Investing in Ripple – Tim Schmidt

Although there are many types of cryptocurrency that exist for no particular rhyme or reason, Ripple definitely has a major and clear purpose in this world.

The crypto scene is starting to get filled up with way too many tokens that exist for no reason at all other than trying to capitalize on the Bitcoin craze. The reason that Ripple is different is because it’s a project with a clear vision, it’s well thought out, people and financial institutions actually use it, and it possesses a clear goal.

As a form of blockchain, the clear goal of Ripple is it has no major interest to become the primary blockchain in use for the majority of transactions made with crypto. Believe it or not, their goal is nothing even close to this. Overall, it just wants to handle the payments that take place inside of its network and nothing more.

Ripple is attempting to solve a major problem specifically in banking. At this time, banking transactions are very expensive, very slow, and they can take place at numerous banks from countries all over the world using different currencies. This is a very inefficient system to say the least.

Think about this: if you were to make a wire transfer you’d have to spend $60 and it could take days to get where it needs to go. This is an expensive proposition to say the least and it’s incredibly slow to boot. Why go through this absurdity when we have other options like crypto?

In this day and age, we can find out the latest breaking news in Tokyo in an instant. We can buy stuff online and have it delivered to our house in an hour. It’s even possible to send money to other people in an instant electronically, even exchanging currencies in the process.

What does the banking industry continue to remain so slow? And why do they continue to act as the main anchor of our economy?

Their system was designed more than 40 years ago. It’s obsolete and it hasn’t been upgraded at all. Is anyone ever going to bother making it more efficient?

The Ideal Way to Invest in Ripple

Just like the wide majority of cryptocurrency investments, you can invest in Ripple a few different ways depending on your overall goals. Some of the more common XRP investment styles include:

· Holding your crypto — in this instance, you will acquire XRP through a trade or purchase. When you get this form of digital currency in your possession, you have no intention of ever spending it. Instead, you plan on holding it for as long as you desire. People usually take this action in an effort to hold onto the XRP to earn a profit. They believe the price is going to go up in value and they want to hold it for as long as they can to make extra money on their investment. Bitcoin has done this for many people and has turned them into Bitcoin millionaires.

· XRP IRA investing — investing in crypto as part of your IRA is another great way to boost your retirement portfolio. People tend to take on this investment because they know it will gain value over time. The value of crypto typically tends to appreciate over the long term. In the short-term, the value can swing wildly and depreciate temporarily. But overall, Ripple and other forms of crypto aren’t likely to lose value anytime soon. And speaking of Ripple, it’s much more stable than other forms of crypto including Bitcoin. Bitcoin can swing wildly in price and gain or lose massive amounts of value very quickly. Some investors prefer to choose a more stable option like Ripple because they cannot handle the massive price swings.

· Trading for the short-term — most likely the riskiest way to own XRP, it’s also one of the fastest ways to make a quick return on your investment. Because prices fluctuate just like they do on the stock market. But remember that this investment is risky even though it’s a great way to potentially make fast cash. If you can time it right and buy it low and then selling high in the short-term you are bound to make a couple of bucks with this riskier investment strategy. We highly recommend avoiding short-term trading unless you have lots of experience as an everyday trader.

5 Reasons Why Ripple Is a Great Investment

As you can imagine, there are some excellent reasons to consider investing in Ripple. Some of the more prominent points for investing in this digital currency include:

Ripple Protocol

The Ripple protocol is known as Ripple XRP and Ripple IOU. These protocols are operational on the network. IOU sounds exactly the way that it should. This is to represent debt on the Ripple network.

You can generate IOU tokens but they do not possess any intrinsic value. Overall, they represent a promise that an individual will pay a specific amount to the owner of the token.

The IOU tokens are very interesting because they aren’t specifically tied to any single currency. They are actually tied to all currencies. In fact, you can issue a Ripple IOU for the US dollar and also issue them for the JPY, GBP, and EUR. So no matter what you prefer to use for payment, you can actually issue an IOU token for that currency.

For clarity’s sake, the IOU token is made up of the issuers ID, the name of the asset, and the amount of the asset.

As an example, $55 in US currency would look different on the Ripple ledger. It would be 55 separate USD.companyname IOU tokens. And company name represents the name of the company or person issuing the token.

The IOU token is a debt note. It can be created and issued by anyone on the network. But trust is an absolute necessity to take into consideration regarding the Ripple blockchain.

