Ripple (XRP) might be the most hated crypto currency of all time because of its association with banks. For people who are new to Ripple, it is a transaction protocol that facilitates currency exchange and remittances. Unlike bitcoin and litecoin, Ripple is more focussed and has a very specific use case. Ripple targets international payments and money transfers. This is a market with a lot of potential and I don't think there is another crypto currency aiming for the same space.
Ripple has tie ups with many major banks who are already using it and is backed by huge corporations. The main reason why ripple is disliked is because the company holds 60-70% of the XRP. While this might seem like a red flag, it serves a really good purpose of regulating the price. I believe its a really good strategy, though it might end up benefitting the founders a lot, for me as an investor, it matters to me that the currency be stable. Moreover, ripple is very transparent about the XRP they are holding and I don't think a company backed by the likes of Google and Santander can commit fraud so easily.
Also bank do cross border payments at around trillion dollars per year. Ripple is expected to save the corporations a lot of money on all these transfers. Once banks start gaining confidence in ripple , it will become a industry standard and the price of ripple will just skyrocket. Ripple might eventually replace swift, the current payment network. Among all cryptocurrencies that currently exist, ripple is the only one with so many big names associated with it and already having so many implementations.
Ripple haters should also understand that, Ripple is only driving efficiencies in the banking sector, the profits from which may be partly passed on to consumers.
I believe ripple if executed properly can even pass bitcoin in terms market cap in the next 2-3 years mainly attributing to banks transacting in billions the equivalent of which in bitcoin will take adoption by millions of people