In today’s world of cryptocurrency, everybody wants quick money, to the extent that most people are beginning to forget why bitcoin/cryptocurrency was created in the first place.
In this article, I will discuss Ripple and its native token XRP. I will also discuss why I think that long-term investment in XRP is a bad idea.
Currently, Ripple is enjoying huge popularity, ranking #3 on crypto charts. In case you are living under a rock, let me explain the concept behind Ripple.
What is Ripple?
Ripple was Originally released in 2012 as a subsequent iteration of Ripplepay, Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network. The term ripple is used for both the digital currency (XRP) and the open payment network within which that currency is transferred.
Here's Ripple as described on its website:
"Ripple connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporates via RippleNet to provide one frictionless experience to send money globally."
So what is the main difference between Ripple and Bitcoin?
Ripple is a payment network for financial institutions and is a competitor to systems like SWIFT. It can also be traded, but was never intended to be a payment method for buying stuff online. Bitcoin aims to become a globally adopted currency that could improve or even replace conventional money.
It is important to remember that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were born out of the economic crash of 2008 caused by banks. The idea was to make banks obsolete through this revolutionary technology known as blockchain. A world free from unnecessary financial middlemen.
As we can see, Ripple is a protocol that helps banks better manage their profits and business. Unlike Bitcoin, whose whole purpose was to defeat the necessity of banks, Ripple helps banks grow and gain more control over finance
At this point, the most important thing to be noted is:
XRP and Ripple are unrelated. Yes, they are not the same.
Recently, In a parliamentary hearing in the UK, when asked about the connection between Ripple and XRP, a representative from ripple told the panel that-
"XRP is open source and it was not created by our company, so that existed as an open source technology. We created a company that was interested in modernizing payments and then began using that open-source tech to do so ... We didn't create XRP ... What we do have is we do own a significant amount of XRP, it was gifted to us by some of the open-source developers that created it. But there's not a direct connection between Ripple the company and XRP."
In my opinion, XRP is just a speculative coin with zero practical use and which cannot be redeemed for anything. It was created out of thin air backed by nothing and its price is pumped by a lot of speculation and hype.
Few more points why I don’t like Ripple-
Ripple is centralized
This has huge implications. With Bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies, nobody can stop you from sending your money across the seas. However, with Ripple, a gateway can (for any reason at all) freeze your tokens. They even used the freeze feature at first to stop the movement of their co-founder Jed McCaleb's coins.
Ripple is not an open blockchain.
Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and 90% of all cryptocurrency blockchains, Ripple is a relatively closed blockchain. Through some effort, users can go download a wallet and transfer Ripple to it, but you have to create trust lines with other organizations in order to get access. In this way, you can’t just send money to whomever you want, they have to accept you as trustworthy before allowing transactions. And considering most users are banks, they have no reason to accept you.
Conclusion
XRP is a centralized digital asset designed solely to benefit Ripple Labs. And if the only point is to make money on our investments, then there are many other projects emerging with great ideas and teams which can be considered.
Disclaimer: All opinions and information in this post is for educational and informative purposes only. Do your own research before making any investments!
Cheers. Have safe investments.
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