1/ The winning story to talk about is digital vs. paper, not centralized vs. decentralized. That’s what drives adoption. The decentralization will come, eventually, when the time is right. Here are my thoughts on why #XRP is indeed #xrpthestandard. @haydentiff @XRPTrump
2/ #Ripple’s current approach, to work with banks and money transfer agencies for cross-border payments, is truly genius for several reasons. First, they are solving real problems for real people, many of whom are those who need help the most…
3/20 low income people in impoverished regions who get remittances from friends and family abroad. It’s not just an idea being developed, it’s actually in production at countless financial institutions.
4/20 This, alone, is more meaningfully useful (@KyleSamani) than any other blockchain-based use case in production today (please, spare me the argument that Ripple isn’t a blockchain - nuances like that are irrelevant).
5/20 However, the real payoff comes down the road a bit. Once banks have introduced RippleNet, they have the ability to send and receive many kinds of currencies, both fiat and crypto. Sure, the initial use case is for foreign fiat exchange, but that’s just because it’s
6/20 the lowest hanging fruit and they have to start somewhere. It’s also a use case they could easily sell to their C-suite, as opposed to trying to convince them to get into the cryptocurrency space. It’s basically their minimum viable product (MVP) to test the concept.
7/20 But banks will also then have the ability to perform this same, instant, near-free money transfer with other banks using RippleNet within the same country. Better yet, they could open up this integration directly to customers and compete with Venmo, PayPal, etc.
8/20 They could then integrate with tools like #XRPTipBot to enable tips to/from anyone that are instantly deposited into a USD checking account. This is just 1 example.
9/ But it doesn’t stop there. The banks could then open it up to their business customers via merchant accounts and credit cards, allowing the consumers to pay for goods with any currency, fiat or crypto, while the business customer and the bank receive fiat.
10/20 This is a big deal because most publicly held companies are still reluctant to even allow crypto to pass through their hands, let alone keep it on their books. I run an innovation program at an insurance company. We would love to allow our customers to pay for insurance
11/20 policies with their crypto holdings, but we can’t get past the legal and risk issues of doing so. This could work for us, however, and until regulations are put in place this is likely our only option.
12/20 This effectively opens up crypto adoption across the entire banking system of today. Note that American Express is a Ripple customer and Visa just bought EarthPort, which is also a Ripple customer.
13/20 Yes, I know #maximalists will say this defeats the entire purpose of cryptocurrency. I don’t agree. In my opinion that’s short term thinking in a game that requires long-term strategy.
14/20 IMO, the only way you ever get to long-term adoption of #BTC or any other crypto is by first going through the banks. You need their existing network to help get over the tipping point of adoption.
15/20 Then, over time, the capabilities of the crypto currencies will continue to improve to a point where the banks are no longer needed. But we are VERY far from that today.
16/20 Most people around the world, including bankers, can understand the improved value of having digital currency vs. paper currency. It’s an easy story to tell, especially in a world going through digital transformation in so many industries.
17/20 But try to talk to people about decentralization, bringing down the banking system, tearing down government, etc - and you get quite a few eye rolls outside of a core group of anarchists, libertarians, etc.
18/20 That is not a winning story to drive world-wide adoption, regardless of how much it appeals to you as an individual. But digital money - that makes sense. So you win the financial industry over by talking about digital money, knowing all along that it’s a trojan horse.
19/20 They can’t fight the concept of digital money or they lose. So they embrace it. But in doing so they open pandora’s box and introduce mainstream adoption for cryptocurrencies.
20/20 But all of this requires Ripple’s continued success and a high enough $xrp valuation to facilitate that large quantity of money transfer and exchange all over the world. This is why we should all be part of the #xrpcommunity and #xrparmy and stop with the hating.
