Tag: XRP

  • Ripple Cryptocurrency – latest review

    Ripple Cryptocurrency – latest review

    2 min read

    All You Need To Know About Ripple

    • What is the future of the Ripple cryptocurrency?

    First of all, it should be explained that Ripple is not a cryptocurrency in the usual sense of the word. In fact, this is a settlement system that has become a faster, more transparent and secure alternative to the existing ones. For example, the SWIFT system used by banks. Ripple cryptocurrency is a combination of currency exchange and a money transaction company.

    XRP, the so-called Ripple coins is used to facilitate transfers in different currencies. In existing settlement systems, the basis for the conversion is usually US dollar. That process is associated with additional costs and lasts for a long time and bank transfers between countries, often last up to 3 days.

    Converting payments to XRP instead of dollars, the system saves inventory costs, and transaction processing takes a few seconds.

    XPR token

    XRP is a token used for representing the transfer of value across the Ripple Network. The main purpose of XRP is to be a mediator for other – both cryptocurrencies and fiat – exchanges. The best way to describe XRP is ‘Joker’. Not the creepy Batman enemy, but the card that can be any other card. If you want to exchange dollars to the euro, it can be dollar with dollars and euro with euros to minimize the commission. As highlighted above, the transaction cost on Ripple is $0.00001.

    After the transaction, the amount of $0.00001 ‘disappears’ from the platform and can’t be replenished. With every transaction, the world becomes $0.00001 poorer. It is designed that way to prevent spammers attacks.

    Basically, Ripple wanted to be a cryptocurrency built for enterprise and banking use. It wanted to enable fast cross-border payments, low transaction fees. And all of the other benefits of digital currencies. Most importantly, it wanted to do this with the goal of targeting enterprise and banks. The two groups that require extended features you won’t find on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or Ethereum. 

    How Ripple cryptocurrency works

    Ripple is a system that enables the execution of transactions by binding banks, digital exchanges and corporations in order to be able to send and receive money worldwide. The basic idea is to replace old principles like SWIFT. Ripple has licensed its blockchain technology to many banks. Furthermore, there is a lack of complete anonymity that most people value in cryptocurrencies. Relationship with the “enemy” i.e. the banks, rejects many. But what is most important is that Ripple is doing great on the market and that this connection with banks can even represent a measure of security.

    Ripple: an exciting, feature-rich network

    To understand Ripple’s place in the crypto universe, we have to value its contributions to the industry. In addition to being one of the most renowned digital tokens, it is also one of the most efficient payment networks for financial transactions on the planet.

    Ripple Cryptocurrency

    The Ripple technology is, in fact, more widely known for its digital payment protocol. Then for being a cryptocurrency. The XRP (Ripple) is the associated cryptocurrency of the platform. It performs the part of a bridge currency to other tokens without discriminating between fiat and crypto, facilitating exchanges between different coins. The Ripple cryptocurrency; the XRP, has the power of liquidity by serving as a bridge between other means of payment, making the exchange more comfortable for all parties involved in a transaction. 

    Ripple is an official organization with the trust of many banks. It’s not another Blockchain startup from a no-name company.
    No inflation. All the tokens are initially mined and already exist. The more banks use it as their transaction platform, the higher the value of XRP.

    What is the future of the Ripple cryptocurrency?

    Predicting a cryptocurrency course now becomes something really in trend. Lot’s of public places spot their thoughts, trying to guess what would happen next. And among the cryptos, nothing is taken into such consideration as Ripple.

    Ripple still has some growing room left, but meteoric rises like seen at the end of 2017 will naturally be few and far between, and it’s safe to assume that the price changes will settle into more sustainable ranges. This is especially likely for a cryptocurrency like Ripple which can benefit from price stability.

    They have a large supply

    With its large supply and currently limited use, investors will want to be wary of readjustments following price rises. This is especially true for a coin like Ripple. It benefits from stable pricing and is designed more for corporate use than individual use. 
    Although there is a long list of very respectable banks that are planning to use Ripple. According to the Financial Times, most of them are still on the testing stage. The few who transact real money use the platform but not the token. So, perhaps banks “are not that into Ripple”.    

    Why is Ripple criticized?

    However, there are some cons. Ripple cryptocurrency is highly centralized. The whole idea of cryptocurrency is to avoid centralized control. As the tokens are already mined, the Ripple developers can decide when and how much to release, or not to release. So, it is basically like investing in a bank.

    Ripple Cryptocurrency 1

    In addition to centralization, today it is pretty much a monopoly as Ripple Labs owns 61 percent of the coins.
    Yes, it is open source and very smart.  But still, once the code is accessible there is a good chance many people will try to hack it. Some of them even might succeed.