So, if you do decide to issue an IOU token, you should issue it to an entity or person that you actually trust. Believe it or not, it’s possible to trade IOU tokens just like any other cryptocurrency.

So the person you end up issuing the token to might not be the person that eventually pays you through Ripple even if the other person owes you the money. On the other hand, you aren’t forced to accept a deal so you can ensure the original issued token remains with the entity that owes you the money.

The IOU tokens were originally created with the thought in mind that certain entities or banks couldn’t use XRP because of the volatility or lack of trust in crypto. Another reason why they were created was to make it easy for reluctant parties to use the new system.

The interesting thing about IOU tokens is they provide Ripple a way to let Fiat currencies be traded through blockchain without actually needing the currency. This is a simple process similar to how the Binance blockchain operates, which allows pegged tokens to trade external cryptocurrency.

Bank Partnerships

For the most part, there aren’t too many people talking about Ripple for a very simple reason. The Ripple blockchain was designed specifically with institutions in mind.

It’s certainly possible for individuals to trade in and use Ripple, but it’s really much more poignant for financial institutions. Since the majority of people aren’t friends with the CEO of a major bank, you probably haven’t heard of this type of cryptocurrency.

On the side note, Bank of America and other popular financial institutions have adopted Ripple as a valuable cryptocurrency. Some of the other institutions using the Ripple platform include Royal Santander, J.P. Morgan, SBI Remit, and American Express to name a few popular banking institutions.

Yes, it’s hard to believe that Bank of America has jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. A few years ago they were determined to destroy all things cryptocurrency related. Yet they are now using the technology to their benefit.

And even more important, since the XRP blockchain has a very definite purpose, it logically makes sense that the value of Ripple will continue to rise with time. That’s why financial institutions are so interested in this investment.

As a matter of fact, some of the other major banks in partnership with Ripple include:

· Akbank

· Axis Bank

· BBVA

· Cambridge Global Payments

· eZforex

· MUFG

· SEB

· Star One Credit Union

· Yes Bank

Transaction Speed

The beauty of Ripple is that it’s incredibly quick to spend money, even though you may not have ever heard of this cryptocurrency. The best part is that lots of financial institutions have adopted the Ripple blockchain and they are regular users. From its initiation, transfers of Ripple XRP take place in the blink of an eye.

As an example, let’s say a Canadian bank is looking to transfer 5000 CAD to a bank in Japan. In traditional banking, a currency exchange would need to take place. On the Ripple network, there is no need for any exchange of currency.

All in all, the bank will take as many XRP that equal 5000 CAD and they will send them across the Ripple network to the Japanese bank recipient. And that’s all it takes because after that they can move on because the exchange is finished.

After the Japanese bank receives the XRP, they will exchange it and turn it into Japanese currency and give it to their customers. This transaction is very seamless and takes place incredibly fast.

Ripple Management & Investors

Jed McCaleb is the individual who initially conceived of Ripple. He is no longer part of this cryptocurrency and is now part of Stellar. His idea was originally pitched to David Shwartz and Arthur Britto, the gentleman who eventually built Ripple.

The supposed founders of Ripple are considered Ryan Fugger, Arthur Britto, and Chris Larson. They originally created the company and operate under the registered business name Ripple Labs Inc.

Chris Larson is the executive chairman. Ripple’s CEO named Brad Garlinghouse is also a member of the board of directors.

Early Ripple backers include:

· Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher)

· Google

· Andreesen Horowitz

· FF Angel IV

Is It Possible to Obtain Ripple without Spending Money?

No, it’s not possible to get Ripple without spending money. Certain cryptocurrencies can be staked or mined, but Ripple has an existing market cap and it’s already a fixed market.

The blockchain is at its capacity and XRP will never be added. There aren’t any plans to ever do this as of right now.

The way the system works is simple. New tokens are actually added to the blockchain month after month, but the system was designed this way. The parent company is still holding more than half of the 10 billion XRP initially issued on release day.

Those tokens are being injected into the market very slowly and usually they are offered to financial institutions before anyone else. Even though the amount of tokens is quite large, once they run out there aren’t going to be any more tokens of XRP issued again.

But there’s more to this cryptocurrency than meets the eye. Another major design detail about Ripple is that the value can be affected greatly over time. Since no one is going to ever issue any more XRP, the existing Ripple tokens will decrease as time goes by.

