Ripple could lead the Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency

Ripple (XRP) could lead the mass adoption of cryptocurrency because it is getting real world use.

In particular, big banks, corporations, and at least one credit card company are experimenting with Ripple and its blockchain, the XRP Ledger. Notably, Ripple’s website claims these companies use its blockchain technology:

• The US Credit card giant American Express (NYSE: AXP). Statista estimates there were 53 million Amex cards in circulation worldwide in 2018.

• The money wire service MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI). Finder.com estimates MoneyGram wires money from over 350,000 locations in 200 countries.

• The big multinational British Bank Standard Chartered Bank (LON: STN) which also operates in Hong Kong.

• PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC) a large bank holding company in the United States. PNC claims to have over eight million depositors.

• The giant multinational Spanish Bank, Banco Santandar (NYSE: SAN).

• RIA Money Transfer, one of the largest money transfer organizations in the world. RIA is a subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide Inc. RIA claims to offer money transfers through over 314,000 locations in 144 countries.

• SBI Remit, a money transfer service owned by the State Bank of India (SBI). The State Bank of India is a giant Indian bank based in Mumbai.

• Interbank, a Peruvian bank.

• InstaReM, a Singabore-based international money transfer service.

•  BeeTech Global, a Brazilian money transfer company.

Overall, Ripple Labs claims over 200 financial institutions in over 40 countries are participating in the Ripple Net. The Ripple Net is a worldwide cryptocurrency Remittance and money transfer network.

Why Ripple could Lead the Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency

I think Ripple (XRP) could lead the mass adoption of cryptocurrency because it offers products real people in the real world could use.

For instance, the World Bank estimates people sent $529 billion in remittances to low and middle-income countries in 2018. To clarify, remittances are individuals send to friends and individuals in other nations. For example, an Indian working in the UK could wire money to his mother in Maharashtra.

Moreover, the volume of remittances to low and middle-income countries grew by 7% in 2019. Interestingly, the total global remittance volume was $689 billion 2018. The World Bank estimates the total global remittance volume grew from $633 billion in 2017.

Thus there is a vast market for Ripple’s services that is growing dramatically. In addition, Ripple Labs is working with companies active in the business now.

Money transfer companies are interested in Ripple because it could theoretically reduce the cost of wiring money. Specifically, RippleNet could eliminate the need to pre-fund wire payments, InstaReM Co-Founder and CEO Prajit Nanu claims. Nanu thinks Ripple can speed up the wire transfer process by eliminating pre-funding.

Ripple vs. Libra

Oddly, Ripple has accomplished some of Mark Zuckerberg’s goals for Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) proposed Libra cryptocurrency.

Notably, Ripple Labs has quietly built an international money transfer network that links established money transfer companies and big banks through the blockchain. In addition, those institutions are using Ripple and Ripple Net to transfer money around the world.

Thus Ripple Labs has experience transferring money globally. Importantly, Ripple Labs is gathering large amounts of data about international money transfers, remittances, and blockchain use.

Additionally, some blockchain startups are using the XRP Ledger to offer products. For instance, Sologenic hopes to tokenize over 30,000 stocks on the top 25 global stock exchanges via the XRP Ledger.

Meanwhile, Raised in Space Enterprises hopes to use XRP to finance music industry entrepreneurs. Coil plans to compete with Medium, Steam, and Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) by helping creators monetize content with Ripple (XRP).

Therefore, Ripple Labs is already accomplishing some of  Mark Zuckerburg’s goals for Libra. However, Ripple is attracting none of the controversy and hysteria Libra has generated.

Major companies like PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), Visa (NYSE: V), and Stripe are fleeing Libra. In contrast, large companies like Banco Santander, MoneyGram, and American Express are actively participating in Ripple.

Will Ripple win the Cryptocurrency Wars?

Hence, Ripple is winning he early battles in the crptocurrency wars while Zuckerberg is still drawing up his battle plan.

Importantly, Ripple Labs is taking the offensive against politicians and regulators by opening offices in Washington D.C. Forbes reports the office will have a dedicated regulatory team; lobbyists, to fight for its interests on Capitol Hill. Thus Ripple is defending itself against politicians before they come for it.

Thus, I think Ripple is acting like an established financial services company rather than a blockchain startup. Unlike Libra, Ripple is successfully avoiding conflicts and obstacles. I think this maturity demonstrates real value at Ripple.

What Value Does Ripple Have?

Presently, Ripple (XRP) has some value as a cryptocurrency. In particular, Ripple had a realistic Coin Price; 29.38₵ on 25 October 2019.

However, Ripple was CoinMarketCap’s third most valuable altcoin on that day.  CoinMarketCap estimates Ripple had a Market Capitalization of $12.707 billion, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $2.274 billion on that day. They base numbers on a Circulating Supply of 43.243 billion XRP, a Total Supply of 99.991 billion XRP and a Maximum Supply of 100 billion XRP.

How Fast and Scalable are Ripple and XRP Ledger?

Thus, Ripple has value as a cryptocurrency and some real world use. But are Ripple and the XRP Ledger fast and scalable?

Ripple Labs claims the XRP Ledger can close a transaction in 3.85 seconds. In contrast, Hackernoon’s Taygun estimates it takes up to one hour to process a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction. Taygun estimates Ethereum (ETH) takes up to six minutes to process a transaction.

Ripple’s scalabity is harder to estimate because Ripple was only processing 17.26 transactions per second (TPS) on 25 October 2019. However, Blockchain.com estimates Bitcoin was only processing 5.133 TPS on 25 October 2019.

 However, Ripple Labs claims to have processed over 1,500 TPS in tests. Such high volumes of processing will be necessary for Ripple to reach a mass market.

To explain, a Bitcoin payment solution that processes just four TPS could crash if five people could try to pay at once. However, Ripple could theoretically process over 1,500 transactions per second and serve over 1,500 customers at once.

Conversely, Visa (NYSE: V) claims its network could process over 65,000 transactions per second.* To elaborate, I think a blockchain network will need a TPS volume similar to Visa’s for mass adoption. As far as know no blockchain has achieved that kind of volume.

Ripple Moves towards Mass Adoption

Thus, Ripple claims to have a blockchain that could serve a mass market in place. I think this is one reason big companies like MoneyGram are working with Ripple. Ripple Labs is one of the few blockchain ventures that has demonstrated real world capabilities.

In conclusion, I think Ripple (XRP) is one of the few cryptocurrencies with true value because it is taking the first steps towards mass adoption. However, I believe mass adoption of Ripple (XRP) is still several years away.

*See: https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/corporate/media/visanet-technology/aboutvisafactsheet.pdf