    And it can freeze your transactions.

    The biggest example of this is when Jed McCaleb, founder of Ripple Labs, tried to sell more than a million dollars worth of Ripple. The transaction was reversed. There are rumors that McCaleb breached the contract. But even then, the very possibility of freezing a transaction is against basic cryptocurrency principles.

    Samson Williams, CSO of Ireland-based fin-tech firm SeedUps said.

    “Though not a cryptocurrency at all, it is the child of banks. So it’ll get the natural bump from the 2018 Recession.” 

    The bottom line:

    Ripple/XRP still has room for growth. They have an impressive list of partners. It looks like many people have a vested interest in seeing Ripple succeed.

    Is Ripple able to pull off its goal of being the preferred money transfer system for banks across the world? If the answer is YES,  then we can see Ripple at least maintaining its position as the third most valuable cryptocurrency.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    2 min read

    What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    Cryptocurrencies plunge in the past two days. Financial markets around the world saw big declines over Thursday and Friday. Over $6 billion of value was wiped off global cryptocurrency markets in 24 hours led by XRP and ethereum as prices of digital coins continued to fall.

    According to Coinmarketcap.com, the entire market capitalization or value of cryptocurrencies had plunged $6.72 billion in 24 hours as of about 11:32 a.m. HK/SIN time on Friday.

    On Thursday it was noticed that something is happening. A sharp sell-off across the board erased billions of dollars of value in a matter of hours.

    The cryptocurrencies plunge was led by XRP, which was trading at around 39.13 cents at 11.32 a.m. HK/SIN time, marking a 7.9 percent drop from the day before. It fell as low as 37.89 cents. Ethereum also fell to around $191.07, dropping 7.4 percent from the day before.

    But, bitcoin largely stabilized at around $6,278.61, falling just under 0.8 percent on the day.

    What happened?

    Bithumb, currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea by trading volume, confirmed it has sold more than 38 percent of its total ownership to a blockchain consortium based in Singapore, for 400 billion won, or $350 million.

    According to CoinDesk Korea, Bithumb confirmed the deal was signed on Oct. 11 with BK Global Consortium. It is a blockchain investment firm formed by BK Global, a plastic surgery medical group in Singapore.

    Could it jeopardize the value of other cryptos?

    Well, we should consider other reasons for cryptocurrencies plunge too.

    Regulators across the world have been looking at how to deal with the growth of crypto assets with diverging views emerging. Countries like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates are looking to become hubs for cryptocurrency businesses. While other nations like China have come down hard on the industry.

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expanded its crackdown on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), putting “hundreds” of projects at risk. This is according to a recent joint investigation by Yahoo Finance and Decrypt Media published Oct. 10. 

    The authors of the report, as the example, stressed that hundreds of crypto and blockchain startups that conducted token sales. They have eventually found that they had violated securities laws despite their endeavors to comply with regulations. 

    In response to SEC pressure, dozens of firms have reportedly “quietly agreed” to refund investors’ money and pay fines. Rather than attempt to reach legal compliance.

    A hearing before the US Senate Banking Committee is expected to feature heavy criticism of the crypto sector.

    For optimistic novices, those pitfalls and flaws were often glossed over. But with the bear market, the hearing may further sour retail sentiment. Two different viewpoints on the topic of cryptocurrency collided before a group of U.S senators on Thursday.

    Economist Nouriel Roubini: “Crypto is the mother and father of all scams …blockchain is the most overhyped technology ever and is no better than a glorified database,” Roubini said in his opening statement.

    But Van Valkenburgh said the committee that while blockchain and cryptocurrencies are not perfect or even fully complete at present. But they are a significant step in improving the financial situation for many.:

    “Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money. Is it perfect? No. Neither was email when it was invented in 1972. Bitcoin’s not the best money on every margin. It’s not yet accepted everywhere. It’s not used often to quote prices and it’s not a stable store of value. But it is working, and the fact that it works without intermediaries is amazing.” said Van Valkenburgh.

    The relationship between Tether and Bitfinex has come out with some interesting developments over the past few days.

    After showing signs of trouble, Noble Bank halted its services for Bitfinex and Tether. This led to a potential loss of trust in the exchange and a stablecoin leading to funding withdrawals. The past month saw a half of the Bitcoin deposited in the Bitfinex cold wallet flowing out.  And an additional 100 million USDT leaving circulation. Someone tried to sell millions of USDT for dollars on Kraken, depressing the price to $0.98.

    The Bitcoin mining economy is also at a crossroads.

    Competition and farm building peaked in the first half of 2018. It is possible that miners will attempt to sell BTC to recoup costs. In the past days, peak hashing power has coincided with falling rewards for existing miners.

