an intuitive fashion that we sometimes struggle to put into words. Perhaps it’s related to seeing advertisements for a Keurig coffee maker after searching for a favorite brand of Starbucks coffee. Whatever the case, we’ve all encountered the ‘creep factor’ when using the Internet, and it can be unsettling.

Stefan Thomas’s vision is pay-for-content.

I’ve written about this paradigm shift before, in a previous blog where I quoted a famous author – Jaron Lanier – where he talked about the loss of the ‘creative class’ to this quest for ‘free everything’ online. He described how this penchant for free information has been a race to the bottom for those of us that create content – we’re not paid for our work, essentially, and it’s accessible as soon as it’s created. Each platform that purports to give artists a stage has also succumbed to the temptation to take more than their fair share of the profits from content creation, leaving the journalists, musicians, illustrators and photographers fighting for survival.

So what is Coil, exactly? Is it a browser? A collection of micropayment APIs? Perhaps it’s a combination of these things. Here is how Stefan Thomas described it in his blog: ¹⁵

“Coil’s first product will be a flat-rate subscription for consumers which will allow them to support creators, breeze past paywalls, see less ads, and unlock additional features and content. Instead of building yet another proprietary platform, Coil will be the first company to pay out to any website using Web Monetization, a new standard for how browsers can pay websites using Interledger. We’re excited to see how users will react to being able to support creators directly and how creators will reward them with extra features and content.”

Web Monetization Standard

I absolutely guarantee you that 90% of all readers will miss the hyperlink that Stefan Thomas included in his blog: It’s important.

I clicked on the link, and guess what? Coil is proposing a new standard called “Web Monetization.” In fact, it’s so new that the link navigates to a sub-directory within the Interledger Github repository! This is proof positive that Ripple – and now Coil – know how to develop in ‘stealth mode.’

How is using web monetization different from how the browsing experience works today? The simplest explanation are these two sentences: ¹⁶

“With advertisements, the browser decides whether to display the ads and the user decides whether to engage with the ads. With Web Monetization, the browser decides whether to pay the site and, if so, how much to pay.”

This is an exciting development, and it appears from Stefan Thomas’s description that the Coil team is not far away from putting this vision into reality.

He was careful not to specify any specific date for the new product(s); I’m sure starting a company and creating a new team will take some of his time, as well as promoting his idea to other influential developers and then, of course, websites where the actual content is created and sold.

My only request of the Coil team? Make sure we can pay with XRP.

Ethan Beard

As part of the Xpring initiative, Ripple has hired away a Facebook Director. His name is Ethan Beard, and he formerly headed up Facebook’s developer network. He is a high-profile addition to Ripple’s team, and it’s not the first time that Ripple has hired a former Facebook executive: Tom Channick was also from the Facebook team. ^{17 18}

FOX Business Interview with Cory Johnson

In the midst of all the events this week, you may have missed an impressive, if brief, interview with Cory Johnson, Ripple’s Chief Market Strategist. On Monday, he sat down with Liz Claman from Fox News to discuss Ripple and XRP. Liz asked him about Ripple and XRP, and Cory took the opportunity to clarify what Ripple is doing with XRP and its technology stack, as well as introduce Xpring.

.@Ripple Chief Market Strategist @CoryTV sat down with @LizClaman to discuss how his company is using XRP technology to help startups. https://t.co/modMLiBGFf pic.twitter.com/rlro4d3lAN

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) May 14, 2018

The interview was on-point, and at the end Liz brought up Warren Buffett’s negative comments about blockchain technology. He responded with this comment:

“There isn’t a bigger Buffett fan than me: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about here. I think if he were to do the real work to see the real use cases, for example – what we’re doing at Ripple – he would start to understand.”

XRP Community

The XRP Community is rising in prominence in its role in the XRP ecosystem. Blockchain Week in NYC elevated this participation as many community members attended Consensus along with the Ripple-sponsored community night. The pics and stories from New York were fast and furious on Tuesday night.

IMF Document

On May 8^th, IMF Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang gave a speech about the Digitization of Money and Finance at the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank Conference. He touched on financial technology, crypto-assets, bank regulation, and the work that the IMF is doing to support its members.

What makes this speech remarkable from the perspective of the XRP Community is that he mentions two Ripple clients by name. ¹⁹

“Some useful technology is being developed to improve market efficiency. For example, services have slashed from days to minutes the time it takes for cross-border payments to reach destinations. These include relatively small firms like BitPesa in Africa and BitOasis in the Middle East and such well-known companies as Western Union and Moneygram.”

It’s comments like the ones above that remind me of XRP’s potential to reduce costs for remittance processors and banks. We’re no longer in the “maybe” stage of XRP adoption – we’re now counting the companies that use XRP for cross-border transfer.

Esoteric Trading Solutions

Esoteric Trading Solutions produces videos periodically that analyze various topics in cryptocurrency, and recently an analyst named Suzy displayed increasing enthusiasm for XRP compared to other cryptocurrencies in the market. It was an encouraging find, and her analysis has been factually-based; she tends to have a no-nonsense demeanor and mode of communication.

XRP fans love her, of course, because she is trumpeting what some of us have discovered on our own – that XRP is the obvious choice when it comes to lowering your risk and (potentially) heightening your reward. While I’m definitely no expert in financial analysis, Suzy is. Here is her latest video:

This was an engaging analysis, and of course XRP holders will appreciate the title of the video that includes a very specific XRP price prediction.

Blockchain Week & Consensus 2018

One of my favorite things about this Consensus was the constant stream of pics, videos and Tweets from attendees as they listened to speakers, watched demonstrations, and enjoyed the evening entertainment. While I did not attend myself, others provided some commentary and shared their experiences as the events unfolded.

One of the attendees, Daniel Carroll, is one of the founders of a company known as Secure Block Chains – the same company that created the Reservoir Lite application and the Harbor Wallet. When I asked about the most impressive innovation(s) that he observed, he had this to say:

“The most interesting implementation of blockchain I saw was Streamr. They have created a data monetization and streaming marketplace. Individuals can use various devices to collect and sell data. This can be any data you’re accurately collecting. Weather, movement, pollution, energy consumed, the number of people who’ve walked through a door, barometric pressure, noise pollution etc. There are an incredible amount of applications and this could be a whole new way for people to be introduced to the profitability and potential of blockchain.”

Pics from Consensus

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. I came across literally dozens of pictures on Twitter that people shared direct from NYC. It’s impossible to include every XRP community member that attended, but here are a few notable pics in no particular order:

ripple_team

Nordic_Ann_David_Schwartz

beard_pic

Rabbit_and_JoelKatz

snoop_dog

Marvin_Durazno_Brad_Garlinghouse

mGAMERdude_and_JoelKatz

Reverend_Ripple_and_Brad_G

Until the Next Blockchain Week

Congratulations to Ripple on a successful and very high-profile week. The quick succession of major announcements did not disappoint: Coil is giving not only XRP fans food for thought – it’s sparking the imagination of many web content creators and artists that are looking for a more even playing field.

When it comes to handling the communication of complex technology concepts in Blockchain technology, there is one company that is a consistent trend-setter. Watching interviewers, panelists and other speakers parrot Ripple’s holistic and responsible evaluation of use cases, one cannot wonder how much this company has impacted the entire culture of the crypto market.

It’s refreshing to see a shift in the global crypto identity as represented by this latest Blockchain Week; the XRP community was well-represented, and if the pictures shared over social media are any indication, the fun factor was a palpable ingredient.

Perhaps every week should be like Blockchain week.

Sources:

Banks and Remittance Processors: Cooking with Ripple & XRP

Do you like to cook?

Some don’t. I lack the experience and knowledge to make some of the complex dishes that are my own favorites, whether it’s a confetti salad or stuffed vegetables. But give me a ready-made pizza crust from Trader Joe’s and I’ll whip you up a mozzarella cooking_pic basil pizza in less than a half hour. The key is ingredients and preparation; if either is off, then the end product will not be high quality.

What’s my point?

When it comes to building out a bank network, Ripple has both. The ingredients are the software packages, and the tools that work; the cutting edge software is what sets Ripple apart at a foundation level from any would-be competitors.

So what’s the “preparation” in my culinary analogy? The people and and the processes.

Again, Ripple scores off the charts. It’s not just the leadership team, or the board of directors; it’s every single employee I’ve heard of, interacted with, or seen in action. Now consider that they follow a rigorous process and are very self-disciplined in how they communicate as a team; very rarely do we discover any organizational dissonance between its various parts – and the company is getting big.

So what is the “dish” they are preparing? How about near-zero-cost, real-time cross-border payments? It’s a complicated dish, but I think everything is in place for this particular meal. And for those invested in XRP, it’s going to be delicious.

General Crypto News

The overall market threw curve balls at price levels this week, but for reasons that most analysts say are connected to Bitcoin. I’ll cover that in a second. In the meantime, XRP is clearly at an attractive price point for traders attempting to capitalize on market fear.

