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Disclaimer: Strictly for fun! Not financial advice! Also, would love anybody to expand on or talk about the flaws in this. Also unsure if this has been talked about already! So someone, 4y ago, asked: “Why does XRP need a value to be used on the RippleNetwork by banks if it will be adopted? Can’t it be used with zero value?” In summary, David Schwartz responded: “No, can’t be used unless it’s value and liquidity is sufficient, and the more value and liquidity the broader range of payments it can be used to settle. The easiest way to see why this is so is to think about bitcoin. Four years ago, you couldn’t buy a house with bitcoin. You can today. But it would be very hard today to settle a $1 billion payment with bitcoin. If bitcoin’s price ever goes to $1,000,000, you could then settle a $1 billion payment with it.” Link: https://www.quora.com/If-a-large-amount-of-banks-were-to-adopt-xrapid-and-started-using-xrp-how-would-that-impact-the-tokens-value In other words - BTC’s price at the time of posting this (probably between $4k-10k) would be adequate for something like a house payment, but move the market way too much with regard to large-volume institutional payments, and hence a settlement for $1Billion using BTC would be much more efficient (or preferred) at $1million a token. Now, for fun, let’s F around and play with this very specific, but very intriguing, example by D.Schwartz, and easily calculate some good ol prices. Problem: If 1 BTC needs to = $1,000,000 to settle a $1,000,000,000 payment & total supply = 21,000,000 then what does 1 XRP need to = to settle the same amount with a total supply = 100,000,000,000 Solution: (21000000*1000000*1000000000)/(1000000000*100000000000) = XRP (equate market caps to solve xrp price) Turns out, 1 XRP = $210, in this scenario. Well, that is with a total supply available on-market or on-demand. Now, what about a much lower available supply, especially the designated supply dedicated to specifically settling high volume payments on RippleNet (ODL)? What about most of XRP is existing/sitting on global institutional balance sheets in the future? What about constant transactions and settlements taking place, rather than a one off? Multi-billions of dollars, frequently? What about XRP settling a whole bunch of other stuff - NFTs, tokenized real-estate, other equities but also stocks and debt securities? Smart-Contract capabilities? On chain and off-chain settlements, ILP? Plain Lockups and staking? I’ve read that something like 5% of the supply is what will eventually be in-use. Might be bs. Anyway, using the same equation and scenario - a sufficient BTC price to settle a $1B payment that won’t move the market too much - and ignoring a whole bunch of other variables and adjustments that should probably be made on both XRP’s and BTC’s sides (lol, this is very much a massive assumption and strictly for fun): Assuming % of XRP supply on-demand = $ 100% = $210 50% = $420 30% = $700 10% = $2100 5% = $4200 1% = $21000 Again, would love for anyone to expand on or find the flaws in this (i know there are many)!

Blog URL: https://coil.com/p/Hodor/Your-XRP-Limited-Supply-Cryptographically-Secure-Censorship-Resistant-Future-Proof-Immortal-/MjbN8ZXrT Digital assets like XRP will still be around long after we're gone! Discover why, and read about all of the latest important news impacting XRP in today's blog: 𝐑𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: PNC, the 8ᵗʰ-largest US bank, implements xCurrent; Euro Exim Bank receives industry recognition; The IAMTN interviews Jeremy Light, Ripple's VP of Strategic Accounts; SBI VC launches a promotion that involves a small award of XRP to eligible SBI shareholders; and a fan video is released with bank-related quotes from Brad Garlinghouse; 𝐂𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: Coil continues to attract increasing numbers of content creators to their official blogging site; and I share my latest Coil author recommendations. 𝐗𝐑𝐏 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: XRP Fans are intensifying their efforts at promoting XRP; an XRP fan analyzes a wide variety of project implementation timelines and publishes his findings on Reddit; and OK Swap, a new exchange, lists XRP. 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://xrpripplenews.com/2019/08/20/santander-eyes-expansion-after-trading-volume-triples-using-ripple-tech/ ...after seeing Ripple powered payments triple over six months. Do you agree it is a case of if not when for teh switch to xRapid which uses XRP or will they just stay on xCurrent??

