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Yes the title is supposed to be clickbait Interesting topic though, particularly since the crypto community in general seems to be a proponent of maximum individual financial autonomy and prefers less amounts of government intervention/regulation/oversight. There's no doubting the benefits of Ripples Fintech over traditional banking etc.. but are we moving towards even more government and/or corporate oversite and interference of/with our personal/business financial matters.. it's not like there's a version of sticking £10 into your grandsons birthday card on DLT without it being discoverable.. unless you're a bank running on a private ledger that is. Thoughts?

Hello all, I mentioned in another thread that given I work for BofA I have the fortunate luxury in accessing our research team's material on pretty much everything. More recently, BofA have created a series labelled "Digital Money Series" which largely focus on Fintech in particular how it can disrupt existing business or general status quo. Before I share anything, the research team is independent to the general enterprise of the company so anything that is mentioned in the research is likely to have little influence. It's more for information catered towards clients to become more educated (at least that's how I see it). The following points do not mention Ripple or XRP explicitly or contain information to alter your investment decisions. Like I said, this is purely informational. Do not take this as investment advice whatsoever. So far there are six issues, i'll be making a post of each issue. Digital money series #1: how did we get here? There is a real chance that 2021 sees the launch of a central bank digital currency (“CBDC”) from a developed economy. This would represent a radical change to money, banking and commerce. There seems to be growing support for a retail CBDC from central banks and regulators. The EU has set out an increasingly detailed timetable for a CBDC – feedback process ending in January 2021, decision on whether to conduct a full trial by mid 21 – and accompanied this with increasingly positive reports on the topic. The UK’s Bank of England has also published some fairly upbeat commentary about CBDC, seemingly embracing the radical reshaping of finance this could bring about. The list of positive central bank commentary has recently been swelled by ECB and BofE. The ECB seems to like a CBDC because it is worried about: 1. continually declining use of cash – something COVID has hastened, 2. private sector digital currencies such as Diem (aka Libra) and 3. The risk of the Euro being supplanted by CBDCs from third countries (especially China). CBDC seems to us to be highly likely to undermine existing retail banking franchises without generating any obvious offsets. So, should a digital Euro happen, we think that it would be negative for retail-focused European banks. Policy formation is a process, and there are many stages to go between where we are today (“we’re looking into it”) and issuing a CBDC (“we’re doing it”). However, we’ve been struck by the tone of the ECB, which has been becoming increasingly positive, we think. “Here” is a place where the ECB is in the midst of a “public consultation to seek feedback from people across Europe [about CBDC] and gain a better understanding of their needs. It will be completed in January, and the results will be published once they have been analysed.” This is according to ECB Executive Board member Fabio Panetta: This all sounds good – efficiency, safety, choice, costless payments. What’s not to like? In particular, he talks about the potential for big techs to become major players in payment – he (Fabio Panetta) seems to be against this. “If not properly regulated, big techs may pose considerable risks from an economic and social perspective and they may restrict, rather than expand, consumer choice.” This view is one we discussed in detail in “Don’t fear the Libra” (18th November 2019), and we think it may be hard for big tech to move regulators on from it. We talk a bit later about the boarder landscape for CBDCs, but the Bank of China has taken considerable steps towards a digital currency (a “digital Yuan”). According to various reports, the Bahamas has beaten them to it, with their “Sand Dollar”, a digital currency backed one for one by the Bahamian Dollar. He (Fabio Panetta) also points out that cards used across Europe rely on “agreements with international card schemes. As a result, people mostly use international schemes for cross-border card payments, and the European market for card payments is dominated by non-European schemes.” Presumably, this includes MasterCard and Visa. He says: “a digital euro would need to be carefully designed, in order to enhance privacy in digital payments [and] respect the rules on countering illegal activities.” A CBDC would be a better place to park cash than a commercial bank account. It has a lower risk profile, for a start. Granted, Euro deposits up to €100,000 are guaranteed by the various national central banks, but a CBDC has two benefits over guaranteed deposits: • It cuts out the entity in the middle – your risk is directly that of the ECB. • It replaces the national sovereign as lender of last resort with the ECB itself. This arguably isn’t much of a credit upgrade if you’re German, but it would be if you were a citizen of many European countries. We have discussed this already, with Mr Panetta. There is an understandable fear that if a region did not develop a CBDC, it could risk being left out when faced by the unstoppable march of the Sand Dollar or the Digital Yuan. Our view is that this is a matter than could be addressed by regulation. We note that the US Fed doesn’t seem to be in the vanguard of central banks looking at CBDCs, suggesting they do not fear this outcome. Diem (the artist formerly known as Libra); We note that as well as Mr Panetta, Libra is explicitly mentioned by Andrew Haldane, in a recent speech on innovations in payments. He said: This is more scene setting than justifying a CBDC – the whole speech is fairly discursive – but Diem/Libra is clearly there in Mr. Haldane’s thinking. Mr Haldane addresses directly the broader systemic impacts of CBDC. Lastly, the fears about “narrow banking” are precisely our key fear about CBDC. Narrow banking’s key tenets are as follows: • Banks would be able to lend using depositors' money only after the depositors themselves choose to transfer their money to designated "lending" accounts that will be regarded as "risky" accounts (similar to mutual funds). Otherwise, depositors' money will be kept as liquid cash or deposited with the central bank. Mr. Haldane’s response to this worry is in our view extremely important. And he’s right. If you split deposit taking form lending, you don’t have to worry anything like as much about the systemic impact of a deposit-taker facing bankruptcy, because assuming it didn’t engage in fraud or other malfeasance, it’s very hard to see how it could happen. From a supervisory point of view, life would be easier, as you would have to question whether all the rules intended to make sure that Governments don’t have to action their various deposit guarantee schemes would be necessary. Mr Haldane’s speech is significant because it suggest that a CBDC might form part of a radical approach to the banking industry. This worries us, but it adds an important plank to the central bank discussion of CBDC. The ECB’s approach seems to be to try to limit the impact of a CBDC on the incumbents. Mr Haldane approaches it from a different angle, considering CBDC as potentially an agent of change for the banking sector.