Keep in mind that the overall climate may change appreciably for the positive. It’s rare but refreshing to see all the ‘coin tribes’ get together at industry conferences and celebrations like what will happen in the next few days in New York City.

Recent Market Downturn

According to a recent Twitter poll where over five hundred users responded, 74% of individuals say that they check XRP price “multiple times per day” or that they “have a problem.” ¹

Prices – not just for XRP, but for all of crypto – took a significant hit recently. What’s causing this downturn? Different analysts attribute the recent market doldrums to a variety of factors, but one author in particular thinks that he found the two main causes: ²

UPbit South Korean Exchange Raided
Mt. Gox Trustee Bitcoin Sales on Open Exchanges

UPbit is the largest crypto exchange in South Korea, and according to Reuters it was raided on Thursday, May 10^th on suspicion of fraud. So far, neither the the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office nor UPbit is providing any other details about the action, but UPbit sent a note to clients informing them of the action, and that they are cooperating with authorities and that they guarantee the safety of all their clients’ assets. ³ Nevertheless, the crypto market doesn’t like trouble with exchanges.

In addition to the issue with UPbit, crypto analysis have tracked the sale of approximately 8,200 more Bitcoins by the Mt Gox bankruptcy trustee. This action by the trustee continues the controversial choice to use the open market to dump the Bitcoins, rather than choosing an OTC market to make the sale. In theory, if an OTC market was used, the price of Bitcoin on open markets would be un-affected, as a spot rate is used for the entire transaction.

While neither of these items directly impact XRP, Bitcoin’s volume tends to set the direction for the entire market, and XRP was already facing some of its own fear and uncertainty from a prior Wall Street Journal article about a possible SEC pronouncement (that never materialized). All of these factors combined may have contributed to the temporary downturn in XRP price on the open exchanges.

Am I worried? Not in the least; however, I’d like to see the crypto market mature to a point where it doesn’t react in hyperbolic fashion to what should be minor events in a much larger journey towards mainstream XRP adoption.

Blockchain Week in NYC

Blockchain week in New York City is upon us! This includes a wide variety of events, including both the Consensus conference, and the Ripple-sponsored XRP Community Appreciation Night.

Snoop Dog

As part of the Blockchain Week celebrations in New York City, Ripple is sponsoring Community Night – this time featuring none other than Snoop Dog. snoop_dog

To distribute the limited number of tickets to the event, Ripple held two community contests via Claire Arthurs Kart, Ripple’s Head of Community. Claire organized two different community competitions; a trivia competition and a meme contest, and awarded the winners tickets to attend the community night.

At the time I originally covered the ticket contest, the award for the memes had not yet been announced; since then, the two memes awarded first prize – and the tickets – were these two: ^{4 5}

meme1

The above meme was submitted by @KhunSanchez.

meme2

The above meme was submitted by @mhschmidt2.

Congratulations to all the winners of the tickets, and looking forward to hearing from the attendees.

Consensus 2018

The Consensus conference is the Coindesk-sponsored forum for discussion of blockchain technology, businesses, and innovation. While Ripple’s SWELL conference tends to center around banking & financial institutions, Consensus sports a wider array of topics, including ICOs, retail adoption, novelty use cases, and other inventions that may be peripheral to fintech applications.

Ripple is fielding one speaker for the Consensus conference: David Schwartz. ⁶

joelkatz

Hopefully we’ll be able to see some engaging video from Consensus that includes commentary or other content that features David Schwartz; he’s one of the most respected minds in crypto & very few cryptographers and developers can trace their resume all the way back to Bitcoin’s (and XRP’s) origins and development.

SEC Provides Perspective

The SEC on May 2^nd published a formal communication that provided more perspective on how they plan to rule on tokens, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies. In it, the SEC emphasized that they would be applying the Howey test to determine if either a token or a cryptocurrency is going to be considered a security from their perspective: ⁷

“Although the Court in 1946 hardly could have foreseen the development of ICOs 70 years later, the facts of Howey show that this is not the first time the SEC has had to grapple with the fundamental question of what, functionally, is a security.”

One of the encouraging aspects of the SEC’s communication on May 2^nd was the stated overall goal of fostering innovation and standing aside to oversee the crypto space, much as a “lifeguard” on a beach. At the end of the address, the commissioner provided a few key wrap-up points, one of which was very encouraging:

“As we sit atop our lifeguard’s stand and survey the beach, however, let’s not lose sight of the benefits new technology can provide in the area of capital formation, market efficiency, economic growth, and overall societal well-being.”

I agree with her; while innovation should not be stifled, it’s imperative that the SEC monitor the ICO space for fraudulent activity that may harm users or investors.

Ripple News

Ripple is looking at a week of high-profile publicity as Blockchain Week in New York City approaches. Although, with the number of conferences, panels, interviews, and social media, it’s a wonder that they even really notice; Ripple is clearly upping its game with regards to spreading its message about exactly what its incredible software products can do.

Innovation Week

YPO is an organization you may not be familiar with. Basically, it’s a: ⁸

“…global platform for chief executives to engage, learn, and grow. YPO members harness the knowledge, influence and trust of the world’s most influential and innovative business leaders to inspire business, personal, family and community impact.”

One of the events that YPO sponsors is something called “Innovation Week” where there are a number of meetings, conferences and panels. One of them took place at Ripple headquarters in San Francisco on May 7^th: ⁹

Ripple_HQ_Innovation_Week

In addition to the panel discussion (above) that involved David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Cryptographer, Brad Garlinghouse also gave a presentation:

“At its core Ripple is a technology company leveraging digital assets to solve a global payments problem. We believe payments are foundational to any use case so we’re starting there.” –@bgarlinghouse to @YPO members for #YPOInnovationWeek at Ripple HQ. pic.twitter.com/C7MnbR94bi

— Ripple (@Ripple) May 7, 2018

YPO is an organization whose members consist of CEOs and other executive leaders; these are the individuals that control the direction of technology budgets, efforts, and direction. It’s clear from Ripple’s increasing presence at conferences and industry forums that they are well aware of the importance of getting the message out about what their innovations can do to help banks, businesses, non-profits, and governments.

Code Updates

Perhaps it’s the numbering scheme. Perhaps it’s just confusion from business users that don’t understand what “rc” really means. For whatever reason, the latest Rippled version is causing more excitement than usual. The prior major version of Rippled was considered 0.90.1; it’s the most common version that most validators are currently running.

But Ripple has run out of digits in the second column, so it’s time to turn over at least one digit in the first column, which – you guessed it – will result in release 1.0.0, otherwise known as “release 1.” Even though the numbering of the release is significant, Ripple has indicated that it’s a standard release into production. ¹⁰

That being said, it’s still impressive as Ripple is always impressive: A new release will contain new features, any bug fixes, and other updates that will help grow the network and its capabilities and performance metrics. This particular new release is 1.0.0-rc1. What does “rc” stand for? The “rc” stands for “release candidate” meaning that it is a candidate for promotion into production, when all of the validators will be asked to upgrade to a new version.

I honestly don’t know if there is additional significance to this release, but the numbering of the software version is certainly fueling speculation ahead of Blockchain Week in New York City.

Apple May Adopt ILP into Payment Request API

Multiple news sources claim that Apple’s new version of the Safari browser now contains the new “Payment Request API,” which is a change recommended by the W3C consortium. This API has the ability to integrate with ILP, allowing developers to build applications that can hook into crypto networks such as the XRP Ledger or Bitcoin. ¹¹

It’s yet another high-profile accomplishment for Ripple, as Apple’s market reach via its mobile market and the Safari browser is extensive worldwide. ¹²

Now that developers have the tools they need to easily integrate via the Safari browser, I predict that new apps will start to appear that leverage this capability. There is definitely money to be made for the first group of developers that can capitalize on this new feature of Safari. However, one author had this sobering reminder to any would-be developers using the Payment Request API: ¹³

“Note that this does not deliver an end-user product. A product will need code that links this Apple Interledger API to a blockchain or cryptocurrency. Anyone that attempts this better make darn sure it addresses all of the regulatory issues, just as Santander did with OnePay.”

Coinone is Integrated into RippleNet

Coinone is one of the largest South Korean exchanges. It was one of the first exchanges in South Korea that raced to add XRP pairings back in 2017, and it’s responsible for a large amount of volume on a daily basis for XRP.

And on May 8^th, Ripple announced formally that they would be proceeding with xCurrent integration with Coinone: ¹⁴

“Starting in June, xCurrent will power the launch of a new remittance service called ‘Cross’ for Coinone Transfer’s retail customers to address the country’s growing demand for faster and cheaper payments across the region.”

It’s one more example of RippleNet’s expanding reach – not only among traditional banks, but also non-traditional crypto and ForEx exchanges.

Tracking xRapid

For many months, XRP fans have been following xRapid adoption progress closely. Since Ripple organized their software into the distinct three offerings of xRapid, xCurrent, and xVia, it’s been important for the community to discern how each of those packages use XRP, and to what extent. For xRapid, we know that the solution allows any organization to source liquidity at exchanges using XRP.