Although arguments can be made against the notion of future adoption of the XRPL by the financial system thru supporting the retention of the current international payment system or emphasizing the technological progress in the SWIFT payment network, they fail to address critical flaws in today’s system. Hackers, political pressure, regulators, and the shrinking correspondent banking system are all legitimate issues that are impacting banking operations. Most international payments are facilitated through the SWIFT network today. SWIFT is a messaging network used to send and receive information on financial transactions between financial institutions. Currently, more than 11,000 financial institutions from around the world are linked to the SWIFT network for operations. Typically, the originating bank is required to have a working relationship with the destination bank in international wire transfers. If there is none, the originating bank can search the SWIFT network for a correspondent bank that has one with both banks.(2) Once found, the transaction is transferred through Nostro accounts held at the intermediary bank for a fee to the destination bank. Although SWIFT’s inception has proven to be beneficial in enabling international payments between banks globally, it’s reliance or the monopolistic position has become a double-edged sword. Due to their international relationships, SWIFT was viewed as an apolitical organization that was independent of any country’s domestic foreign policy. Unfortunately, this has not been proven the case the past few years as political disputes now threaten to fragment the international payments space. Regardless of your political views towards Iran, the United States pressure on SWIFT to disconnect Iranian financial institutions from the network has been unprecedented. While the action undergone by SWIFT contradicts the European Union’s desires. Although the EU intends to maintain trade with Iranian institutions, SWIFT complied with the US requests.(3) With the consequence being that now the international payment network has become weaponized to exert political pressure onto countries or regions. This undermines the trust within the network as participants can ultimately be on the wrong side of political discourse. Along with Iranian FIs, there has been heavy speculation from US media sources and diplomats that Russian financial institutions might face similar sanctions to their Iranian counterparts in the future.(4) Further eroding any participant confidence in SWIFT remaining apolitical. SWIFT’s inability to remain impartial to the network’s participants is already beginning to have repercussions. In Europe, there has been a political push back on the US influence over the payment network. Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, has publicly stated that the EU should "strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the United States — a European Monetary Fund and an independent SWIFT system".(5) Even more striking were Maas’ comments that the EU had already begun the process of developing an alternative payment system. Both Iran and Russia have also taken similar responses to the EU. Iran has begun implementing an alternative banking platform for banking transactions with foreign institutions.(6) Meanwhile, Russian financial institutions have prepared themselves to be disconnected from the SWIFT network at a moments notice and have begun to adopt another alternative payment system CIPS. CIPS or the Chinese Alternative Global Payments System is also an alternative payment platform provided by China. CIPS was intended to make transactions between China and Russia easier while enticing other countries to utilize the system.(7) Russia has also begun to develop its own payment system called the “System for Transfer of Financial Messages” (SPFS). Essentially, the global political environment has pushed regions or countries to develop or adopt alternative solutions to SWIFT. Creating an ever growing, fragmented international payment network that will require interoperability between systems. SWIFT’s security has also been exploited these past several years, further testing the participant's trust of the network. Along with the frequency of these hacks occurring, the severity of them is increasing. Of the top five biggest SWIFT hacks by money lost, four of them have occurred within the past two years.