I came across the startup Thought Machine recently and they are doing some very interesting things in the banking sector. It seems to me that Ripple partnering with or acquiring the company could provide a lot of benefit to both for expanding their relevance in the Fintech space. Thought Machines main product is Vault. Vault has been written purposefully as a cloud native platform - it does not contain any legacy or pre-cloud technology. Vault is built around APIs using a microservice architecture. The services within Vault constitute a significant portion of all the functionality required to run a bank. . Banks can use Vault to launch new products without the need to launch an entirely new bank. Vault’s powerful smart contract product building system allows banks to create any type of new product it wants, and serve this to existing customers. The additional services, provided by the bank or other vendors, connect through Vault’s APIs. The core banking system will be Vault and that will run the products and ledgers. Thought Machine’s mission is to end banks' reliance on legacy IT and a key part to this is to get existing customers off these legacy systems and migrate them to Vault. https://www.thoughtmachine.net/building-a-bank/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AQYUI-IGTP4Tb-EssjOldvqi8nJ4nwzz/view?usp=drivesdk If you want it and can build it let me know I'll even work for free RizaCity is an app that is similar to Pokemon Go, gamers will download the app and chase zombies around their respective cities. These zombies are generated from membership fees that gamers will gladly pay. The cost of membership is $25 a month, the company keeps five and the twenty will go into a escrow account we hold for when gamers cash out. That twenty is than turned into 2000 zombies with each being worth one cent. Gamers will hunt down these zombies and get a penny per kill. The average game will make hundreds even thousands a week legally of course. Gamers will collect their kills and when their ready they will have to go to RizaCity Mall to cash out. This is how Ripple is incorporated into the game....we will take ten percent of gamers membership fees and buy xrp. This single wallet will be managed by us but, belong to the 300 million plus gamers/members. The goal of this wallet is to manage millions of coins for the gamers and slowly deposit profits back into the game. For example, if the value of the wallet is $20 million today and $60 million next year, we'll introduce ten million dollars in zombies into RizaCity. Not to mention that the gamers monthly memberships will keep growing as well as the game grows. Gamers will have plenty to play for and keep them playing. So when a gamer converts his kills for xrp he or she does it thru that main wallet. The idea here is that xrp will be supported by the members and xrp will support the game. My dream would be that the players wallet will have a value of hundreds of billions. The price per zombie is a penny it will never change but the price of xrp will. For example, if a member has 35000 kills, its $350. So if the value of xrp is two dollars today or five hundred next week the gamer is still only cashing in $350 dollars. RizaCity Mall will be were they can buy anything from gift cards to houses using xrp from companies that will build their virtual store fronts. The only way to be truly successful is to make sure the gamers are our top priority. If we keep them happy there is no stopping us. Games are entertaining to some point than they either end or get boring. RizaCity will never end and will give all gamers a career doing what they love. The ultimate goal is to have a billion members with a gamers cash account that backd the crpyto and a wallet of millions xrp that backs the game. We will never stop buying xrp but, once we reach a certain value we will take five percent and convert it into zombies for gamers every month. The virtual mall will also generate billions in revenue which we'll take twenty percent and convert into zombies monthly. Advertising in the mall will generate billions and the same thing because, to be successful the gamers must make a living. Ask yourselves this, if xrp reaches 100k plus per coin who wouldn't accept it. RizaCity does what no one has been able to. It brings in the masses that will buy, sell accept and spend every single day. When I say the masses im talking about the public but, also millions of millions of business all across the world. These companies will accept xrp and at the end of the month sell them back to us at the value it was accepted. I've also figured out how to keep this app #1 ...gamers will not just hunt down zombies but also one another. Players will see each other as zombies and if a player kills another player he gets his money, Its almost like a Fornite battle royale but in real life. There is so much more, thank you for your time and please contact me at your convenience. Please share my post with everyone you know...the world needs this game. Gamers will be able to quit their jobs and play this full-time as a career.

