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Hello everyone, Obviously new to XRP, and I had a question. Do I have to link a big bank to gatehub, or can I stick with my credit union to deposit and receive funds?

I checked out LINK, the supposed ripple killer and consequently I also checked out related technologies related to smart contracts. Ethereum, etherdelta. Other potential ripple competitors. And to be fair. These technologies are nothing short of amazing. Not to mention the swift partnership and this image clearly shows one of many use cases involving swift. https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-12-at-3.49.32-PM-728x538.png While looking at this image and trying to digest chainlinks complicated api I had a sudden epiphany. Link is the glue that will "link" all these blockchains together into a cohesive well oiled machine. Ethereum is the virtual machine. Minors are the hardware. smartcontracts are the software and all the other blockchains are the various databases. XRP being the "database" for cross border settlement. XRP's use case as a bank settlement and currency exchange make it a perfect addition to the smartcontracts ecosystem. Lets not forget the many partnerships ripple has with numerous banks, forex companies ect. Imagine a world where using ethereum; one could speculate on the price difference between bitcoin and any RCL IOU, without needing a ripple account, without giving up any private keys to a third party and only trusting the IOU issuer for the duration of the contract. On top of this the user could hedge and/or insure his trades using real world market data and "digital insurance options." Within minutes of a contract executing everybody would receive settlement in the way they prefer. From this perspective of a multi blockchain worldwide payment network a liquidity provider on the Ripple Consensus Ledger would not know if the buy/sell volumes were coming from on or off ledger. They are placing buy/sell orders hoping they will fill. When an ethereum smartcontract needs liquidity it could then request XRP market data through LINK and if certain conditions are met it could execute the contract. Using LINK it or even ILP it could perform an XRP settlement ect. In my opinion viewing these technologies as competitors is narrow sighted. It makes sense to use each blockchain for it's use case and to move bloat off ledger to keep performance high. Remember fees are payed based on load on most blockchains. Economics will will come to an equilibrium causing each blockchain to be used for it's specific use case. XRP's use case being international settlement. I would love to see an alliance form. LINK, ETH, XRP, REQ -- the use case alliance.

The XRP token is not in the current bull run because of some misconceived reasons which require scrutiny: 1) Although many banks are using the XRP platform as a money transfer system, the XRP token is not boosted by this fact because the ledger has nothing to do with the altcoin. My idiot-level view: Imaging the XRP platform to be a car that can run on different types/brands of fuel like gasoline, water, diesel, brine, etc. (i.e. the metaphors for major fiat currencies, Bitcoin and the major Altcoins including the XRP token, collectively the "Usable Currencies"). In such a sense it can be said the XRP ledger (the "car") is currently helping banks remit many forms of money (the Usable Currencies) at a high speed and low remittance fees . However, such remittance fees, though much lower than SWIFT fees, do vary from Usable Currency to Usable Currency with that of the XRP token being the lowest. Quite obviously, as the XRP token is currently not in circulation to the extent of fiats and Bitcoin, it means it is these Usable Currencies minus the XRP token that are the current "fuel" driving the XRP platform. And the XRP firm has to let this be the situation for now in order for the platform to gain usage and popularity and as such the XRP token has not as yet experienced any great demand as the would-be ultimate currency for remittances. Once the platform catches on and becomes a popular way of remitting money, users will start comparing remittance costs among Usable Currencies and that is when the XRP Altcoin will hit the moon. Simply put, the token is indeed linked to the ledger but when you introduce a new car in the market with your own brand of petrol, you have to allow the car to sell well first before the petrol that goes with it can gain traction. 2) The XRP platform aims to replace the SWIFT system of money transfer, but since SWIFT is owned by banks, one can be sure the banks will not allow it to happen. My idiot-level view: The above is based on the wrong presumption that SWIFT is owned by all banks in the world and each bank stands to lose out should XRP take over SWIFT. The truth is SWIFT is only owned by its members which are financial institutions and non-member financial institutions do not benefit from the high fees charged by the SWIFT system. In any event, financial institutions are not the only party transferring money, non-banking related businesses, which is the overwhelming majority, also have to remit/transfer money and it is due to a lack of choice that they have to make use of the SWIFT system via banks. The XRP system enables such majority to bypass banks and SWIFT. The fact that so many banks have presently converted themselves to XRP banks (see below) proves that it is a matter of time before SWIFT banks become overwhelmed because XRP fees are as much as 60% cheaper. 3) New ledgers/platforms are coming into existence which adopt or copy some of XRP"s technology and as such, the XRP token is unlikely to appreciate and instead its price may even collapse. My idiot-level view: Presently, XRP has been approved or is being used by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, a consortium of Japanese banks with 61 members including Japan Post Bank as well as the country’s three megabanks – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group – representing more than 80 per cent of Japanese banking assets, the Siam Commercial Bank, with another between 20 and 25 banks planning to sign with Ripple in the next 18 months in the Asia-Pacific region. There is also a lot of interest expressed by both the public and the private banks in China with one of the biggest banks there already using the system which is also supported by large communities, including those of Google, Facebook and Uber. And the Ripple team is working hard in signing up more users worldwide. Such first mover advantage will be very difficult for any new competitor to overtake. 4) XRP's Interledger solution is a peer-to-peer solution which means banks using it can lose control of their own network as distinct from a Hyperledger, which is a private blockchain with a centralised hub to control the process and banks using it will be able to control transactions among their own branches. My idiot-level view: As previously mentioned, banks presently do a lot of remittances/transfers because businesses, which form the bulk of remitters, have no choice but to do so through banks. Once the XRP system catches on because of its great savings and its flexibility and convenience of use (without for anyone having to go to or through the bank) monetary transfers by banks will fall to a negligible level. As such, the role of banks in such transfers is likely to be wiped out someday. Hence, the point here is a non-issue to me. 5) The Ripple firm has retained 60 billion XRP coins and can therefore flood the market with it causing the token's unit price to collapse. My idiot-level view: Apart from the firm's promise in locking 14 billion in XRP Cryptocurrency (which does not seem to appease many people so far), the truth of the matter is this. Would the firm shoot itself in the foot by allowing the XRP unit price to collapse thereby rendering whatever XRP coins it is holding or retaining worthless? 6) XRP is a centralized system which means the system is under the control of a single firm. My idiot-level view: The question here is this. Does XRP the firm introduce its technology to the world just for the sake of technology or the fun of it, or is it also to make money? If it is also to make money, the fact that the system is under centralized control must mean that it gives the firm a guaranteed freedom without interference to administer the whole platform and improve on it wherever necessary in order to steer it to become the world's standard for money transfers or, to put it in another way, to ensure that whatever XRP coins it is retaining will make a lot of money for all those guys who have been contributing towards the technology and managing the whole system. In short, why begrudge these guys making big money out of their tokens? Do third-party holders of XRP coins be it investors, punters, businesses, banks, etc. not stand to benefit in the process if the closed system becomes a success unlike what is now happening to decentralized Bitcoin -- think BTC, BTH, SegWit2x, and other potential forks that have yet to come about! Is that good for Bitcoin as the top Cryptocurrency? 7) XRP is dead because of the above (misconceived) allegations. My idiot-level view: Apart from the above views in rebuttal, the point here is that currently at about 16 cents, XRP is almost guaranteed to be the best punt for one to at least double his capital quickly once BTC's price starts to unwind together with those of ETH, BTH, etc. in tandem when those who have sold out to take profit will likely put part of it into XRP hopefully to double or triple their profits because at 16 cents it is not that difficult for XRP to go up by just another 16 or more to 32 and above. THE ABOVE IS NOT INTENDED AS FINANCIAL ADVICE BUT JUST A PERSONAL VIEW