(8) The sophistication of these attacks is becoming so advanced for SWIFT’s liking that they have begun to issue warnings and urge participants to increase their security measures.(9) In some attacks, hackers have been able to order payments to banks in other countries by copying preformatted payment requests into the SWIFT messaging software. Even further eroding trust in the network’s security, it was discovered that the NSA had breached SWIFT’s security and have developed tools for its operations. Thru leaked documents and files by a hacker group, the public was made aware of how the NSA had accessed the messaging system. Possibly setting in an uncomfortable feeling for financial institutions located in Eastern countries that the SWIFT network is a possible vector for attacks. Structurally, the correspondent banking system has been on a gradual decline for several years while total volume and value of payments through SWIFT are increasing. The Financial Stability Board conducted a study in which the FSB found that from 2011 to the end of 2017, active correspondent relationships declined by 15.5 percent across all currencies.(1) While for 2017 alone, it declined by 4.1 percent. More recent studies have concluded that 2018 saw declines in active relationships and corridors of about 3.5% and 2% respectively.(11) With the global correspondent banking network now declining by about 20% and the number of active corridors having fallen by roughly 10% the past seven years. This decline in active correspondent relationships has also coincided with the increased concentration within the correspondent banking market. Remaining participants in the network have their market share increase as competing banks exit the system. Both these trends pose respective risks and issues to the banking system. An increase in the volume of payments with the decrease in the number of correspondent relationships is theorized to increase the length of the payment chains. Implying payments will need to be facilitated thru more intermediary parties to reach the same destination. Possibly adding more exchange or transaction fees along with increasing the settlement time. Meanwhile, a concentration in the correspondent banking market introduces an unwelcoming scenario. Theorized consequences include a decrease in the competition of services, leading to higher costs and more fragile networks. As the payment network relies on fewer participants to facilitate payments, the failure of a participant will have greater repercussions as they are more relied on. Ultimately, the global political environment is causing a fragmentation of the global payment system while the financial system is gradually entering a delicate state. Both trends have already begun to force global and financial institutions to adapt and find alternative systems. Regardless of what SWIFT can develop to enhance it’s services to its participants, there will be issues the organization cannot resolve. Interoperability will more than likely be the key in enabling the future global payment space to withstand any geopolitical shocks, along with providing a crucial capability if the financial system is under strain due to the structure of the correspondent banking system. Placing Ripple’s xCurrent or ILP in an advantageous position. 1. https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2018/11/basel-decline-in-global-correspondent-banking-relationships-accelerates/ 2. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/correspondent-bank.asp 3. https://www.ft.com/content/8f16f8aa-e104-11e8-8e70-5e22a430c1ad 4. https://www.voanews.com/a/us-diplomat-russia-should-release-ukrainian-sailors-by-christmas-/4688911.html 5. https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-wants-european-rival-to-us-backed-swift-payment-system-2018-8 6. https://en.mehrnews.com/news/139715/Iran-welcomes-foreign-banks-to-join-its-alternative-to-SWIFT 7. https://ethereumworldnews.com/after-ripple-chinas-cips-now-competes-with-swift-departure-from-us-dollar/ 8. https://medium.com/@kvantorcom/top-5-biggest-swift-hacks-52fca78145c 9. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-heist-warning/swift-warns-banks-on-cyber-heists-as-hack-sophistication-grows-idUSKBN1DT012 10. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-swift/hacker-documents-show-nsa-tools-for-breaching-global-money-transfer-system-idUSKBN17H0NX 11. https://www.bis.org/cpmi/paysysinfo/corr_bank_data/corr_bank_data_commentary_1905.htm