Executive Order 13772- Check this out!---Executive order REPORT from Steve Mnuchin of the US Treasury to the President - (Mods, please move if necessary , thank you) Then while you're reading this press Ctrl-F and type in Ripple and you will see Ripple and R3 as two of the many firms listed as "Participants in the Executive Order Engagement Process" https://home.treasury.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/A-Financial-System-that-Creates-Economic-Opportunities---Nonbank-Financi....pdf The report title is- "A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation Here is the actual Executive Order 13772 Link but the reports and its contents are what we care about. The order is just a confirmation of telling us that Change is upon us. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-core-principles-regulating-united-states-financial-system/ @Hodor Check this out-What do you think of this?

Blog URL: https://xrpcommunity.blog/xrp-news-update-june-9th-2019/ The future is becoming more well-defined for xRapid and ILP micropayments! Learn more in my latest XRP News blog: 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: The SEC's FinTech Forum was held on May 31st. 𝐑𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: Ripple founds a new subsidiary in Switzerland; SendFriend is going live with XRP payments this month; David Schwartz presents at the WeAreDevelopers conference in Berlin; and Ripple releases episode 13 of the Ripple Drop, covering 'RippleNet and On-demand Liquidity.' 𝐗𝐑𝐏 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: Suisse Gold, an online bullion dealer based in the UK, plans to support XRP purchases; and Vontobel, an investment banking company based in Zurich, Switzerland, announces a new XRP-based certificate for their customers. I hope you enjoy the read: Please feel free to share my blog with a friend or share it on any other platform - and thanks for doing so! My blog announcement links on other platforms: Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Reddit r/CoilCommunity Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-carney-innovate-finance-speech-084411476.html

Come mix and mingle with Los Angeles Fintech Tuesday July 31st. Learn about the newest and fastest changes going on in financial technology. Finance is undergoing a massive change some call the "financial paradigm" or "crypto wars". Laws from 1930-1940 (old right?) are getting broken down with technological innovation in finance. Find partners, talk about your project, bounce ideas, discover LA Fintech. RSVP HERE

This is an excellent read. I'm not sure how I've got access to it... But it seems that some of these topics are pretty cutting edge. https://www.verdict.co.uk/electronic-payments-international/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/12/EPIjan2018_zmag.pdf

Hey to all, thought you guys might enjoy this conversation about the current crypto and blockchain landscape I ran across yesterday. It features Ripples CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Enjoy

What is going on with the fintech conference in Singapore? I saw that Ripple as well as stellar is there, are they competing?

