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What exactly is Ripple? There are two things to consider. Ripple, the cryptocurrency (XRP) and Ripple, the global settlement network. You may be asking why I am dividing these two things when it is critical to know the difference upon investing in Ripple.
Ripple the technology is a global settlement network set to make wiring, international transfer, and fee-heavy currency exchanges obsolete. The team behind Ripple is trying to streamline the whole process and make the process cost-effective, faster, and more efficient for banks and consumers alike. In other words, if you had to exchange currencies from Japan to Nicaragua, JPY/NIO generally isn’t an option. Thus, one must consider converting JPY/USD to USD/NIO while incurring various fees during each stage of the process. XRP the currency, sets to be the middle ground currency in which you can exchange XRP into any currency, lowering the cost and simplifying the process.
Currently, the only form of investing in Ripple is indirectly through their currency, XRP. And with most currencies, you are just investing in its innate value. Nothing more, nothing less. At this very moment, one Ripple XRP is worth $0.25. You aren’t even investing in the actual technology. The technology is currently being sold separately for banks to test their pilot programs and adopt the technology more quicker. Ripple Developer, Joel Katz explains the difference between XRP and Ripple the technology here. I recommend giving the piece a read for anyone considering in investing in Ripple XRP. Now, you are wondering why I am still investing Ripple XRP?
My seven reasons for investing in Ripple
- One of the biggest reasons why I decided to invest in Ripple XRP is because they put their money where their mouth is. Of the 100 billion XRP tokens that currently exist, Ripple holds 61 billion to build investor confidence. Ripple themselves are just as invested as any Ripple investor is in their mission to seamlessly transform how funds are exchanged. Not to mention, they have a team of passionate professionals who know that they are about to redefine the industry.
- American Express (AMEX) recently partnered with Ripple for its cross-border transactions and are working to incorporate XRP down the line. This news headline is huge because AMEX is an enormous institution that can stress test the technology at a massive scale and cause a ripple effect in the market. See what I did there?
- Ripple XRP is the only cryptocurrency designated for enterprise financial institutions and payment providers. Ripple without a doubt cuts costs and saves financial institutions and consumers money.
- Ripple has close ties to many big banks and payment providers. Currently, many banks are testing out their pilot program and may even adopt the technology. Some banks like UBS, Santander, UniCredit, CIBC, and many others are already embracing Ripple.
- Ripple XRP allows much faster, cheaper, and reliable cross-border payments, effectively replacing wire transfers. The average settlement time for a XRP transaction is four seconds. Did I mention that Ripple has already been tested for its scalability, thus making it one of the more effective enterprise solutions for payment transactions
- Ripple is leaning towards a more decentralized approach after taking constructive feedback from its supporters. One can argue that Ripple is trying to go toe-to-toe with Bitcoin with its new plan of decentralization. You can read more about Ripples new unveiled strategy to Become More Decentralized than Bitcoin.
- The Ripple network is seamless and compatible with many known currencies like dollars, euros, pounds, yen or bitcoins. The process is simplified so that there is no thought of many possible, inefficient conversions on the consumer side.
However, do realize investing in Ripple does pose a risk. Please invest at your own discretion after doing some research on Ripple yourself. Although it is positive news that many banks are adopting the technology from Ripple, it is not guaranteed that the currency XRP is going to be used. But, I am banking on it. I believe it is a question of WHEN, not IF banks will adopt both the technology and the currency of Ripple.
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