In fact, we were able to access some collateral second-hand that shows how Ripple initially viewed its configuration – integrating with exchanges such as BitSo (Mexican-based exchange) and Bitstamp. ¹⁵

This was exciting, because it showed us that xRapid had the potential to supercharge demand: If the standard integration of xRapid included accessing open crypto markets on exchanges, then it has the potential to make it’s demand known in a way that influences the price of our investment. This discovery of xRapid’s planned production configuration was encouraging; in addition, we surmise from SBI’s quarterly reports that xRapid will also integrate with it’s new virtual currency (VC) exchange.

All of this news is exciting, especially the news about SBI VC; it is projected to have millions of customers when it opens for official production use.

xRapid Cost Savings Formally Communicated by Ripple

On May 8^th, Ripple formally published the cost savings for xRapid. ¹⁶

Their formal communication focused on the xRapid integration between the US and Mexico, detailing the specific cost savings that were discovered by initial pilots:

“For payments in the critical remittance corridor between the U.S. and Mexico, financial institutions using xRapid saw a savings of 40-70 percent compared to what they normally pay foreign exchange brokers.”

In addition to detailing the cost savings, Ripple’s Insight article also re-emphasizes how the same crypto (and ForEx) exchanges that are used for XRP trading are also used for xRapid integration:

“A payment journey with xRapid looks like this: a financial institution connects directly to digital asset exchanges in both the originating and destination corridors. The originating currency is exchanged into XRP which provides the necessary liquidity to power the final payment, and then in seconds that XRP is exchanged into the destination currency in the second digital asset exchange. Once this transaction takes place, the funds are sent out on the local rails of the destination country for payout. The transaction is tracked end-to-end, and the result is a cross-border payment that is cheaper and faster than ever before.”

This last part solidifies what most investors are curious about when it comes to usage of XRP by xRapid; just how XRP facilitates the flow of value from one fiat currency to the next using XRP in the middle as a bridge asset. It’s central to XRP’s value proposition, and demonstrates how replacement of Nostro-Vostro liquidity by XRP will work.

List of xRapid Pilots

It’s a concept that is very appealing to large remittance processors, and it’s why they’ve chosen to pilot xRapid in the first place. Here is a reminder of which of those large remittance processors are currently either in a pilot to verify xRapid integration, or have completed a pilot and are moving into production usage:

Western Union (Pilot In Progress) ¹⁷
MoneyGram (Pilot In Progress) ¹⁸
Cambridge FX (Pilot In Progress) ¹⁹
Mercury FX (Pilot Complete: Entering Production) ²⁰
IDT (Pilot In Progress) ²¹
Cuallix (Pilot Complete: Entering Production) ²²
Viamericas (Pilot Complete: Entering Production) ²³

That’s three of seven remittance processors that have confirmed the promised cost savings with xRapid and who have entered production usage of XRP for bridging cross-border payments.

This new stage of xRapid usage is exciting to watch, and as more of the larger remittance processors transition into production usage, the confidence in Ripple’s technology will build even further, adding momentum to XRP’s adoption by both the banking and remittance industry, and by retail investors in cryptocurrency.

XRP

The community supporting XRP and its adoption had a busy week. In addition to tracking news of XRP adoption and progress, the community is continuing to promote XRP along several fronts. Included in these efforts are an ongoing coin promotion on XRPChat, the effort at determining a new symbol to represent XRP, and readying for the upcoming Blockchain Week events in New York City.

Different members of the XRP community are writing, making videos, or sharing their combined knowledge on Discord or other social media. Being an active member of the XRP community is all about picking an activity that you enjoy and then connecting with other XRP investors.

Coindeal Removes BTC Paring… and Adds XRP

Coindeal is an exchange based in Cyprus, a country with low regulatory hurdles for new crypto enterprises and ICOs. ^{24 25} In March of this year, based on investor demand, they added XRP as one of the trading choices. ²⁶

In a move that may be a harbinger of future exchange trends, Coindeal de-listed an existing BTC pairing and replaced it with a new XRP pairing: ²⁷

XRP_pairing

Yes, this is one anecdotal example; but as more crypto traders gain experience with how easy and fast it is to move XRP into and out of exchanges in response to changing market conditions, I predict that exchanges will be adding XRP pairings at an increasing rate.

Dutch News Agency Accepts XRP as Payment

XRP’s retail payment reach is extending a bit further with each new business that accepts XRP during checkout. XRP’s main use case is acting as a bridge currency for fiat-to-fiat money transitions, however, it can be used just like any other cryptocurrency – for payment or transfer of value peer-to-peer without any transition from one currency to another. One of those new businesses that accepts XRP sent out a tweet recently, pointing out that they are the first online news content site to accept XRP as payment:

Wij zijn het eerste Nederlandse #marketingbureau waar je kunt betalen met cryptocurrency. #xrp pic.twitter.com/Cd8P3oYGro

— Maikel Latour (@MaikelLatour) May 12, 2018

The English translation of the Dutch announcement reads:

“We are the first Dutch marketing agency where you can pay with cryptocurrency.”

Paying for online content is a new concept that is starting to be revisited in an effort to pursue new applications and technologies that do not depend on advertisers or selling of data as a revenue model. It’s nice to see XRP being used in this new trend.

Updated Ledger Statistics

It’s time to take a fresh look at the ledger statistics.

One of the most prolific developers in the XRP community is @WietseWind (Twitter handle). He’s created a number of applications that run on the XRP Ledger, including the Kyte online wallet (beta), the XRP Tip Bot (for Reddit, Discord, and Twitter), and a website that automatically queries and publishes ledger statistics when prompted by end-users.

The name of the website that he developed is called the Ledger Exposed, or: https://ledger.exposed/

In my March 24^rth blog, I covered wallet statistics. The one data point I tend to track relentlessly is the “1%” statistic. This statistic measures how much XRP you must own to be considered in the “top 1%” of wallets on the XRP Ledger. It’s a statistic that is related to how many funded wallets (wallets that have paid their reserve fee of 20 XRP) exist on the network, because as more and more individuals create a wallet, the dispersal of ownership increases.

xrp_richlist_stats

Basically, the statistic says in common language “99% of all XRP wallets have 72,000 XRP… or less.” The increasingly-small number represents a consistent trend towards a more dispersed ownership of XRP, and it’s growing smaller as XRP continues its path to adoption.

Updates to Richlist Stats on Ledger Exposed

One update that @WietseWind recently added to the statistics website was the ability for a user to query for the amount and percentage of all XRP owned by the “top 100 accounts” with a denominator being whichever number the user prefers: either 1) All the XRP in existence, or 2) only the XRP not in escrow. The different denominator will necessarily result in wildly different percentages; i.e. the denominator will be much larger if you use “all XRP in existence” and hence the ‘top 100 accounts’ will own a much smaller percentage.

This feature was added to address subjective preferences by those that are communicating the dispersion of XRP ownership, and using that number to compare to other crypto networks. Obviously, a smaller number is better, since that would indicate less centralized control of the monetary supply. You can see how much this preference affects the overall statistics below:

Richlist_stats1

richlist_stats2Untitled

In the case of XRP, the situation is more complex, because most of the XRP supply is locked away in cryptographic vaults known as “escrow contracts” where the XRP is not accessible until a specific date. When the date arrives, the specified amount is made available to Ripple (the company).

This wrinkle in the XRP supply statistics has resulted in sometimes-contentious debates about comparing crypto ownership centralization among the top cryptocurrencies. Some crypto analysts strongly prefer using all the XRP in existence, whereas others prefer to measure the top 100 accounts compared to only XRP that is currently available. Hopefully @WietseWind’s new feature will do its part to satisfy the curiosity of both groups.

Are You Ready for the Internet of Value?

Ripple is making a souffle with an incredible ingredient; XRP.

It’s cost savings have been proven and documented. The largest remittance processors in the world are quickly jumping aboard to leverage the cost savings; others may be left behind to face the consequences of trying to compete on a very uneven playing field. The market will reward those companies, payment processors, and banks that make the switch to Ripple technology early, and with time the others will see their market share dwindle like analog phones.

It won’t happen overnight, but what we’re seeing are the beginning stages of the cross-border value transfer revolution; and Ripple has been at it for over five years.

When this “Internet of Value” souffle is pulled out of the oven, you’ll want to be ready to sample the finished product.

Sources:

What’s in a Name… or a Symbol?

What do you think of when you see the Ripple logo?

ripple_triskelion For most of us that have been around since XRP’s early days, it represented XRP. The fact that Ripple owns the rights to the symbol as a trademark didn’t seem to factor in when we communicated with each other or when exchanges listed XRP as one of the cryptocurrencies available for trade.