Blog URL: https://xrpcommunity.blog/welcome-to-our-world-bob/ Bob Way, a Ripple alumnus, indicated he's starting work on an ambitious new project! Learn more about him - and his new project - in today's blog. 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 Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

In today's blog, I talk about which crypto will move the market forward. There's also a lot going on in the cryptoverse affecting XRP: The SEC creates a new fintech hub website. Ripple headquarters is toured by CoinTelegraph. There's fresh news of xRapid, along with a new xRapid customer. Flutterwave and Combank both announce RippleNet membership and integration. Lastly, a panel featuring both Ripple and SWIFT is planned for the AFP conference in Chicago. In news of XRP, two new fan sites promise to add convenience for those looking for the latest statistics and performance metrics on XRP, and a new exchange is announced that ??????????? ???? ??? ?? ????? ???? ????????. And yes, you'll want to watch their promo video. All that and more in today's blog! Hope you enjoy the read. Please leave any feedback below. Please feel free to share my blog with anybody on any platform - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

Looking for a summary of the SWELL Conference + the latest news about XRP? I've got you covered! SWELL was a tour-d-force for Ripple; you won't want to miss my TL:DR breakdowns of each session in this blog. I provided my own personal take on each of the sessions, including the "800 Pound Gorilla" panel discussion at the end. This latest blog also covers the latest news in crypto, and Ripple & XRP as well, including what to expect from the Malta conference, and news that SmartStream piloted Ripple tech. Coinswitch adds a custom crypto switch page for XRP fans, and Bitrue announces their new mobile application. I hope you enjoy the read & please leave any feedback below. Also, feel free to share my blog with anybody you'd like - and also feel free to re-post on any other social media platform you wish - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

Japan really loves Ripple and XRP.....the file below straight from the japanese regulator itself https://www.fsa.go.jp/news/30/singi/20180615-3.pdf

It seems Western Union is using xRAPID/xCURRENT in customer transactions rather than just testing. I know it could be that my transaction was one of their trials but then I made two more transfers and both were pretty fast. I have been using Western Union for past 3 years after having a misfortune with MG. For the last few months I haven't used them as now I'm using Xrp P2P They use to take 1-2 business(real time) days although they stated 1-3 while doing transfers on the site which has changed to 0-1 Business day now. I have to send money to my mother every month or so for her living and medical expenses overseas, I have been doing these transfers for over 10+ years but using WU since 2014 July/Aug I think.... Never there was an instance that the money was delivered so quickly, I was gonna do it again via Xrp transfer and then sell overseas and withdraw to a bank account, but I thought since WU is doing trials then I must check out what has changed. It took less than two hours but you need to understand the longest time taken is by the Compliance team which approves the transfer, So I did a transfer once again today which I haven't posted in the images below. The standard procedure is you get an email that your transfer is approved or is on hold, then you get an email in couple hours that it is approved or they will call you if they need further information. Today the transfer was done under an hour, on top of it, I did get an email first that my transfer is on hold. So I called them, although you need to give 2 hours for compliance team before making a call and I called in 45 mins, so I got the same old Blah blah blah you need to give us 2 hours crap. And in next 4-5 mins I get an email, its approved and then I checked my overseas account money is there... Voila... I am not sure if xRAPID/xCURRENT was used but I am definitely sure there was never a transfer this quick, one more thing I'd like to add is the exchange rate, as WU has no fees if you send over $1000AUD and $4 fees for under $1000 transfers which used to be $20 but the exchange rate difference has been dropped by 60-70% as I always check on Google then WU and the 3 transfers I did now after few months have been 60-70% cheaper exchange rate than what they used to charge. I am attaching the history of transfers so you don't have to take me up on my word and can see I have been using them for a long time.

It is known that switching between xCurrent and xRapid is very easy. FIs are also interested in using xRapid instead of using xCurrent, but AFAIK the only problem (or the biggest problem) is the insufficient liquidity of XRP. My question is why don't they (FIs) think in small at first? I mean why don't they start using xRapid let's say at every 10000th transaction and in the other 9999 transactions can be run using xCurrent. This process might help to increase liquidity and frequency of using xRapid transaction could be increased while xRapid was fully adopted. What's wrong with this approach? I think if this process solved liquidity problem FIs would have already used this.

Santander is set to launch an international money transfer app with Ripple "Bostock name-checked partner Ripple, the fintech company which specialises in cross-border payments through its blockchain-based xCurrent and RippleNet products. He did not give a specific date for launch of the new product." Though it's xCurrent at first, we know how easy it is to switch to an even more cost efficient solution.

Ripple continues to build the Internet of value (IOV) and recently heralded new highways to liquidity within XRP. I discuss this progress - along with fascinating other news - in today's blog! Hope you enjoy; please leave any feedback below. Also, feel free to share my blog with anybody and on any platform - and thank you in advance for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

Hello people, I am new to the forum so please excuse me if this is not the appropriate section to post this. As shown on the next-to-last page of xCurrent's product overview (https://ripple.com/files/ripple_product_overview.pdf) in the technical requirements section - Ripple provides supports database connections with PostgreSQL and SQL server. I personally find it strange that xCurrent lacks Oracle support but has PostgreSQL ? Hasn't Oracle seen much more widespread use in financial institution's architectures than PG, which has just recently become more widely adopted? A possible explanation on this is that Ripple is targeting newer and consequently smallers banks for the initial adoption of their product. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