    One possible reason is that Bitmain has activated ASIC Boost for its mining rigs, making it more difficult for other miners to obtain rewards.

    Philip Nunn said on Twitter:

    “As of June 2018, over 80% of #Bitcoin mining is performed by six mining pools and five of those six pools are managed by individuals or organizations located in China.So this is really worrying. And $BTC maximalists must look at this as a huge threat. China controlling BTC”

    But there are some optimistic words:

    “I’m surprised people think bitcoin can never reach its old highs. We have to remember today that not even 50 million wallets that use crypto today, but there are four and a half billion Visa cards, so you know this is the early stage for crypto, I don’t think $12,000 will be a problem in the future,” Fundstrat’s Tom Lee told CNBC last week.

    It is true the top three cryptocurrencies by market capitalization: bitcoin, ethereum, and XRP are all notably off their record high prices. They were hit at the end of last year and the beginning of 2018.

    Bottom line

    Many people in the cryptosphere love to speculate on just how high the prices of their favorite cryptocurrencies may rise. We have to say that does not matter because the cryptocurrency market is incredibly volatile, so cryptocurrencies can plunge.

    Only time will tell us who predicted correctly if anyone!

    The most important value of cryptocurrencies and assets are the future of transactions and value storage. And Bitcoin is leading this revolution. But this doesn’t make it easy to guarantee a specific price down the road.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • A New Stellar Sky of Blockchain

    A New Stellar Sky of Blockchain

    1 min read

    A New Stellar Sky of Blockchain

    A new Stellar appears to Blockchain.

    Jed McCaleb, one of the co-founders of crypto startup Ripple holds billions of dollars worth of the company’s digital token. But his continuing sales of the token have dramatically risen over the past few weeks.

    According to other media, he sold between 20,000 to 40,000 XRP per day until July, but that amount dramatically increased in August. He allegedly sold 499,312 XRP every day, the maximum amount was 752,076 XRP in one day. At the same period, August this year, the price of XRP fell by 25%.

    McCaleb changes the dress

    It looks that Jed McCaleb, who left Ripple a few years ago and is now co-founder of a competing outfit called Stellar, could put pressure on the cryptocurrency by increasing sales of the tokens, called XRP.

    “I’m not selling more than I have agreed to with Ripple,” he stated to the Journal.

    Fact is that McCaleb’s sale of XRP tokens has continued into this month.

    He has sold XRP worth $150,000 each day in the last week.

    Ripple’s price rose over the weekend because of positive news reports about the launch of a new product that uses XRP. If this new product called xRapid gains draft with banks, it will probably cause an increase in XRP’s liquidity in cryptocurrency markets.

    But for now, the world’s third most valuable cryptocurrency token has dropped as much as 40% of its gains. At 19:35 UTC, Ripple was changing hands at $0.45, which is 13.25% less from its price 24 hours ago.

    Few words more about Stellar.

    Stellar is an open network that allows any currency or asset to be digitally issued, transferred, and exchanged over the internet. Interstellar will make it easy for developers and enterprises to leverage Stellar as a platform to build new financial products and services.

    And about Chain Inc., which is a startup working with Nasdaq Inc. and others. They are building a blockchain-based trading platform, merging with another cryptocurrency startups. That efforts to plug the technology behind bitcoin into the traditional markets seem to be harder than expected.

    Jed McCaleb, Stellar’s founder, said earlier this month: “Chain’s team has led the market for enterprise adoption of blockchain technology, which is a critical component of building a future where money and digital assets move over open protocols,” and added, “We are thrilled to be joining forces to help organizations build on Stellar.”

    Key facts:

    Adam Ludwin, who is Chain’s CEO, will be Interstellar’s CEO
    Jed McCaleb, who co-founded the Stellar Development Foundation and Lightyear, will be CTO of Interstellar
    The Stellar Development Foundation, which develops the Stellar protocol and supports the open source community, remains independent.

    What is Stellar?

    Much like Ripple, Stellar is also a payment technology that aims to connect financial institutions and reduce the cost and time required for cross-border transfers. Both payment networks used the same protocol initially.
    The chain has been acquired by Lightyear, a Stellar-focused company formed last year with the support of the Stellar Development Foundation.

    The Chain and Lightyear brands will be retired and the combined company will be re-named to Interstellar. Interstellar will create tools, products, and services to make it easier to use and build on Stellar, especially for enterprises and institutions.

    Interstellar’s product portfolio will also include StellarX, a recently announced marketplace for trading assets on Stellar. StellarX is currently in beta and will be launching to the public soon.
    More information can be found at https://interstellar.com/.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)