At the end of most of my blog entries, I include the Ripple logo as a reminder to readers of our common investment in XRP. I’m not affiliated with the company – I’m an owner of the digital asset XRP, and as such, I blog about topics that affect my primary investment. While Ripple happens to be a company with large holdings of XRP, the cryptocurrency should really be considered independent of any company, bank, or financial institution.

But we have a problem with the symbol; The triskelion-shaped blue logo is a trademark that belongs to Ripple, the company.¹ Its purpose was not to represent XRP the digital asset – it is supposed to represent Ripple, the company.

Ripple’s Theme

If you haven’t realized it already, Ripple opted early on for a water-based theme for its company. For a very small Silicon Valley startup at the time, the choices about how to symbolize and market their company were very astute. By using a water-based theme, it evokes connections in peoples minds to a small pebble making large ripples in a pond; in my view it represents the awesome potential of a new idea or innovation.

ripple_water

If you’ve purchased XRP already, this information is probably nothing new to you. Ripple now has a marketing division that is trained to interact with corporate-owned trademarks, logos, and other designs. This is not surprising – every Silicon Valley company spends part of their energy and resources creating the elements that go into a corporate brand.

The Problem

The Ripple logo – the triple-drop triskelion symbol – represents the company. We need a symbol to represent XRP.

zerp_vs_company_logo

Look at the constant correcting all of us do – to each other – on social media. Some industry media outlets still call XRP “Ripples” even though the crypto market has largely made the distinction over the years between the company and the digital asset it uses in some of its solutions.

To discover just how bad this confusion can be, one of the XRP community members – @XRPTrump (Twitter handle) conducted a quick poll a couple days ago:

xrp_ripple_confusion_poll

The poll was one of those “open polls” where anybody with a Twitter account can vote, so it was relatively unscientific; but even if a small percentage of people are confused, it’s problematic – for Ripple and for the XRP community. We want investors to be clear in what they’re purchasing.

XRP are not “ripples” – they represent a decentralized digital cryptocurrency that existed before the company, and will continue to exist – even without the company. Most of us understand this concept, but for reasons unclear to us, sometimes other crypto market participants confuse the issue. In other cases, individuals don’t understand the difference between the company and the cryptocurrency.

Unicode Standard

The other part of the problem is more subtle.

An XRP community member – who is also an industry expert in technology – noticed something peculiar. He found that Bitcoin had been assigned a Unicode symbol. The symbol represents Bitcoin, and resembles the shape that most of the world has come to associate with it:

₿

As you can see, I didn’t paste an image – the symbol is part of the Unicode character set that is recognized and used by most technology platforms and operating systems. However, XRP does not have a Unicode symbol – instead, it uses the currency code “XRP” which is nothing more than the letters designating the cryptocurrency.

To remedy this, he wanted to propose a symbol for inclusion in the Unicode Standard. If you’re curious about the process of Unicode character adoption, please refer to the Unicode Standard website: https://www.unicode.org/standard/standard.html I won’t delve into the Unicode Technical Committee‘s process for approval of new characters, but even before this step, the XRP community member realized that it would be necessary to vet any symbol with the larger community. He knew that the Ripple logo was a trademark, and that it represented the company, not XRP. This is where he made the decision to start a new Twitter account to help him bring the issue to the public’s attention.

@xrpsymbol and Github Repository

@xrpsymbol is the name of the Twitter account that he created to organize public discussions about what symbol he should use to propose to the Unicode Technical Committee. He started things out with a simple tweet on May 2^nd:

Ahoy! – This account will be dedicated to the collaboration in creating the ubiquitous XRP Symbol!

— XRP Symbol (@xrpsymbol) May 2, 2018

In addition, he organized a Github repository to store the collateral and graphics that people would inevitably submit during this process. The Github repository already contains a large collection of submitted designs for the symbol: https://github.com/xrpsymbol

He then went about asking for comments from the public on the submitted designs:

Suggestions are being added to the repository! 📫
Take a look by clicking on the "Suggestions Box" link at https://t.co/5dI4OHOlP2 #xrp #XRPCommunity #ripple #xrpthestandard

— XRP Symbol (@xrpsymbol) May 3, 2018

Then he held an preliminary vote to gauge the community’s response to the first set of submitted designs on May 5^th. This prompted a second wave of community interest, however, and he was forced to annul the first two voting rounds while waiting for more submissions. It was worth the wait.

Ripple Joins In

Ripple (the company) decided to submit a design option as well.

Ripple’s design team spent a significant amount of time & effort, and even conducted a legal review on their proposed XRP logo. Just to be clear – Ripple indicated that they would hold no rights to this symbol – their submission would be a contribution to the community and the community would have full rights to the graphics and collateral.

Here is their submission:

XRP_Symbol_Ripple_submision

Claire Arthurs Kart, Ripple’s Head of Community, organized the design effort for Ripple, and had this to say about Ripple’s submission to the project:

“Its “x” refers, in part, to XRP’s role in efficiently moving value across borders. An “x” also mathematically suggests a multiplier effect — where entities are building on one another to create something bigger — the same way the community drives innovation with XRP and the XRP Ledger.

Up and down arrows represent sending and receiving — the two sides of completing a transaction and the possibility of increased connectivity across different entities.

The organic shape of its curves is suggestive of the human form — a nod to the community that supports XRP and its ecosystem.

Most importantly, the symbol is simple to draw, allowing for easy adoption by anyone.”

My reaction to this design proposal? I immediately fell in love with the Ripple-submitted design. Before seeing their proposed design for the XRP logo, I was ambivalent about the others, although I tended to prefer the one that @xrpsymbol has on his Twitter account:

xrp_symbol_graphic

Regardless of the the symbol that you prefer, stay tuned for further updates and recommended steps for community input. As a group, we will have to decide which symbol to support. So far, over fourteen entries have been submitted. ²

To arrive at one symbol to submit to the Unicode Consortium, we’ll need to get a final decision by the community via a public response mechanism – whether it’s a vote or just a broad consensus of the community.

The XRP Symbol Belongs to the Community – Not Ripple

Yes, that’s a strong statement, but it’s true.

Even Ripple supports this notion – it’s imperative that we all draw a line between XRP and the company that does most of the building on the public network. XRP is an open-source project, and anybody can contribute to it. The community should choose a logo that belongs to it – belongs to all of us – to use as we see fit.

Next Steps

Stay tuned for more information about how to provide input. If you wish to submit a design, comment on one, or engage with the effort in another capacity, you can refer to the instructions that @xrpsymbol published in his tweets.

We are at a pivotal moment in the history of XRP. What will be the symbol that defines its characteristics and communicates its meaning to the wider world? The XRP community decides. We must come together, make our voices heard, and decide on a logo; more importantly, we must stand ready to adopt and use the symbol when we collectively decide on its image – this is going to require maximum effort across all of the community.

We’ve let this go for far too long – it’s time that XRP had its own identity apart from the company that has been building on the XRP Ledger since 2012.

Even Ripple agrees.

Sources:

Integrity Matters: Why XRP will Rise to the Top

XRP is a digital asset that exists on its own, decentralized, among a large number of nodes that validate transactions. It can exist without the assistance of Ripple (the company), and many organizations and individuals have developed applications and tools based on its features, such as escrow and its built-in distributed exchange.

In 2012, the creators of XRP gifted a large portion of their holdings to the company, so that it could assist with the adoption of the digital asset by banks and other financial institutions. This company would later become the Silicon Valley trend-setter that we know as Ripple.

Ripple’s Principle-Centered Leadership

Years ago, Stephen Covey wrote about principle-centered leadership, and how it was important for the culture of companies to be molded and guided by leaders who exhibit these traits themselves. When we look at how Ripple has responded to competitors who have lobbed inaccurate claims against it or its solutions, we see a coordinated approach by Ripple in response, to answer with correct information and rational discourse.

The UK Parliamentary Hearing

One recent example of this is Ryan Zagone’s testimony before Parliament in the UK. Beside him was a man that introduced himself accurately as representing a “competitor” to Ripple, who then spent much of his own time avoiding the topic of the panel and instead focusing on criticizing Ripple and its solution(s). He went from one topic to another, and Ryan Zagone calmly addressed each point in turn without escalating the conflict.

Later, we learned that this “competitor” was in fact a prior representative of R3, the organization currently locked in litigation with Ripple. CCN reported this potential conflict of interest in a recent news article: ¹

“Though he had the most to say out of all four panelists, with regulators even asking him to be brief amidst collective laughter at one point, Walker neglected to mention in the 53 minute session that throughout 2016 he worked as Product Developer for R3, arguably creating a conflict of interest.”

This behavior, while disappointing, is something that Ripple has had to deal with on a consistent basis. It’s something that sets its own struggle to build the Internet of Value (IOV) apart from other legendary Silicon Valley players such as Google. Google never had to worry about fan clubs for competing search engines spreading false information. Amazon didn’t have to worry about representatives from Ebay pretending that they were impartial fellow panelists in front of Parliament.

But this is what Ripple is facing.

