Compared to its peers, Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ripple is the richest community in terms of project support. There is no doubt that for all of this year, Ripple has shown he can bring the most famous names to his list of followers.
At the same time, the team worked hard to ensure that banks integrated their systems. But there is still a lot of work to be done if Ripple really wants its technology to be fully integrated into the banking system.
The analyst Patrick Tan of BBN Times says that for most of its existence, Ripple, a company based in San Francisco, has supported this inefficient and sometimes archaic system by exploiting the blockchain technology at the base of Bitcoin to create what he called the "valuable Internet".
Ripple, in the cryptographic sphere, is a real institution in this sense. It has survived numerous cryptocurrency routes and is slightly younger than the Bitcoin itself and much older than Ethereum. From the late autumn of last year to the beginning of January of this year, Ripple has seen a huge jump of 1300% in the value of its digital token, with many jumps aboard the Ripple train based on the fact that, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ripple had a well-defined purpose and a clear utility – to help banks transfer money from one point to another faster and cheaper, especially across borders.
Then there is RippleNet, which is addressed to the Brussels-based interbank financial telecommunications company – better known as SWIFT – a messaging system used to control the flow of money all over the planet. SWIFT has been notoriously hacked (more than once) and today it connects about 11,000 financial companies.
RippleNet does not need the Ripple XRP digital token to work, but it was hoped that XRP would become a key ingredient in the mix. For example, as an intermediary currency similar to the dollar. Today if you want to convert Afghan Afghans to South Koreans, you must first convert to dollars – the idea is that XRP can act as a bridge.
We have already written about how Changpeng Zhao, Binance's CEO, has confirmed that they are adding XRP as a base pair. As this news broke, the XRP began to rise, finding the legs while Zhao made the announcement above. At the time of writing this article, Ripple's asset go-to-business is currently valued at $ 0.44 a pop, with an increase of 11.5% more on the back of the Binance news .
Ripple will be adopted by banks shortly
Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said Ripple's future will be bright as many banks will use the XRP register by the end of 2019. The XRP registry is an open source code base capable of executing over 1,500 transactions in one second. Requires the XRP coin.
He said:
"I've said before that by the end of 2019 the xRapid registry will be a significant tool in banks all over the world.Before 2019 comes to an end, I think dozens of banks will embrace Ripple."
Now, with the addition to Binance, as regards the market capitalization rankings, the addition of XRP base pairs can help to widen the gap of ~ $ 2 that already exists between XRP and ETH, putting XRP more firmly in the second position behind Bitcoin. If one of the main arguments against legal currencies is the manipulation of the central bank, the same argument can also be used against Ripple.
2018 as the year of howling success
If we look at some of the best moments of 2018 for Ripple and the XRP that is used by some of its products (like xRapid) we have to start from January when Ripple announced that IDT corporation and MercuryFX would join MoneyGram and Cuallix in taking part in the pilot studies of xRapid. Only three days later, the Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings announced that its upcoming cryptocurrency SBI Virtual Currencies would support only one cryptoasset at launch: XRP.
In February, Ripple announced that Lianlian International, an important Chinese monetary service, had joined RippleNet and used xCurrent to enhance cross-border transactions between China, the United States and Europe. In addition, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) had signed an agreement with Ripple that month to help KSA banks improve their payment infrastructure using xCurrent.
In March, Ripple announced that the Japan Bank Consortium (JBC) will distribute the "MoneyTap" smartphone app based on Ripple's blockchain technology. In addition, the same month was the first for Cory Johnson, a former host and editor-at-large of Bloomberg Television, as Ripple's Chief Market Strategist.
In April, more than a handful of banks joined the network and Ripple even managed to sell its own shares to Standard Chartered and Banco Santander. But of the more than 100 banks that registered, only the Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken transfers commercial payments to RippleNet.
In May, Coinone Transfer, a payment and subsidiary company of the South Korean Coinone cryptographic exchange, joined RippleNet to use xCurrent. In addition, they announced Xpring, a new initiative that is investing in companies and projects run by established entrepreneurs.
In June, Ripple introduced the Blockchain University Research Initiative (UBRI), "a collaboration with the best universities around the world to support and accelerate academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments ".
July was significant for David Schwartz, who had been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In Augustm, Ripple appointed three xRapid exchange partners: Bittrex would "act as the preferred digital asset exchange for xRapid transactions that go through US dollars". Bitso and Coins.ph would be the privileged exchanges for Mexican Pesos and Philippine Peso respectively.
In September, Ripple confirmed that the National Commercial Bank (BCN) of Saudi Arabia, the country's first bank, had entered RippleNet. In addition, they announced that Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) would be "the first financial institution on RippleNet to pioneer a key feature called 'multi-hop', which allows them to regulate frictionless payments on behalf of other institutions on the network. "
With xRapid becoming available on the market, Ripple highlight the record year
In October, Ripple announced that it is probably the biggest news of the year for anyone investing in XRP: xRapid has finally become commercially available and has entered production with MercuryFX, Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Credit Union. On November 14th, Ripple announced that it has a new strategic partner: CIMB Group.
The latest news came only a day ago, when Cebuana Lhuillier, a pledge-broker company and Filipino issuers, said that they will use RippleNet products to help its presence in the remittance sector. The company will use xCurrent: a new business software solution (developed by Ripple) that aims to provide an easy and efficient means for the processing of cross-border transactions and end-to-end communication and tracking.
"The use of xCurrent will improve the efficiency of how we provide services to our customers, which will also highlight the commitment of Cebuana Lhuillier to further innovate and evolve, true to our best-in-class reputation in our industry, "said Jean Henri Lhuillier, CEO and President of Cebuana Lhuillier.
For more information on the XRP currency, the Ripple company and their innovative solutions, check out our fantastic guide.