It would seem that what once would have had you laughed out of many intelligent cryptocurrency conversations, is now actually feasible.
I am not a fan of Ripple. I don't believe it's a real cryptocurrency, and its business structure/model goes against the moral fabric of cryptocurrency itself.
However, it's possible that XRP will surpass BTC in market cap in 2018.
I don't think this would happen anytime soon, and I hope it doesn't happen at all, but I think it's possible.
There has been a huge influx of retail investors, and the new folk love them some cheap coins.
Just in case you're not up to speed, Ripple has increased from $0.25 to hit all time highs just above $3.50 in the past 30 days.
I think XRP surpassing Bitcoin would send shockwaves through the market and change the game as we know it.
Before I get into that, let me tell you why Ripple is the worst.
Disclaimer: I'm not one of those people who spreads FUD about a coin when they miss the boat on it. I currently hold $XRP, and have made a pretty % on it as well.
I just hate myself for it.
Ripple is what's known as a token. Whereas coins like bitcoin trade on their own value, tokens tend to be tied to something else.[1]
- Ripple is not an actual digital currency, as the quote from Mashableabove would suggest, it's simply a token.
Bitcoin is the actual currency being traded and used, whereas XRP tokens are essentially backed by traditional currencies, as if they're dollars or yen in another form.[2]
Most investors don't understand what they're really buying when they buy XRP.
When you hear about Ripple making partnerships with Banks and large financial institutions, that doesn't really have much to do with XRP, the Ripple currency.
That's a win for RippleNet, the framework created by Ripple to speed up large international financial transactions. These large financial transactions aren't going to take place in XRP, they're going to take place using whatever currency the countries choose- so more banks using RippleNet does not mean more demand of XRP from financial institutions.
When most cryptocurrencies rise in price, its due to an increase in understanding or application of their utility. When Ripple rises in price, its because the company did some solid business development, not because their token is fundamentally increasing in value by virtue of its utility.
The price of a cryptocurrency is a reflection of the amount of people who understand its utility.
2. Ripple is as centralized as can be.
Blockchain technology is a tool that will allow us to decentralize processes mediated by middle men, thereby removing those middle men and allowing peer to peer anything.
Blockchain was created to be a tool to put power back in the hands of the individual.
You do that by creating a trust-less system where a middleman (like a bank) isn't needed --- this is the beauty of the technology and at the end of the day, the reason that cryptocurrencies are seeing such a huge increase in market cap.
Unlike fiat currency where the supply is controlled by a third-party (like the Federal Reserve), blockchain and the cryptocurrencies that have come from it are a completely transparent way to handle the management and creation of financial infrastructure.
So with that in mind, does this raise any red flags?
Since Ripple controls 61% of the world's supply of XRP coins --- 61 billion out of 100 billion in total --- the gains placed Larsen's personal position in the cryptocurrency as well as his share of the XRP owned by his company at a dizzying total of $59.8 billion.
[3]
Ripple controls a staggering amount of its own supply.
There is no mining with Ripple.
With Bitcoin (and every other cryptocurrency) you increase the supply by mining. Either through Proof of Work (PoW) or Proof of Stake (PoS).
With PoW, miners download a copy of the blockchain ledger and essentially perform accounting duties to ensure that transactions aren't fraudulent. They are paid for their work in whatever currency their mining, therefore increasing the supply.
With PoS, miners just have to "stake" their holdings in a wallet, and it earns interest. That interest they earn is new currency, that increases the supply.
With Ripple, they decided how much their total supply would be and issued it, there is no mining, there is no trust-less system, there is no utility.
Ripple is basically what would happen if a blockchain company said to itself, "What if we just made a fiat currency that functions exactly the same as USD. Except we turn ourselves into the Federal Reserve for that currency so we control everything?".
Hell, Ripple didn't start to climb until the company announced they'd be locking 55 BN XRP in escrow so they could ensure the token holders that they wouldn't dump all their tokens as soon as the price got up.
This post was originally published as an answer on Quora