And they are responding ethically, serenely pointing out the facts about their solutions, about XRP, and about the history of their company. Brad_Garlinghouse

“The revolution of blockchain is not going to happen outside of the financial system, it will happen from within.”

It may seem like they are on the defensive at the moment, but when a company centers itself on a solid foundation of integrity, it solidifies its perception as a market leader. Banks, financial institutions, and remittance companies want to do business with a reputable organization, and Ripple has seized the high ground in almost every high-profile media interaction.

This approach will win the day, and I predict that XRP adoption will be supercharged by Ripple’s efforts; they are building the pie bigger for everybody with ILP and with non-profit efforts such as Mojaloop; the world is taking notice.

Ripple News

The maxim in crypto markets is that “no publicity is bad publicity,” referring to Bitcoin’s rise in value – and market cap – despite all of the high-profile criticisms that have been documented about the “first” cryptocurrency. In the case of XRP and Ripple, there are now multiple news articles on a daily basis. It seems that news outlets, conferences, and other high-profile mass media organizations can’t stop talking about the most exciting new Silicon Valley fintech.

The news coverage included topics under the category of ‘litigation’ which is not something we’ve heard much about regarding Ripple, despite other high-profile Silicon valley companies having to deal with lawsuits.

Lawyer’s Corner

Don’t be upset when you hear about Ripple being involved in a legal dispute. Every Silicon Valley start-up has had to deal with lawsuits – some valid claims as well as frivolous.

How many lawsuits have been filed against Apple? ² Roughly twenty-one high-profile cases, and countless nuisance suits. Amazon,³ Facebook,⁴ Snapchat,⁵ and others have all had to dedicate resources to address litigation; it’s a fact of doing business in the United States.

Nuisance Suit

One individual who claimed that they lost roughly $552 of their money investing in XRP filed a lawsuit against Ripple in California court on May 3^rd. In that suit, the plaintiff argues that he didn’t expect to lose money on his investment, and blames Ripple for misleading him. ⁶

Within forty-eight hours, other XRP investors and an investigative journalist uncovered more information about the plaintiff, Ryan Coffey; they allege that the suit is a nuisance suit, without merit, and was done with malicious intent. ⁷ According to the article, the plaintiff works for Wells Fargo, a member of SWIFT in the correspondence banking space: ⁸

Ryan_Coffee2

The journalist found that Mr. Coffey and his lawyer were also previous acquaintances:

coffey_lawyer_prior_acquiantences My own guess is that this suit has nothing to do with Wells Fargo, but everything to do with a simple “shakedown” of an up-and-coming Silicon Valley company. I’m a casual fan of the television show “Better Call Saul,” which features a classic shakedown lawyer and his tactics; unfortunately this lawsuit reminds me of that television show.

SEC Securities Opinion

The other litigation-based news item has to do with the SEC’s upcoming opinion on whether or not Ether or XRP should be considered a security. The SEC is looking closely at both Ethereum and XRP due to the centralized holdings of material amounts of the cryptocurrency. In the case of Ethereum, it is looking closely at the Ethereum Foundation, and in the case of XRP it is looking closely at Ripple. While most of the legal experts in the crypto space have indicated that neither should be regarded as a security, the XRP community is awaiting an explicit ruling by the SEC.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is due to provide an opinion on May 7^th or soon afterwards. ⁹

However, no confirmation of this news story has yet been provided by any non-WSJ source, and no announcement was made by the SEC. The story may have contained material inaccuracies; the community is seeking clarification from the Wall Street Journal, or else independent confirmation of the data points.

Navin Gupta: He’s Got This

The AIM Summit took place in Abu Dhabi during the week of May 4^rth.

In a video from the summit, Navin Gupta participated in an interview-style discussion for almost a half-hour, touching on a variety of blockchain technology topics including a high-level description of Ripple’s value proposition, Interledger, XRP, Ripple’s five-year business plan, how ILP eliminates settlement risk, the role of governments, sourcing liquidity, the management of personal information, and various other topics.

I get the sense that Mr. Gupta is an enlightened speaker, whose mind is always considering different angles of problems and solutions:

At around 5:00 he discusses the high-level plan for how developing countries or organizations can use Mojaloop, which was an exciting detour from some of the other topics.

At his wrap-up, Navin Gupta uses the example of “whatsapp” to help people understand how Ripple connects banks in a peer-to-peer fashion prior to settlement. He then wraps up by emphasizing how Ripple technology helps payments be more transparent. The questions after the interview focused on XRP, and more than one question was asked by XRP network competitors.

The most interesting question to me was the last one:

Question: “How does your technology differ from the forthcoming SWIFT GPI?”

Answer (Navin Gupta): “A light bulb was not invented by improvising on candles”

Mic drop? No, Navin Gupta is too much of a gentleman for that, but his metaphor was a powerful example of the communication skills that the market has come to expect from Ripple company representatives.

World Blockchain Forum

Another presentation by Navin Gupta was at the World Blockchain Forum in Dubai from early April.

At this forum, he held a joint presentation with Rahul Pai, COO (Chief Operating Officer) of the UAE Exchange. The topic was Ripple technology, and the talk started out with a sparkling endorsement by what is the second-largest remittance processor in the world – UAE Exchange. Here is a direct quote from Rahul Pai:

“Because we are into the money-transfer business… we’ve been spending quite a bit of time trying to research … newer technologies….

You need to know how to transmit money, how to transmit messages; second, you need to know the art of settlement. And the third thing is you need to know how to reconcile what you have sent… if you’re able to get these three things right, and you’re able to do this in a secure manner, the majority – 90% – of your job is done…

If there is an organization that can actually help us with all the three elements – transmission, settlement, and reconciliation, and that too in an effective manner: We’ve found that Ripple could do that… all three things.”

My own personal background in consulting has taught me the importance of customer recommendations built on prior or current engagements, and I can tell you that this was one of the most ringing and genuine endorsements from a customer I’ve ever heard.

Coming Up: Dilip Rao in Bahrain

From May 8 – 10, Dilip Rao, Ripple’s Global Head of Infrastructure Innovation, will be visiting Bahrain to participate at a large forum known as the Gateway Gulf. It’s an investor forum where the topic is going to include Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and central banking & financial market infrastructure.

Gateway Gulf tweeted about Dilip on May 6^th:

As Global Head of Infrastructure Innovation at @Ripple, @diliprao engages with central banks and financial market infrastructures in their digital journey with Distributed Ledger Technology. Delighted to welcome Mr. Dilip Rao to #GatewayGulf in #Bahrain from 8-10 May. pic.twitter.com/3Dw24u962F

— GatewayGulf (@GatewayGulfBH) May 6, 2018

Dilip has been a consistent and well-spoken advocate for change in banking infrastructure using Ripple technology and ILP, so it will be interesting to hear about this interaction.

Global Coin Report Review

The Global Coin Report recently served up a summary of Ripple’s existing and most recent xVia partnerships, saying: ¹²

“Keep an eye on Ripple. They’re getting the right partnerships and growing very quickly.”

This is something that each of us in the XRP community have already discovered, and it’s good to see that momentum is continuing within the media space as well.

xVia – The Ripple API-Driven Solution

For those business users that do not fully understand what an “API-based” solution is, think of it this way: It’s a way for Ripple to connect RippleNet up to any other system that can make API calls. This includes almost every current development platform in existence. ¹³ (My own favorite is Java)

What’s an API?

The term “API” stands for Application Programming Interface, but more recently it’s been used to describe a standard HTTP method of calling a service hosted (normally) by a company. For example, if you want to use the Google API for doing searches, a Quora entry shows you the steps:

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-use-a-Google-API

Essentially, making access to data or services API-based allows other organizations or individuals to “call” this service, like you call somebody on your mobile phone. There is no special software needed other than using a platform that can send HTTP calls (REST model of API)

What does this mean from a business standpoint?

It means that RippleNet can be used by any organization or individual that can make a REST-ful API call. A video recently posted to YouTube highlights Marcus Treacher commenting on how xVia’s API-based architecture makes it easy to connect to traditional payment processing and development platforms like SAP and Oracle:

In addition to Marcus Treacher’s comments, here is Ripple’s official take on their xVia solution: ¹⁴

“xVia enables payment originators and corporates to access the power of RippleNet, with a single, standardized API that provides a frictionless experience to communicate with your banking partners. xVia’s simple API requires no software installation and enables users to seamlessly send payments globally with transparency into the payment status and with rich information, like invoices, attached.”

Keep in mind that APIs let any individual or organization connect to RippleNet without installation of any specialized software – a powerful deployment approach for Ripple’s technology.

XRP News

The XRP network has recently benefitted from increasing amounts of volume; yes, there was a rally in the crypto space generally, and XRP benefitted from the increasing amounts of investor interest. But it seems that new investors are finding their way to the one choice that promises to be in the ‘magic quadrant’ for crypto; XRP possesses low(er) risk & and high(er) reward than all other crypto choices.

