drmount

If used as an intermediary unit on the IOV within ILP, couldn't the governments, central banks, and private banks using it to transfer assets agree to a value for each XRP...speculators and traders be damned? For instance Bank A wants to send 20 billion yuan to Bank B who wants it in dollars. The network "agrees" that each XRP is worth $1000 so Bank A "sends" the at-the-moment equivalent of said-dollars (yuan) through the IOV via ILP and it comes out on the other side as dollars. In this example, the value of the XRP used is needed in order for the XRP blockchain to record the amount utilized to perform this transaction. It actually wouldn't matter if the value of each was $0.50 or $10,000...you'll either use a lot of them to move your $$ or relatively few of them.

My original question is just fear on my part of being left in the dust when this is all turned on. Why would they do it? To not permit private ownership of XRP. How hard would it be? Tell your customers (Santander etc.) you're installing updated "open source" software on their existing nodes and fire up the network with your new "XRP2" doing its ODL, IOV, ILP thing! ...cut out the private owners (us) with a forked product.

LOL

I don't know if this could be the case, but could some authority (IMF? Ripple? BIS?) just set the value of XRP at some number, arbitrarily?

If Ripple is creating the IOV, connecting central banks and eventually the rest of the world's financial system, could they hard-fork a new form a XRP and utilize that when they "go live" leaving us XRP hodlers in the dust? This new form would be used instead of the XRP we know and love?