Please PM me to update this list or post your own resource lists below! Reference Materials, Wiki Articles, and Misc. Info Transaction Format: https://ripple.com/build/transactions/ Transaction Cost: https://ripple.com/build/transaction-cost/ Transaction Submission: https://ripple.com/build/reliable-transaction-submission/ Ledger Format: https://ripple.com/build/ledger-format/ Payment Paths: https://ripple.com/build/paths/ Reserves: https://ripple.com/build/reserves/ (Wiki: https://wiki.ripple.com/Reserves) Fee Voting: https://ripple.com/build/fee-voting/ Freeze Flag: https://ripple.com/build/freeze/ (Wiki: https://wiki.ripple.com/Freeze) Services API: https://wiki.ripple.com/Services_API Federation Protocol: https://wiki.ripple.com/Federation_protocol (& sample implementation in PHP: https://github.com/ripple/federation-php) Ripple Connect (Wiki): https://wiki.ripple.com/Ripple_Connect Ripple Stream (Wiki): https://wiki.ripple.com/Ripple_Stream Ripple Data (Wiki): https://wiki.ripple.com/Ripple_Data GitHubs, API Documentation, Official Ripple Guides, and Community Guides RippleAPI (replaced ripple-lib) https://ripple.com/build/rippleapi/ Beginner's Guide: https://ripple.com/build/rippleapi-beginners-guide ripple-lib https://github.com/ripple/ripple-lib ripple-lib-cli (unsupported) https://github.com/ripple/ripple-lib-cli Data API v2 https://ripple.com/build/data-api-v2/ Ripple's live instance: https://data.ripple.com/ rippled https://github.com/ripple/rippled Rippled Setup Instructions: https://wiki.ripple.com/Rippled_setup_instructions and https://ripple.com/build/rippled-setup/ Community Guide: https://forum.ripple.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10619 rippled-apis https://ripple.com/build/rippled-apis/ ripple-rest (unsupported) https://github.com/ripple/ripple-rest ripple-demurrage-tool (unsupported) https://github.com/ripple/ripple-demurrage-tool ripple-charts-frontend https://github.com/ripple/ripplecharts-frontend ripple-client https://github.com/ripple/ripple-client ripple-client-desktop https://github.com/ripple/ripple-client-desktop minimalist-ripple-client https://github.com/jatchili/minimalist-ripple-client rippled-sign-submit https://github.com/whotooktwarden/rippled-sign-submit generateSecretOffline https://github.com/whotooktwarden/generateSecretOffline rippled-gateway-balances https://github.com/whotooktwarden/rippled-gateway-balances Gateway Guide: https://ripple.com/build/gateway-guide/ QuickGatewayKit http://quickgatewaykit.org http://quickgatewaykit.org/blog https://github.com/whotooktwarden/QuickGatewayKit https://www.bountysource.com/teams/qgk ANN thread: https://forum.ripple.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10206 Roast Coins https://github.com/RoastBeefSandwichCo/Roast-Coins ANN thread: https://forum.ripple.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15581&start=10#p72305 More resources from the Ripple site: https://ripple.com/build/ (this will soon be migrated to https://ripple.com/learn/) Official Ripple Tools Websocket Tool: https://ripple.com/build/websocket-tool/ RPC Tool: https://ripple.com/build/ripple-info-tool/ Ripple Test Net: https://ripple.com/build/ripple-test-net/ ripple.txt validator: https://ripple.com/build/ripple-txt-validator/