Binance Adds XRP – USDT Pairings

On May 4^rth, Binance officially listed a new pairing on its exchange; XRP – USDT. Previously, traders had been restricted to transferring to BTC first and then to USDT if they wanted to exit a position. This implied very high BTC transfer fees as opposed to the usual “fraction of a penny” that XRP charges. ¹⁵

#Binance Adds XRP/USDT Trading Pairhttps://t.co/9OiHnx0svL pic.twitter.com/hEpsGWYoyf

— Binance (@binance) May 4, 2018

Now, however, traders can directly take a cash position, opening up new trading possibilities (and its associated demand) for XRP.

So how was this received by the market? Take a look at the results of day 2 of XRP/USDT trading: ¹⁶

binance_CMS_stats_XRP_USD

The new pairing is second only to the XRP/BTC pairing, clocking in at over $17 million dollars’ worth of trading. This is proof positive of what the XRP community has been surmising for quite a while now; that BTC and ETH volumes have been substantially benefiting from their USDT pairings. Now we should see a similar benefit to XRP volume.

CoinDCX

A new Indian-based exchange, CoinDCX, is planning on listing XRP in India.

CoinDCX announced that they would launch into business on April 7^th, and most recently on May 7^th they announced that they would be listing XRP as an option – starting the next day – May 8^th:

“CoinDCX is listing Ripple (XRP)! Deposits start tomorrow i.e. 8th May at 7 PM.”

They are also holding a giveaway promotion and have offered other incentives to the first Indian traders to trade a certain amount of XRP volume. For details, you’ll need to visit their blog here: https://medium.com/coindcx/ripple-comes-to-coindcx-50-000-worth-xrp-to-be-won-in-mega-ripple-giveaway-67c50c388a7b To follow them on Twitter: @coindcx

Note that CoinDCX doesn’t support direct INR pairings, but XRP’s expanding footprint into yet another international exchange is always welcome news.

Integrity is the Cornerstone of XRP’s Foundation

The XRP Community has a well-known culture that centers itself on dispelling misinformation, and about creating opportunities for all crypto market participants. We are oriented around facts and the dissemination of impartial, truthful information about very complex topics, and our team members have a history of being able to intuitively communicate through social media.

In addition, Ripple, the company who owns a substantial amount of XRP, also acts in a socially-responsible manner, dedicating part of its resources to helping the under-banked through an alliance with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and through direct donations of its XRP to charities such as Rippleworks and DonorsChoose.

Even outside the umbrella of charitable causes, Ripple has taken steps to champion the entire crypto space and open up new markets. Ripple has made very public statements that crypto should work with regulators, not try to circumvent them. The company has consistently acted with the best interests of widening liquidity and growing the entire cyrpto space for all crypto networks, not just XRP.

This core characteristic of integrity is important to retain, no matter what challenges await XRP, Ripple, or the XRP community of developers and owners. XRP will overcome all challenges, and will rise on a solid ethical foundation demonstrated by its proponents.

Sources:

XRP: How Big Will This Be?

Volume is picking up again; market caps are expanding once more. And now, the regulatory climate worldwide can be faced with greater certainty.

How large will the crypto market become? In my last blog, I mentioned the prediction made by the CEO of Pantera Capital – a large financial company that has made numerous investments in the blockchain space. He predicted that the market capitalization of cryptocurrency would plateau at around $40 trillion. ¹

Remarking on the current state of the crypto market:

“Anything that’s a $400 billion asset will not be ignored for long,”

His remarks were received with enthusiasm within crypto, but even here, sentiment remained skeptical. Could blockchain technology become a $40 trillion dollar market?

While most other expert estimates do not range upward to those heights, they all seem to agree that the measurement of the crypto market should be measured in trillions, not billions. ^{2 3}

Where do we stand today? 451 billion. ⁴

Ripple News & Topics

For Ripple, the public relations blitz continued, with Asheesh Birla doing

Ryan Zagone, Ripple Director of Regulatory Relations — Ryan Zagone

a livestream, and Ryan Zagone providing testimony to a UK Parliamentary hearing on blockchain.

The last four days is continuing evidence of how Ripple is challenging inertia through the media – and I predict we’ll see even greater levels of public engagement from Ripple going forward.

Standard Chartered Expanding Using RippleNet

One of the corridors that Standard Chartered wanted to expand was the India-and-Singapore corridor. Many of the bank’s corporate clients had supply chain payments that needed to be routed between the two countries. In November of 2017, the company went live with RippleNet to address that connection, and Standard Chartered’s CEO, Bill Winters, had this to say: ⁵

“We are using blockchain technology to streamline cross-border payments as part of the first live, real-time payments corridor between Singapore and India that we initiated in 2017. We will expand this capability to five more pairs of countries in 2018.”

Watching how Standard Chartered is using RippleNet’s expanding reach to its own advantage, one cannot help wonder which other banks are now scrambling to do the same.

Bank Dhofar Joins RippleNet

Oman is a small country on the South-Eastern part of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. It is an oil-rich sultanate, and one of its highest-profile banks is BankDhofar. ^{6 7}

Recently, BankDhofar made history by becoming the first Oman bank to join RippleNet, which expands the potential reach of XRP even further. While I’m assuming that the bank will start out like others in the space and use xCurrent (Ripple’s ILP-based solution for joining together different ledgers), it is one more addition to a growing network of banks that are quickly adopting the technology that will replace SWIFT.

#BankDhofar First Bank in Oman to Join RippleNet for Instant Blockchain Payments, this step will enable BankDhofar to provide instant, frictionless and secure cross border money transfers within seconds, with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment. pic.twitter.com/4j6dA9bRIv

— BankDhofar (@BankDhofar) May 1, 2018

Codius – Intrigue and Anticipation

For those that don’t already know, Codius is Ripple’s smart contract platform. The old version of Codius functions, but development of its capabilities and features was stopped in favor of a pivot towards the Interledger Protocol, or ILP, in 2015.

All was quiet on that front until December of 2017, when Stefan Thomas posted the following via Quora: ⁸

“I worked on Ripple’s smart contract system Codius back in 2013–2015. Back then, our conclusion was that a viable smart contracts ecosystem requires a standard for payments first. Contracts need to be reviewed to be trusted and that’s expensive if you need a new contract for each type of asset, because every ledger has a different protocol/API. Thus, Interledger was born.

Now that Interledger exists, we are revisiting the idea of building smart contracts. We just released a proof-of-concept for a new version of Codius that is built on Interledger. You can expect to see more on this in 2018.”

A “new version of Codius built on Interledger” caused a surge of excitement through the XRP community, and recently a video was posted of a Ripple board member – Susan Athey – mentioning Codius. The video is from 2015, but indicates Ripple’s vision for its smart contract platform:

Susan explains it in a way that most investors can understand.

“It’s going to allow more people to hedge more complicated situations.”

Derivatives markets are even bigger than ForEx; depending on the source, different experts put the size of the entire market somewhere between 542 trillion and 1,200 trillion.^{9 10} If Ripple is able to develop a smart contract platform that operates in concert with the Interledger Protocol, and it can connect all ledgers with an ILP plugin, then its capabilities may expand the derivatives market even further.

Zip Remit Endorsement

The original tweet from Zip Remit on March 1^st was a strong endorsement of Ripple technology and specifically xRapid:

Using #xrp from @Ripple is revolutionizing the way our entire business operates. For years our team parked huge amounts of capital globally to deliver the services our clients expected. Now we can move money like information, that's game changing. https://t.co/RpI2xEi0lV

— Zip Remit (@zipremit) March 1, 2018

This communication itself was eye-opening for other companies in the remittance sector, and in a recent clarification (via Twitter DM), Zip Remit added that: ¹⁵

“No ‘pilot’ phase here. We are in with both feet after doing a lot of assessment throughout 2017.”

This means that a company has independently confirmed XRP’s cost savings, and has made the decision to move forward with xRapid.

UK Parliament Blockchain Hearing

At a UK Parliament hearing on blockchain technology, Ryan Zagone, Ripple’s Director of Regulatory Relations, took the spotlight. Overall, the vast majority of the questions and discussions were positive, except for one lone standout, fellow panelist Martin Walker, the Director for Evidence-Based Management. ¹¹

Criticisms from Martin Walker

We are so used to encountering obstacles and inertia when it comes to adoption of true innovation, that it’s difficult to pause and consider if some criticisms are actually warranted or not. In this case, it was a strange mixed bag with Martin Walker’s comments, which makes things especially difficult to piece out. While Martin Walker did take some shots at Ripple, the majority of his comments were about blockchain technology and his perspective that it is a ‘fad’ (his words).

“All that it takes to make a credible idea into a fad is people just switch off their brains and stop thinking. Over 20 years in and around the banking industry — blockchain is a fad, but I have seen many fads in my career.”

Ironically, from this statement, I’d say the only person that has switched off their brain is Martin Walker.