I had a thought pop into my head and I haven't been able to find the answer to this, so maybe someone else can chime in. Can a payment sent through xCurrent be routed through another entity that is xRapid enabled or do both entities have to be xRapid enabled? In this case, the original sender doesn't have to touch XRP to reap the benefits of its use. They are technically both connected to the same network. I'll give an example to illustrate what I am mean. Lets say Bank of America decides to start using xCurrent. A BOA customer now wants to send a payment to a friend in Mexico using Banco Azteca. BOA uses xCurrent to determine the cheapest/fastest path to Banco Azteca. BOA determines that the quickest and cheapest path is through Cuallix, an xRapid enabled partner on the same network. Money goes BOA -> Cuallix. BOA's portion of the transfer is complete, they will have to settle the transaction with Cuallix at a future date. Cuallix now sends payment through xRapid, which converts to XRP and sends through Bitso to Mexican Pesos. Cuallix then transfers Mexican Pesos to Banco Azteca using their very efficient rails already in use in Mexico. In this scenario, BOA never touched XRP. They never exposed themselves to volatility of digital assets, and did not have to list their transactions listed on the public ledger for everyone to see their transactions. The transaction did however add to the volume of XRP payments, it just looks to us like an ever increasing amount of transactions being routed through Cuallix or Bitso. If BOA wanted to skip the hop to Cuallix, they could become xRapid enabled in the future and then transfer straight through Bitso. In the meantime, they still have a viable path to use that involves XRP. I'm not sure this is possible, but I'd love to hear from anyone with more technical knowledge of how these products work together.

I heard mentioned here that xcurrent liquidity will help xrapid liquidity. I dont see how that could work. Can someone explain? For example, the liquidity needed for xcurrent is in the following currency pair markets: "[BANK_A_USD_IOU]<->[BANK_B_USD_IOU]", "[BANK_A_EUR_IOU]<->[BANK_B_EUR_IOU]" Similarly, the liquidity needed for xrapid is in the following currency pair markets: "[BANK_A_USD_IOU]<->[XRP]", "[BANK_B_USD_IOU]<->[XRP]", "[BANK_A_EUR_IOU]<->[XRP]", "[BANK_B_EUR_IOU]<->[XRP]" So the liquidity that xcurrent and xraid uses are in completely different (currency pair) markets. One leg of the currency pair markets are the same in both xrapid and xcurrent (say BANK_A_USD_IOU), but I dont see how that makes a difference

The momentum behind XRP and Ripple has quickly built into the size of a freight train. I make a good-faith attempt to cover all the news items of the last seven days, including The AMA (Ask Me Anything) session that David Schwartz held on Reddit. The other news items are extensive as well, including updates to xRapid customers, general Ripple technology adoption, and community updates. In addition, throw in two interviews with Ripple executives and you have a very busy week indeed. Hope you enjoy the read - please leave any feedback below. Also, feel free to share my blog with a friend or family member, or share it on any other forum or platform - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-fits-ripples-payments-products-explained/ Surprisingly good article from the infamous CoinDesk, huh?

Hey guys. So I'm trying to wrap my head around something. If a bank was to use XRapid to transfer money they would save on transfer fees but they would also be using the XRP token. Lets say Person A was going to transfer $100 to Person B. Would the $100 be converted to XRP based off of the price it's selling for? Like let's say XRP is trading at $1.50 at the time of the purchase. Does that mean the $100 is converted to XRP based off that trading price? So Person B actually gets 66.66666 worth of XRP tokens? ($100/$1.50) Also if that's the case, what if the price drops a little during the transfer? Does Person B not get the same amount of money anymore?

Everyone wants the price to be $100 now. Who doesn't? This year is Xcurrent, with a few baby steps to Xrapid. Next year Xrapid, will pick up more. And 2020 will be the year of Xrapid. keeping your feet on the ground and looking at it unemotional is important.