This was a factor in the design that specifically exists on purpose. They didn’t want to have any transaction costs for Ripple, so they designed this currency with the logic that after each transaction a small percentage of the crypto will disappear in the form of a small transaction fee.

Guess what? Nobody is forced to take a loss on the transaction fee. It goes back to the Ripple blockchain and disappears, which means fewer XRP tokens will eventually exist each day. And the amount gets lower and lower, which means the value of tokens becomes higher and higher over time.

So the quicker you get in on Ripple now, the more valuable your tokens will be over the long run. And even more important, when they stop injecting new tokens into the economy, the value should eventually skyrocket.

The Other Major Advantages of Owning Ripple

One of the biggest advantages is that Ripple passed the no security token test in the United Kingdom and the US. This might not mean a lot to most people, but for investors this is a huge deal.

For starters, passing this test means that the XRP token holders never have to worry about their cryptocurrency becoming valueless. This means that some unfounded law could never regulate this currency and kill the value at all.

Because of this regulation, lots of financial institutions have decided to embrace Ripple. But regular users also experience this benefit as well.

For the most part, there aren’t many countries that have created laws regarding cryptocurrencies. You can pretty much trade crypto anywhere in the world, but there’s always a fear that some country will outlaw it partially or in its entirety.

If an outlaw of this currency were ever to take place — and this is highly unlikely in the US — the former regulations introduced could definitely have an effect on certain tokens, depending if the blockchain is considered trustworthy or not.

Although Ripple is 100% cleared in this regard, the currency regulations aren’t quite clear yet. But it’s definitely a step ahead of the competition by passing the no security token test.

By staying in compliance with existing regulations, this is a 100% legal service in existence right now. So even if the laws around crypto change as time passes, nothing of a drastic nature will happen to Ripple because the digital currency has remained in compliance this whole time.

Ripple: A Brief Buyer’s Guide

Are you looking to learn how to buy Ripple? Good for you because it’s an excellent investment that will only rise in value over time.

It is impossible to stake or mine for XRP. The only way to get your hands on it is to buy some. So, we are under the assumption that you plan on holding it for a while. You’ll have to get a crypto wallet to digitally store it on the Internet.

Or if you prefer, you can keep it in the wallet of your exchange. But you might want to think twice about that option depending on the security rating of your exchange. It might not be the best or safest idea to hold it in your exchange’s wallet.

There are currently just a few exchanges trading XRP. But the biggest exchanges in the world including Coinbase and Binance are among them. So if you’re trying to get started buying Ripple, those two places are great options to start with. This is particularly true if you’re willing to leave your crypto at the exchange and would prefer not getting a crypto wallet.

There is excellent security at both Binance and Coinbase so no need to worry in that regard. As long as you keep the two factor authentication and use a really secure password, your crypto will remain safe. Try not to use a stupid password that somebody could easily guess. Make it detailed and hard to hack and you’ll have no problems.

For people on the more experienced side, Ripple has suggested a number of different exchanges that they officially recommend. These exchanges are perfect for people looking to sell or buy XRP.

On this list, the preferred exchanges for Ripple include:

· Bittrex — located in the United States

· Bitso — located in Mexico

· Coins.ph — located in the Philippines

It may seem like the right idea to use the preferred exchanges, but if you are a smaller trader you do not have to and you shouldn’t feel pressured to do so.

They chose those three exchanges because of the massive amounts of XRP holdings there, which means liquidity. They didn’t recommend them because they are particularly trustworthy or safer than any of the other exchanges, so keep that in mind.

Even more important, these recommendations were made for larger financial institutions and banks who deal in large amounts of tokens. They need the liquidity so they need to operate on these healthy exchanges. Smaller traders do not.

Is Ripple Really a Good Investment?

All in all, Ripple has an excellent reputation in the digital currency space. Why? It is considered the best medium to transfer money because of its quick speed and low costs.

Some of you may wonder why it took forever to create an alternative to your typical wire transfer. Well, there is definitely an alternative now in the form of Ripple. And it surely surpasses the need for wire transfers in this day and age.

In fact, Ripple was born for this very reason. Although It’s possible to optimize banking without the use of blockchain technologies, this tech has definitely made it easier on the financial systems.

At the end of the day, you’ll never have to worry about your Ripple money going unaccounted. Simply put, there are no hidden layers between transfers of money from the sender to the receiver. This makes Ripple an excellent investment and you should definitely consider purchasing it if you’re looking for a great way to earn a big return on your investment over time.