Why? Because blockchain technology is not a fad. I wonder how many like-minded bankers and financial ‘experts’ initially dismissed the Internet as a ‘fad’? No, blockchain is not a fad, and it is not going away. The innovation of a trust-less, decentralized, no-counter-party digital asset has the potential to transform global finance in ways that the world has never seen before. The same is true for an immutable, distributed ledger. Missing this basic common ground, I don’t know how much progress can be made to change his opinion.

It was obvious from his statements that whoever planned the panel’s constituents wanted a counterpoint to the otherwise promising innovations described by Ryan Zagone and other panel members.

Ryan Zagone Holds His Ground

One committee member asked Ryan Zagone how Ripple was making use of blockchain technology. His response:

“We focus on cross-border payments where to date privacy was a painful process. Cross-border payment would take two days, you wouldn’t be able to track the payment and you wouldn’t know the fees upfront. So, it wasn’t until two days you’d find out how much was taken out as a fee.

“You could literally mail a box of cash and have better tracking and certainty than you would sending it through a bank. We recognized a key pain point in cross border payments that was limiting consumer’s use if they were sending it back home and it was also becoming a key limit to economic growth.”

In addition to this, he pointed out that because of the complexities and uncertainty around cross-border payments, some businesses have actually made the decision to focus on domestic growth rather than expand internationally. From my perspective, it’s unseen economic impacts like this that will propel world leaders (and the UK) to make a change using Ripple’s software.

Those like Martin Walker who are satisfied with the status quo do not understand the potential for increasing global commerce or for preventing another global financial crisis.

XRP & Community News

XRP, like other cryptocurrencies, can be used, traded, owned, and developed upon by anybody. This includes community-sponsored applications and websites, independent exchanges, and public & private businesses.

FastTech Accepts XRP as Payment

Although I’ve never used the site myself, an XRP fan discovered that a popular online electronics retailer – FastTech – accepts XRP as settlement. ¹²

fasttech_payment_option

While it’s “one more retailer,” this is an example of how crypto – and XRP – is making inroads into retail adoption.

Why is this worth noting? While retail settlement is on the decline for Bitcoin due to its high fees and slow confirmation times, XRP is fast and settles in under four seconds.

GMO Exchange in UK

A Japanese crypto exchange is planning on entering the UK market with a new trading app for mobile devices. GMO is a very large Japanese conglomerate, and has enormous clout when it comes to the foreign exchange market.

In addition, it is pursuing the crypto market through its subsidiary, GMO Coin. It has a new app called Pipster. ¹³ This app will allow users to trade in GMO-supported crypto choices – one of which is XRP. ¹⁴

The release date? June 2018.

Nik Bougalis Starts a Blog

This topic has to go under “XRP” because Nik announced in his first blog entry that, even though he is continuing to work for Ripple, he is also planning on starting a new business soon. He didn’t provide many details in the first blog, but dropped enough hints to generate some excitement. I can’t wait to see what sort of new venture he’s involved with:

“I am incredibly excited about the future of this venture. We have an amazing team and a great idea. Executing will mean more hard work and less free time for us, but I think that the product we will deliver will be worth it.

I’m not ready to share anymore right now, but I will as soon as we are ready.”

This announcement in itself was worth the read, but Nik also shared some of his personal history with David Schwartz and Ripple, which was fascinating reading. I won’t spoil it for you – if you want to know the details, you’ll have to read for yourself.

Community Night Ticket Competition

During “Blockchain Week” in New York City, Ripple is hosting a community night that will feature Snoop Dog. The number of tickets is limited, but Ripple set aside ~ twenty tickets for XRP community members. To distribute the tickets fairly, Claire Arthurs Kart, Ripple’s Head of Community, organized a competition to give them away: One was a trivia competition, and the other was a meme competition.

The winners of the trivia contest – and the associated tickets – were:

The winners are 🎉: @Ho_oDL, @faristheknight9, @ByrneNick, @ripplelord, @Jasonwww_ong, @FEL_III, @BrandonDunn28, @heresMarvin, @KAKOYLA, @leocyber, @dnbkv, @dappyroots, @stevenjw95, @Swartzberg, @2jp3, @mmaccartney, @Skorovs, @allthebuzz888, @Andrizzz, @mjv98, @austincoats

— Claire (@clairearthurs) April 27, 2018

The winners of the meme competition were “yet to be determined” at the time of this writing.

Congratulations to everybody that participated and especially those that now get to attend the community night in New York City – looking forward to the stories from your experience.

Community Reminders

For those that want to purchase XRP swag, there are two well-known community-sponsored merchandise sellers:

The Digital Ledger

The Digital Ledger is run by a team of community members that includes

Tom Berg (of #nopants fame)
Andre Ventura (of Dre Ventures YouTube fame)
Michael Bidegain (Of Bidecoin and XRP Street Team fame)

The above group also runs a popular Discord channel as well.

Cryptomerchandise

Cryptomerchandise is run by Alex Cobb, who runs a popular YouTube Channel.

XRPChat Coin Promotion

In one of my recent blogs, I discussed a coin promotion that was being organized by @mercury (XRPChat avatar). To make the process democratic, he opened up voting on six potential designs. The voting closed on Saturday, April 28^th, with the winning design was submitted by @xrphunter:

winning_design_XRPChat_Coin_Promotion

To order the coin once it is available, you’ll need to actively follow the thread where the promotion is being organized. Here is the link: https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/22658-vote-for-the-next-xrp-ripple-themed-silver-medallions/

Answer: It Will be Big – Very Big

How big will the crypto market be?

Some pundits subscribe to a ‘win-lose’ type of mentality where they believe that for their preferred digital asset to rise, others must fall. I do not believe in this limited thinking.

I believe that innovations like ILP make the pie bigger for everybody. And I also believe that entirely new asset classes (derivatives and others) will be created with the new version of Codius.

What about other analysts – amateur or professional?

One is a YouTuber named “Suzy” from “Esoteric Trading Solutions.” Her latest broadcast methodically points out the overwhelming evidence that institutional money is now primed to enter the crypto market. While I spoke about the advent of retail investing in my blogs from 2017, and pointed out some promising data from that time period that hinted at institutional investment by hedge funds, she lists the unassailable facts that now indicate 2018 is the year of entry into the crypto markets by these large financial entities.

Her comment during this broadcast:

“The biggest one that works – and we know it works – is Ripple (XRP). So Ripple (XRP) will do extremely well. Ripple (XRP) will be the cryptocurrency of choice, I’m telling you.”

While she falls into the habit of calling XRP “Ripple” (this was my own bad habit for many years), you get the picture. Suzy has been an equity and funds trader, and she is an insider to the industry. While my own analysis might be insightful at times, it is definitely not an expert opinion like hers. I am a technology architect, while her background is large-dollar-value finance.

I highly recommend that you view the entire YouTube video, but if you are short on time, here is a remarkable statistic (10:22 in the video):

crypto_funds_entering_market

These numbers portend an incredible wave of investment that is just starting; it is only May and we’ve already seen the equivalent of a years’ worth of funds created to target cryptocurrency.

If you’re on the fence about continuing to own or invest in crypto, I strongly suggest you verify some of these numbers and do your own research. I’m confident that you will arrive at the same conclusion that I did long ago; it may be a path with obstacles and inertia, but XRP will overcome the doubters and lead to higher levels of global commerce – and add amazing value to your own portfolio in the meantime.

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Transforming the Global Payments Infrastructure: Ripple & XRP

The term “infrastructure” conjures yawn-inducing images of highways, water treatment plants, and the electric grid. It’s not a sexy topic. global_infrastructure

But infrastructure is a key topic for business and governments alike. Have you ever visited an older city that was built on an even older city, by a water-way? What are the roads like? Usually that combination leads to a confusion of roads and cause-ways that connect different neighborhoods and districts. Contrast this with a newer suburb that is located away from rivers, lakes or mountains. In that case, newer neighborhoods can be planned from the start, with city architects working on a greenfield environment.

When it comes to the global payments infrastructure, it’s a patchwork of correspondence banks, FX markets, and central banks that have evolved over the years to facilitate cross-border value transfer. It’s reflective of history, and doesn’t reflect the modern potential of current technology, which can enable real-time payments that settle with near-zero transaction cost.

This is the reality of what Ripple is achieving, whether it’s connecting central banks, remittance processors, or payment services. They’ve studied the current payments infrastructure, and have methodically created the necessary new solutions to replace them from the ground up. It’s not all glitz and glamour, but if they’re successful – and it looks like they’re well on their way – XRP holders are positioned for an explosion of demand.

General Crypto News Impacting XRP

While monitoring your crypto investment, it’s always wise to keep your eye on macro-level trends and data as well as local developments. This includes overall economic indices, political trends, as well as international trade developments. Each of these factors can eventually find their way to impacting the crypto market in some respect.

$40 Trillion Crypto Market Capitalization?

During the great crypto crash of 2018, the entire capitalization of the crypto market took a hit, retracing downwards from its all time high of somewhere around $823 billion in early January. At its lowest point, the overall market capitalization was measured at around $250 billion in 2018. ^{1 2}

The market has since found its footing, and is now working its way upwards again, sometimes posting double-digit gains within hours.

