My understanding us that this is intended to be a replacement for the existing SWIFT system from the 60’s. SWIFT (moves $5 trillion USD/day), the technology is already built (Ripple has been working on it since 2012), their team is experience, and nearly 100 banking partnerships are already in place with pilots running or about to start. The CEO of SBI Holdings believes XRP will become the global standard in digital currencies.
Some of the big and vocal investors include:
-Venture 51 (Venture Cap Fund) - They appear to be advisers to General Crypto,
-General Crypto (Hedge Fund), two managing partners Logan Kugler (age 22) and Zach Hamilton - Don't appear to have many years under their belt.
-Auryn Capital $12.5M
-Brian Kelly Capital Management $50M
-Crypto Assets Fund $10M start $50M end
Some helpful links:
https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/3425-beginners-guide-xrp-first-steps/ (Self explanatory)
From Redit future price of XRP:
Ripple captures bitcoin's current market share? $2/coin
Ripple captures the value of all high-friction International payments that are now occurring? $20/coin
Ripple captures the value of an increasing volume of International payments driven by the reduction in friction? Maybe $120/coin
I bought XRP in early August around $0.19/coin. Towards the end of Aug it dropped to $0.15 which was discouraging. Then the end of August Ripple announced on Twitter that they would announce something. Investors had been desprate for any kind of news and an announcement about an announcement was enough to send the price up to around $0.30. Then the announcement came out about a conference with Ben Bernanke. I was HODL'ing and hadn't bought anything. The price slowly fell back to $0.20 and it felt like Ripple was messing with investors. I still believe in the concept and will buy more as it is in the $0.15 to $0.18 range.
The best way I've found to get XRP is to add USD to Coinbase via transfer from bank(free), purchase Ether on GDAX w/limit order (free), then transfer to Bittrex (0.55%). Purchase XRP (0.25%) Total cost is around 0.8%.
www.bitstamp.net is selling directly from USD. Problem is getting $$ from US Bank to Luxembourg. They have been doing SEPA transfers but they convert to EUR then USD. This could be costly and I haven 't explored it further.
Following is some news I found important:
5/18/17 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/591cb3bee4b0b28a33f62915
7/12 Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/07/12/crypto-boom-15-new-hedge-funds-want-in-on-84000-returns/#5cdc16cd416a
8/24 Huff Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/599bb27de4b0521e90cfb4e9
9/2/17 https://www.coindesk.com/hsbc-barclays-join-utility-settlement-coin-as-bank-blockchain-test-enters-final-phase/?utm_content=buffer83fe7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I read some reddit reviews - https://www.reddit.com/r/Ripple/comments/6x300p/big_risk_to_ripple_s_future_big_banks_working_on/
Essentially they are saying they think their is room for multiple coins used by various banks for settlement.
Citi has Citicoin, Goldman has SETLCoin, UBS & DB using BankCoin - they will still need a settlement coin between the settlement coins.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-against-bankcoin-brad-garlinghouse - written by Brad Garlinghouse - CEO of Ripple.
Another person pointed out that banks have no reason to trust each others coin (why would Bank A want to accept Bank B's coin?), which means that you need a 3rd party source that's trusted by both.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r3-ripple-lawsuit/u-s-blockchain-startups-r3-and-ripple-in-legal-battle-idUSKCN1BJ27I “Our filing is straightforward - R3 misrepresented their ability and intent to deliver on their commitments,” a Ripple spokeswoman said in a statement.
I'm not a professional - this is not advise. Just sharing my experience. Good luck out there.