This comes from : https://twitter.com/jeremy_87110 xCurrent, xRapid and xVia, Explanation. I will try to keep this thread as technical as possible. @Ripple has a few products it provides to its clients. Each of the products provides additional/different functionality. Three main products by Ripple are: xCurrent, xRapid and xVia. 1/ xCurrent is made out of four parts: 1) Messenger - provides peer to peer communication between originator and beneficiary. Messenger is responsible for providing different information, like KYC, FX rates, payment details etc. 2/ 2) Validator - this component cryptographically confirms success/failure of a payment. It represents "single source of truth" for the transacting peers. Banks can run their own validator or can rely on a third-party validator (in which case BFT algorithm is used). 3/ Validator is also used to coordinate moving of funds accross ILP (@Interledger) Ledgers. 4/ 3) ILP Ledger - a subledger which can be incoporated into bank's current ledger. It is used to track credits, debits and liquidity across transacting parties. Funds are settled atomically, meaning that they are settled instantly or not at all. 5/ 4) FX Ticker - used to define exchange rates between transacting parties. This component facilitates the exchange between ILP Ledgers by enabling liquidity providers to post FX rates. 6/ xCurrent is independent from xRapid. Banks that use xCurrent do not have to use xRapid in their testing or in any point in time in the future. They still get a great service with lower costs. The idea of xCurrent is to enable faster cross border payments. 7/ Nevertheless, there are some cases in which @Ripple team enabled xCurrent to be used for domestic payments (e.g Japan). That was because domestic payments in Japan took very long time to settle. There is also a good example of xCurrent's primary role in Mexico (@Cuallix). 8/ Use cases that include xCurrent usually require that at least one of the parties has all four components (Messenger, Validator, ILP Ledger, FX Ticker) installed. The second party than has to operate only Messenger and ILP Ledger components. 9/ One of slightly different use cases is when a third party is operating this stack on behalf of e.g. originator. The payment provider then has to operate ILP Ledger and Messenger components. If this is the case, beneficiary doesn't have to operate any of the components. 10/ The second is when both originator and beneficiary are operating full stack when they have established a credit line with one another. In third-party liquidity scenario, liquidity provider runs FX Ticker and Validator, orignator and beneficiary run ILP Ledger and Messenger. 11/ The last scenario is planned for Q1 of 2018. In this scenario, both originator and beneficiary run full stack with all four components, while correspondent bank runs ILP Ledger and Messenger components. 12/ xRapid is meant to run with xCurrent to further lower the costs for banks. It is based on using $XRP to provide more liquidity for banks. They enable the banks to have their wallet with XRP instead of having to keep a number of nostro/vostro accounts. 13/ Funds that are kept in those types of accounts are so called dormant capital. This means that it can be used when there's a need, but the rest of the time it is just sitting there not being used and costing financial institutions additional money. 14/ If you wanted to keep 7-way accounts between 8 banks, where each bank would have an account in 7 other banks, that would take 28 accounts. That's like a full mesh network. You can calculate the number of accounts needed (between n banks) using the formula: n*(n-1)/2. 15/ If you were using #XRP, then you would need only *one* account. $XRP as a digital asset is supposed to be used as a bridging asset between any two other fiat currencies, with fixed fees, much lower than once used when converting between two fiat currencies. 16/ The cost for banks comes from hedging XRP because it's volatile at the moment. Using xCurrent and xRapid, FIs can save up to 42%. When XRP becomes less volitile, then banks can save up to 60%. 17/ Future improvements of xRapid should include path-finding algorithm. If you're into networks, in my opinion, that would be something similar to OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) which is based on Dijkstra's algorithm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra%27s_algorithm …). 18/ In the end, the last product, xVia, to my understanding, is supposed to provide sort of a gateway to RippleNet, allowing for usage of all of the features of this network, without the need to install xCurrent or xRapid (not sure about the last part). That's all folks.