During this time frame, the CEO of Pantera Capital recently made headlines by calling for a $40 trillion dollar market capitalization for crypto. ³ This would imply that the market will eventually plateau at a multiple of around 100 from where we are currently in terms of prices. ceo_pantera

“Obviously, we’re very bullish on the space. We think we’re way below, maybe an order of magnitude — or two — below the real fundamental fair value of blockchain,” he said, stating later that “the industry as a whole is $400 billion. It easily could go to $4 trillion, and $40 trillion is definitely possible.”

Those sorts of predictions, while shocking, actually reflect the youthful smallness of the crypto market compared to where it may eventually plateau. While the mainstream press’ knee-jerk reaction was to interpret what this would mean for Bitcoin prices, the same would hold true for the other top five crypto choices as well, including XRP.

For XRP, it would imply a price of around $90 – based only on speculative demand – not on utility-based demand. It’s an amazing prediction, but probably not far off the mark.

Ripple News

Ripple has continued adding to its momentum and market coverage, fielding representatives at almost every major fintech conference. This market coverage by Ripple will lead to an increased pipeline of customers and another hiring round by the company, I anticipate. Their consistent message, marketing, and methodical education of stakeholders is reaping rewards, with increasing numbers of individual XRP investors and fans.

Santander’s One Pay FX App

Santander and Ripple are both highlighting the new One Pay FX application that customers can use to send money to any country in Europe as well as the UK. The service is available to retail customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil, and Poland, and will be rolled out in additional countries moving forward. ⁴

This is a major effort by Santander, and if the payment application is as wildly popular as it was during its initial roll-out, XRP fans should definitely watch this closely; it utilizes xCurrent at present. With additional market reach for Ripple technology comes a corresponding expansion of XRP’s potential as well. ^{5 6}

xVia Scores Big Wins

xVia is a popular Ripple solution. From its official corporate description, it allows senders to transmit unidirectional payments by sending their payment through RippleNet to a receiver – whether it’s another wallet, a network, or a specific business.

Unlike xRapid, xVia doesn’t require XRP for use, but rather is completely flexible, enabling interoperability between networks behind the scenes. And the solution’s footprint seems to be easy-to-maintain, described as an API-based tool. This means that customer organizations, once they have the necessary security clearance, can simply use the API by “calling it” from within another program or application.

On Thursday, April 26^th, Ripple announced five new customers have signed up to use xVia: ⁷

FairFX (UK)
RationalFX (UK)
Exchange4Free (UK)
UniPAY (Georgia)
MoneyMatch (Malaysia)

These companies are known as payment originators – companies that are sending a payment on behalf of a customer. Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Product, explained: ⁸

“All of these customers run into the same problem: building bespoke connections to banks and networks all over the world. It’s expensive and time consuming. xVia enables them to grow their overall market share by reaching new customers in new markets, easier than ever before.”

This announcement, listing five new customers for just one of their solutions, is further evidence that Ripple walks the talk, and is quickly becoming the worldwide leader in cross-border payment processing.

SBI Quarterly Report

Each quarter, SBI releases a quarterly report that details their activities, progress, and projections for the next quarter. This quarter was no different, and in its report, SBI included projections for its new SBI Virtual Currencies (SBI VC), Bitcoin Cash mining progress (SBI mines Bitcoin Cash), and a potpourri of information about the Japanese market, regulation, and security. ⁹

One of the charts that was included in the SBI quarterly report showed the projected customer influx for SBI VC, given all known information:

SBI_VC_customer_counts

Basically, this section on slide #106 indicates the projected numbers for the starting line of SBI VC for the general public (it’s currently in beta). What does this add up to?

4.26 + 3.21 + 1.05 = 8.52 million customers

That’s a lot of customers. As a point of reference, Coinbase, the main direct-sale crypto site in the West, claims to have approximately 13 million customers. While impressive, the fact that SBI VC is starting out with over half that number indicates that it may soon have enough accounts to surpass Coinbase’s influence in the crypto markets. ¹⁰

Exchange News

XRP’s reach is expanding around the world and is building on its daily liquidity and volume numbers day by day. Trading volume is climbing, edging closer to a daily average measured in the billions. This increased volume and liquidity has led to a sustained multi-day rally, with its associated higher price levels in the past three weeks.

SBI VC

The CEO of SBI Holdings, Yoshitaka Kitao, has been a consistent advocate for Ripple and XRP. In fact, SBI owns somewhere in the neighborhood of 11% of Ripple itself, and has formed a joint company with Ripple called “SBI Ripple Asia.”

Yoshitaka Kitao has been vocal about his high opinion of Ripple’s digital asset XRP as well, and has made statements about the high value he places on it. During the recent December-January rally, when it was clear that the new market entrants favored XRP above other cryptos, he decisively added his own perspective to the mix:

Wow, XRP at all time high! Forget about bitcoin, we’re all in on XRP!

— 北尾吉孝 (@yoshitaka_kitao) December 13, 2017

This rally, and XRP’s fast rise through the CMC rankings to hold second place for a time, was done without SBI Virtual Currencies adding its volume of XRP trading to the mix. The addition of SBI VC – which uses XRP as a primary base currency – is an event that is anticipated by XRP fans. SBI Virtual Currencies is currently in “beta”, and is only serving a very limited number of customers, but it is nearing its release date.

The launch date for SBI VC was postponed due to concerns that security for the exchange be airtight, especially in light of the NEM theft that happened at Coincheck.

Now, however, even that postponement is nearing its end point, and SBI VC is looking to transition into full production release very soon, with SBI indicating that their exchange will: ¹¹

“Become Number one in a blink of an eye.”

I look forward to the production roll-out and will start my own account at SBI VC when it opens.

Koinex

One of the exchanges that Pantera Capital invested in is Koinex. It’s an Indian exchange, and Pantera has a vested interest in growing the entire crypto ecosystem as part of its own growth strategy. The announcement of Pantera’s investment in Koinex was made in December of 2017, just a little over four months ago. In the announcement, Pantera Capital CEO Daniel Morehead noted that: ¹²

“Pantera Capital is staunchly committed to investing in local cryptocurrency exchanges across the globe, because any regional market thrives on local leadership…”

Pantera Capital is a company with a vision, and they’ve chosen to architect their trading site using eight XRP pairs.

@Ripple (XRP) has always been a crypto-crowd favourite because of its high liquidity and ease to transact. For the first time in the crypto world, Koinex proudly presents XRP-based trading market with 8 XRP pairs going live tonight. #XRPTheStandard #WhatsNextOnKoinex #Ripple

— Koinex (@koinexindia) April 28, 2018

This will allow instant crypto transfer of value – both from other exchanges and to & from individuals’ local XRP wallets.

Mercury FX Confirms Efficacy of XRP

While Ripple has a variety of software packages available for banks and other financial institutions, the primary one that XRP fans are concerned with is xRapid. This is due to the fact that, even though XRP can be used in any of their software packages, it is required to run xRapid, Ripple’s tool for sourcing cross-border liquidity.

One of the companies to trial xRapid is Mercury FX.

Their trial of xRapid lasted months and in it, Mercury FX was closely monitoring and comparing costs prior to a company-wide switch. Their results were positive, confirming XRP’s advertised cost savings:

In Q1, along with other xRapid pilots customers, we have proved that #xRapid can lower liquidity costs & increase payment speed and transparency using #XRP. We are looking forward to continued successful testing and going into production.https://t.co/hlYDcFyG7o

— Mercury-fx Ltd (@mercury_fx_ltd) April 26, 2018

According to an article published by themerkle.com:

“the company has deemed it good enough to enter the production stage in the very near future.”

Mercury FX is not the first company to independently confirm the cost savings associated with using XRP; the first company to report confirmation of XRP’s benefits was Cuallix.

Global Payments Infrastructure Transforming Now

With its five new xVia customer wins, Ripple is clearly on their way to a takeover in payment processing. Brad Garlinghouse’s focus on their core strength has helped Ripple achieve something that is truly remarkable – it’s the first new global payments infrastructure since SWIFT was implemented over forty years ago. brad_garlinghouse_Ripple_HQ_Pic

Ripple doesn’t like second place.

They’ve been working tirelessly for the past five and half years, methodically and carefully building all of the tools, partnerships. and business alliances necessary for them to supercharge XRP adoption. It may seem like a long wait for XRP owners, but the reward will be well worth it; it is now, at the end of April in 2018, that we are on the cusp of an XRP explosion of adoption, popularity, and usage for sourcing liquidity.

Let the doubters doubt; I’ve seen what Ripple can do. While replacing payments infrastructure is not glamorous work, it is very prestigious and central to the financial well-being of countless stakeholders; central banks, governments, citizens, customers, banks, remittance processors, and of course, those of us who have the foresight to purchase XRP as an investment.

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