This blog entry from SaveOnSend discusses the 'big picture' of money transfer, including the perceptions and actions of retail bank customers in the C2C remittance space, the importance of money transfer relative to other sources of bank revenue, and the potential scope for innovation by MTOs / fintech disruptors. Banks and Money Transfer: Sleeping Giants? Excerpt from blog post (italics/bold mine):

In my latest article, I make a claim that Ripple could become the world's largets fintech company. I hope you enjoy the read (10 minutes?) Leave any feedback below positive or negative, and please feel free to share on other media! My blog announcements on other media: Twitter Reddit Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP Speculation Thread

http://fintechist.com/indian-securities-regulator-launches-fintech-panel-embrace-innovation/ No mention of any specific tech or companies, or even blockchain or DLT, but when their securities regulator forms a panel, it's an opportunity. India is one of the biggest possible markets, and alt coin adoption is not anywhere near mainstream there yet!

Switzerland, world's pivot of digital currencies, is working on a banking secrecy law 2.0 -- this time for cryptos. The Swiss are working quietly to become world's center for cryptocurrencies: https://cryptoking.org/switzerland-worlds-pivot-digital-currencies/ Feedback appreciated, and even more thanks for spreading the article on your social media channels, thank you!

Ripple attending BankTechAsia'17 from 1st week July'17 http://www.banktechasia.com/9th-banktech-asia-kuala-lumpur-regional-series/

https://xrphodor.wordpress.com/ My 2nd blog post; All I had to do is discuss the facts... Ripple is making it too easy!

I remember Stefan Thomas talking about a "theoretical" use-case where you have an author/publisher who owns a webpage and charges people a fee to access the information. He said (in a nutshell) that the plug-in for the browser would conduct the transaction in real-time, allowing payment to the author. REDDcoin does this as well. They have a tipping platform that does just this. Admittedly, they do not provide information about their devs (all under pseudonyms (which is worrisome for me)), there is no information on a board of directors, board of advisors, key investors, recent news, SEC regulatory compliance. Nothing. The site looks neat, but other than that....my question: is Ripple targeting these micropayments as well? There was this top-down approach, and I think, now that they have larger institutions looking to use ILP, they can focus on these Micropayments that happen daily. What are your thoughts?

This is just something to be aware of, Ripple is definitely the tip of the spear, but SBI is hedging their bets it would seem. Japan's SBI, megabanks take stakes in blockchain group R3 New network for financial transactions promises to slash costs In blockchain-based systems, users maintain transaction logs, comparing their own copy of records with their peers'. TOKYO -- Japan's SBI Holdings and more than 40 financial institutions from around the globe have pledged some $107 million to R3, an American startup building a new network for financial transactions on the back of blockchain technology. SBI is poised to become the New York-based group's principal shareholder, as it has committed to purchasing more than 2 billion yen ($17.9 million) in new R3 shares through its venture capital fund. Other investors include Wells Fargo, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup of the U.S., as well as Japan's three megabanks -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group. Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings is also participating. A small group that includes R3's founder holds 100% of the startup's equity. So the current round of funding marks the first influx of outside capital, and will pay for development of systems at the core of R3's planned transaction network, among other efforts. Tailor-made The startup aims to put its version of blockchain -- a so-called distributed ledger that allows all users of a system to communally maintain transaction records -- to work as soon as this fall to begin facilitating actual financial transactions. R3's system has been developed in cooperation with global banks and is specifically tailored to the financial sector. Financial institutions are looking to blockchain-based systems as a way to reduce the costs and time needed to execute transactions. Investing in R3 will also allow them to reduce investment in such systems by sharing the cost burden. In addition, the institutions hope to create new financial services by involving themselves more deeply in the development process. Import-export finance and derivatives trading are expected to be among the first fields where blockchain technology can be put to use. The technology could also be used for personal identification and real estate transactions in the future, yielding benefits such as lower service fees for individuals. Broad possibilities Since joining R3's consortium in March 2016, SBI has participated in such efforts as proof-of-concept testing. Now, the Japanese financial services firm will gain board representation at R3. It aims to use the position to lead the consortium's technological development. SBI has also teamed up with Ripple, the U.S. financial technology startup behind the virtual currency XRP, to form the joint venture SBI Ripple Asia. The SBI group plans to begin operating an exchange for virtual currencies this summer, and plans to launch its own such currency, SBI Coin, down the road. New network for financial transactions promises to slash costs Promising technology from R3 could also yield benefits for SBI's online brokerage and internet banking businesses. The hope is that the lower trading costs afforded by blockchain will draw in new customers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2017/05/24/fintech-tools-that-can-change-the-world-of-finance/#5adc0ad652ff Interesting article; as I read through it, I realized XRP / RCL and the ILP can either address or support four out of five of these. Peer-to-peer is a topic not many of use have brought up, although I think it's been mentioned in our dynamic list of XRP use cases. For those that want to see that list, I include the link here:

(Be aware that this is me feeding the hype and only my 2 cents) The investing angels that guide me tell me that more is to come. Hold on to your socks fellow ripple-ians and profit hungry brothers. The real reason I have such confidence is that ripple is the only cryptocurrency that has traditional financial institutions investing and testing it. This means that they do not want to get left behind and the fact that they put their confidence into ripple is a good sign for all cryptocurrencies because it validates the concept and technology. One thing we must all understand is that a currency is only as valuable as the market allows/wants it to be and it shows this through adoption (volume) and can unfortunately be manipulated by supply ( think of the diamond industry). The fact that ripple is centralized makes the majority of cryptocurrency enthusiasts dislike it as it is antithetical to the premise on which cryptocurrencies where created, that of being a decentralized, peer to peer method of exchanging value. But I say this again, it is only as valuable as the number of people who accept and adopt it. Of my short experience in cryptocurrencies I can say that there are two main types of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. In category 1 we have those who are genuinely invested in the decentralized ideal and want to create a parallel financial ecosystem where we are all in control of our own money and there is no financial third party to ask for permission to send money. This is an ideal that requires most users to have an above average understanding of the technology or at least be aware of it and know how to use the wallets and exchanges. Herein lies the true problem and barrier to entry. If cryptocurrencies are to be truly adopted they will require a more mass market friendly platform to offer their coins on and they will also have to be useful in that they can either buy goods and services (such as how bitcoin is accepted at many online merchants) or they can be more unique and be a way to transfer and exchange money between people and between banks (ripple). On the other hand, we have the second type of crypto enthusiast who is profit driven and feeds of the speculation and high volatility. This type of enthusiast cares less about the technology and the ideal and more about the volatility and market manipulation. Though even those in category 1 enjoy the growth in their net worth. Exchanges only exist because there is a large demand for them from enthusiasts in this category and the fact that they are unregulated and have such low fees means that any average person with a decent internet connection and an ID can try and benefit from this volatile industry (desirably so). However, what ripple is doing is legitimizing the industry and if they play their cards right they may be opening the door for other cryptocurrencies and start-ups in this area. Much like how Ethereum has been revolutionizing the cryptocurrency industry in applications, ripple will allow for the beginning of mass market exposure to and adoption of cryptocurrencies. And yes, all those of us who have just found out about it or have been in this word since the birth of bitcoin will regarded as the “lucky ones” who were there early enough to reap the financial rewards. N.B. I am not a financial expert and I do not pretend to be. Please do your own research and invest wisely and only what you can afford to lose and still feed yourself. In addition, remember that sometimes hype may be bad and only slow, sustained growth is true growth.

How many of you would like to see a meaningful quarterly progress report on Ripple and XRP? What would you like to see included in the report? I would like a list of all ripple employees who are helping various regulatory bodies and their positions within them. How many nodes/gateways there are to date and how many the quarter gained or lost. How many banks are signed up, their names, and the degree of integration and use of XRP. New 3rd party work such as bitgo wallet and what services the average consumer can use right now and through whom. What ways it is compliant or not with each countries regulations which might help or hurt adoption. Who has donated to the funding rounds. Where can you purchase it. Which exchanges trade it.

FULL TEXT: http://www.earthport.com/news-insights/news/earthport-blockchain-offering-secures-fintech-finance-award/