BREAKING NEWS
Ripple (XRP) Is Soaring And Did Almost Double Its Price in One Day!

CNBC notified on December 14, 2017 that Ripple (XRP) surged 89% in a single day and is vying with Bitcoin Cash to be the number 3 cryptocurrency in market capitalization. Why is Ripple that much soaring and why is Ripple not on everyone’s lips?

“In a landscape of a lot of hype, Ripple is the one that is delivering a reality,” Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, summarized in a phone interview with CNBC shortly. We are looking in this article on what facts Brad Garlinghouse’s reality is based and what makes Ripple outstanding. In this article, we will persue the question why it obtrudes to invest in XRP now.

What have the top five cryptocurrencies in common?

All top five cryptocurrencies  can be used for payments. More and more acceptance places will accept these coins. There is one exception: Ripple, which is a startup and a coin for revolutionizing payment networks for banks, exchanges and financial institutions. Payment transfers between banks will be taken to a new, much faster level.

How Ripple can enhance international bank payments

Cross border payments old style

International payments in the banking system are currently slow, expensive and sensitive to errors. This old correspondance banking system is about 600 years old. It is only a little bit improved by SWIFT messages ISO 20022 and MT101 payment instruction. As we can see in the above illustration, for a payment have six to seven players be linked. Messages are processed sequentially. Therefore, this whole payment process will takt a while. As banks often hold the money back a while for arbitrary reasons, it takes 24 to 48 hours for processing such an oldstyle payment. Compared to todays technology, this is like doing transportation by steamships and pulling freight trains by steam engines instead of using airplanes.

Today, banks are confronted with the peer to peer payment transactions of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. These cryptocurrency-payments are based on blockchain technology and do not need a bank involved. When international bank payments need up to two days for settlement, cryptocurrency payments are executed within hours or even seconds. Additionally, bank payments are connect to huge fees. At the age of cryptocurrency transactions, customers will no more be ready to pay these expensive fees for payment processing. There is a real danger that banks will lose this payment business.

What are the goals of the banks when it comes to payment processing?

Besides trying to keep the payment processing business within the banking system, the banks have two goals when thinking about the application of blockchain technology.

1. Saving costs

2. Saving  time

Why do the banks not rely on Bitcoin?

On a first sight, using Bitcoin for Bank to Bank payment processing seems natural. However, banks don’t take Bitcoin into consideration. Why do the banks not chose popular Bitcoin?

Similarities between Bitcoin and Ripple

• Both are decentralized and have an open source protocol. The Ripple protocol is not yet publicly published.
• Both eleminate several monetary trust requirements: Trust in central banks, in financial services companies, in legal systms, in contracts, etc.
• Both still need a trust-based relationship for cashing-out. To redeem Bitcoin/XRP for USD, a “gateway” company is needed. This is an entry point for external regulation.

Differences between Bitcoin and Ripple

• Ripple can handle 1500 transactions per second, while Bitcon can only handle up to 3 transactions per second. Speed matters!
• Bitcoin is not owned by someone. In comparison, Ripple is owned by the company of the same name. Theoretically, they could simple end it, if they wanted to.
• The Bitcoin network tracks the movement of Bitcoins. The Ripple network can track information of any kind, e.g. balances of any currency.
• Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency while Ripple is a decentralized transaction network that also contains a digital currency called Ripples or XRP.
• Bitcoin needs external currency exchanges. The Ripple network acts as a decentralized currency exchange and can change XRP in USD within the network.
• There is an increasing number of Bitcoins, gradually moving towards 21 Million by mining. There is a fixed, finite number of 100 Billon XRP.
• Open Coin, the company behind Ripple, will give away 75% of XRP though it has not yet given full details on how. They are holding some XRP in order to make a profit just as early Bitcoin developers made a profit off acces to cheap BTC. They are idealistic people, but still working for money.
• Ripple allows automated scripts.
• Ripple can send micro-payments to developing countries without causing huge fees.

This comparision of the two cryptocurrencies is based on an article of Nathan Ihara at https://www.quora.com/How-is-Ripple-different-from-bitcoin.

The advantages of Ripple over Bitcoin

In short, Ripple promises cheaper and faster transactions and can be used for a lot more than just as a cryptocurrency. The full range of possibilties can only be realized once the protocol is published. While a Bitcoin transaction needs up to two hours to settle, a XRP transaction is settled in about 3 seconds.

It is speed that counts! The time for transaction settlement and the maximum transaction volume depend both on speed.  Ripple is able to process the huge number of transactions between banks or the full volume Mastercard has to handle daily.

What we expect from soaring XRP in 2018

After soaring 89% in one day on December 14, 2017, the chart built a triangle. This is a perfect chart formation for a further price increase up to USD 1.20 or higher. I expect the outbreak today, Monday December 18, 2017.

By the end of 2018, I expect a price of approx. USD 10, which is more than 1500% from today. XRP is definitively the coin you must be invested in 2018.

P.S. The author of this article is invested in BTC as well as in XRP.