LittleLordFauntleroy

I love your question because I realize how random my own first exposure was, and I've often laughed to myself about how lucky and serendipitous it was. Anyway, I read a ton of current-events stuff all over the web all the time. One day I came across this article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/style/what-is-cryptocurrency.html I'd heard of bitcoin of course, but when I followed up with more research, the description of XRP and its use case CLICKED. Bitcoin and Ethereum didn't make much sense to me then, and still don't.

Also, hat tip to @Hodor for inspiring this post with his latest blog, which included the Kasum Capital message.

As we all know, regulation is a major hurdle holding back the entire crypto industry. Currently, HR 7356 (The Token Taxonomy Act) is "dead", but the US representatives who sponsored it previously have committed to doing so again soon (More info here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr7356). To help push this as a legislative priority, I'm sending this letter to my representative. If you are a US citizen, please take a moment to send something similar to your rep. You can find your rep here: https://t.co/iWei0Q1fp1. Don't be fooled - writing your representatives is a proven way to influence policy. This letter is based heavily on a message originally written by Kasum Capital, so all due credit to them. Cheers! Hello Congressman/woman (your rep), My name is (your name), and I'm a resident of (wherever). The reason I'm writing is because there is a bill being proposed by Rep. Warren Davidson called 'The Token Taxonomy Act - H.R. 7356'. I strongly believe that it is in the best long-term interests of both (your state) and the United States to pass this bill, which would support the long-term growth and development of blockchain technology in the US. Countries like China, India, the UK, Switzerland, and Malta are moving quickly and diligently on blockchain regulation, putting the US at risk of falling behind in the race to be a leader in this revolutionary new technology. Currently, the only state that seems to recognize the potential of regulating blockchain is Wyoming, and by so doing, it has already attracted major blockchain companies from outside the US to do business here at home. I hope you will join Reps. Warren Davidson & Darren Soto in moving innovation forward in (your state). Blockchain technology has tremendous potential, and I want (your state) and the US to be pioneers in what will be a a hugely important technology moving forward. Thank you, (Your name)

@MegaNerd Now you're just being difficult...

I want to reiterate, as @Sebastian and others have already mentioned, that the most direct way to invest in Ripple is by being an accredited investor, which requires either a), a net worth of over $1M USD, or b) an annual income of at least $200k in 2 of the 3 most recent years. The idea here seems to be "well, if they already have money they must know what they're doing, so let them invest as they please." More detail here: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=8edfd12967d69c024485029d968ee737&r=SECTION&n=17y3.0.1.1.12.0.46.176 If you are accredited, sites like https://microventures.com/ are a good place to browse investment opportunities. They also offer investment opportunities for non-accredited investors (obviously, the opportunities are generally not as attractive). Lastly, not that you asked, but when it comes to investing, this story is one that everyone should know: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/030916/buffetts-bet-hedge-funds-year-eight-brka-brkb.asp I'll let you draw your own conclusions there. Hope that helps, and good luck with your investing.

All in good fun! Looks like a funny movie, I'll have to check it out.

@Eric123 I appreciate the response. Getting a better idea of the method behind your thinking is helpful for the rest of us trying to come up with our own conclusions. Some of the people in this price speculation forum, who get real chapped when others ask for explanation of said price speculation, need to chill out. It's Friday, man.

Can I ask for more detail on why you think a run-up would take ~1/3rd the time of the previous run-up?

I completely agree. Normally I give Galgitron a lot of credit - their intense skepticism and commitment to DYOR has always given them a lot of credibility in my mind. But this idea of mob justice is seriously dumb. If the success of Ripple and XRP is dependent on a bunch of angry crypto fans, we're in deeper trouble than any amount of clicking will solve. Just ignore the garbage.

I'm not here to rain on the parade. I just want to temper expectations and show that this announcement is more complex than just "this is huge for the price of XRP!"

In order to settle in XRP, banks would have to hold it, yes. xRapid, on the other hand, uses XRP as a bridge asset, and the end transaction is settled in whatever fiat/currency the bank prefers. Corda currently does NOT integrate with xRapid.

As it stands, this is the choice that any FI using Corda will have (the image below is from @stuart_xrp on twitter, all credit to them): The key here is that option 2 (the XRP option) SETTLES in XRP. It does NOT currently use xRapid. Because banks would have to hold XRP in order to settle in XRP, they won't be using the XRP-based option until regulatory concerns are alleviated. Short term, this is introducing competition to xCurrent. Long term - we still need regulatory clarity.

Fair question. I'll start with the adage that the more precise the prediction, the more likely it is to be wrong, so fair warning. That said, I get $14 USD as an estimate simply from the "multiplier above previous top" stats listed in the article I previously referred to (and I'm sure you've all read...), which shows that the average high for the last 3 BTC bubbles is, on average, 8.5x higher than the previous high. Being financially conservative, I prefer to use 4x as the multiplier in my scenario ($3.50 x 4 = $14, in case you went to a US public school like I did). The flip side of that is that $14 could be low if you prefer a higher multiple (in 2017, that multiple was 16...). Now, 3 instances is laughably short of statistically significant, and ALL KINDS of variables have shifted since just 2017 (ever-increasing media attention attracting ever-higher amounts of money, all the shenanigans associated with unregulated markets, impending regulatory efforts, institutional money chomping at the bit, the list is endless...). No one knows, and the only people that can come close to guessing the right answer are smarter than I am, and with way more resources. That's how I got $14

I was REALLY excited to drop this market cycle link and look like a genius, but of course @Ripple-Stiltskin beat me to it . Anyway, I believe that in the short term, the price of XRP will be driven by the interplay of two things - the movement of the greater crypto market (aka BTC), and the continued growth in real-world XRP utility. The truth of the matter is that as real and awesome as the usage of XRP is, it's not going to be enough to overcome the influence of BTC for quite some time. The decoupling is a ways off still. Therefore, I expect that a bull run mirroring BTC will happen in the next 1.5 years, and based on the historical patterns detailed in the link above, I believe the price of XRP may top out around $14 USD or so before falling roughly 85% to $2 or so. If and when that happens, the real question will be whether or not I believe my own analysis enough to sell. I didn't in January...