As money starts to flow into crytpos from main-street and wall-street there was no doubt in my mind that investors would be looking for, well, solid investments in the space.
I am looking for the coins/software that will have value in the future. I also understand the risks of these markets having been through multiple bubbles. I want to be positioned in the coins that have the best chance for success. This is why I look for the following:
- Working product
- Professional Management Team
- First to Market
- Market Penetration
- Professional Website
- Aggressive Marketing!
Now Ripple is not your typical coin, and I know I will get the "it's centralized" in many comments. I DO NOT CARE! Ripple has real world uses and as an investor I am looking to invest,not a philosophical re-discovery of myself. Eventually as regulators and governments get involved the euphoric state of mind will be replaced with reality. Now I hear all the time, government cannot control bitcoin -0.90% . They can't? 10 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket for government or the banking system. They could quietly buy up coins that threaten their status and shelve them crushing mining with a devaluation of the currency! This is probably already happening quite frankly and as supply dwindles demand rises and so do prices. I mean everyone has their price right?
The US banking system alone handles about $7 Trillion dollars a day in overseas money transfers. This equals to about $1000 per ripple. The transferring of international money is a huge business. Money flows in and out of every country in the international markets. The number of money transfers among international banks is close 500 trillion transactions a year. This is a huge market and one ripple is specifically targeting. If they get 1% of the market (5 trillion transactions a year) at $0.004 per transaction this is $20 billion in fees a year or about 5 cents a coin.
Now ripple has already partnered with numerous banks, American Express 0.37% , Gates Foundation and several wire transfer companies to provide services. Now why would not banks do this themselves? They can and will, but ripple allows small banks to compete globally, and why build what you can use so cheap. Why many companies lease plans and do not own them. Who wants to deal with maintenance and upgrades?
Many focus to hard on coin count. It is all relative. Ripple is a company that is run by executives from Wall Street, not avatars. Not every transaction in the future will require being anonymous. Most will not. Large companies transfer billions a year overseas and ripple provides an economical way to achieve this, and Wall Street loves Wall Street and the board is full of former executives and is well rounded.
Bottom line Ripple is a good long term investment in my opinion. I have a short term target of 80 cents and a longer term target of $1.30. This is one quite frankly I am holding for the longer term. For disclosure I have also invested in Stellar -0.54% Lumens as other than swift this will be their largest competitor.