I've been thinking a lot about how xRapid fits into Ripple's overall strategy and how financial institutions might want to use it. Given that ripple has yet to release many details on how xRapid exactly works, these are preliminary conclusions summarized from what I have read on this forum and my own thoughts; I would love to get feedback and hear any thoughts or additional use cases. Making payments to regions with limited correspondent banking relationships: xCurrent seems to only work with banks that have already established correspondent relationships with each other. If a payment needs to be made to a bank with limited correspondent relationships then it must go through a long route of multiple correspondent banks before arriving at its destination. This would likely be costly and slow if any of the intermediary correspondent banks are not using xCurrent. xRapid would cut down the cost and time by allowing the payer to send xrp straight to a liquidity provider that trades in the destination bank's "home" fiat currency and xrp. The liquidity provider would then send the payment denominated in local currency to the destination bank. This use case depends upon there being sufficient volume and enough liquidity providers willing to trade local fiat and xrp to make xRapid competitive in these regions Companies can use xRapid to make international payments directly to their customers worldwide. If a company in the US needs to pay a supplier in China, it could send xrp straight to a liquidity provider who trades xrp and RMB, trade for RMB, and then send RMB to the Chinese supplier's account. Of course the US company could still make the payment by means of traditional correspondent banking or xCurrent but using xrp may be faster and cheaper depending on exchange rates and banking fees. Reduction of nostro and vostro accounts. I have seen this mentioned many times here but only recently started to understand how it might work. Maintaining correspondent banking relationships is expensive for banks since they have to keep money deposited in other currencies at other banks. While that money is just sitting idly, it could be generating income by being put to other purposes such as lending or investing. Nostro and vostro accounts essentially impose an opportunity cost. Same with companies that need to make fast payments to employees or suppliers around the world. They currently deposit money with banks in all the countries in which they operate to be able to make fast payments. Having money sitting in multiple foreign accounts is costly for companies since it could be using that money to build their business. By using xrp or xRapid they could essentially offload the nostro vostro accounts to liquidity providers. Similar to the 2nd point and using the US company again as example, instead of having to keep a vostro account with a Chinese bank for means of paying Chinese suppliers, it could simply buy xrp using USD whenever it needed, send that xrp to a liquidity provider trading RMB/xrp who would then send RMB to the Chinese suppler. In all three use cases above, the payer can hold onto xrp but wouldn't necessarily need to as long as they could buy it using their local fiat. Thus, xrp is literally a bridge currency to other fiat AS LONG AS there are market makers/liquidity providers willing to trade fiat for xrp. I foresee xRapid facilitating the transfer of payments between payer -->liquidity provider --> payee similar to how xCurrent operates by using escrow and atomic transfers. I think it's definitely an uphill battle for all three use cases to play out since they rely heavily upon there being highly liquid xrp markets around the world. With that said it seems like Ripple is moving in the right direction to pull it off.

I get that using xCurrent or xRapid for international money transfers make sense. What if two different parties want to send money to each other and they utilize the same bank and are in the same country. Does using xCurrent or xRapid make sense? Or are national intrabank transfers more useful? What if it’s two parties with two different banks in the same country? Does it make sense then? Why? Why not? Are there any visuals that can help me understand?

There we go with xCurrent and Central Banks! https://ripple.com/insights/saudi-arabian-monetary-authority-adopts-xcurrent-to-transform-saudi-banking/ "SAMA will also provide interested Saudi banks with program management and training." Or, as I read it, the KSA tax payer will help to spread the word of Ripple into the country.

Every time a new Ripple partnership emerges where xCurrent is said to be the solution adopted, many people repeat the same mantra: "Oh it's just xCurrent. This is bad news for XRP". NO IT IS NOT BAD NEWS. Could financial institutions and other organizations simply use xCurrent forever without xRapid? Yes, of course they could. Will they want to avoid xRapid and XRP? Why the hell would they? If you do not know the difference between xCurrent and xRapid and how the latter could very likely complement the former, then why are you invested in XRP? Are you simply gambling? If so, the casino is a better bet. DO YOUR RESEARCH, and THEN come to your own conclusion. Stop repeating the same thing over and over again, as you will scare many investors away by spreading such uncertainty. Learn to read and think critically before you type up a new post or comment on others' posts.

Being a change agent for banking is unforgiving work. Luckily for us, Ripple is more than up to the task. In my review of the Quarter 4, 2017 XRP Markets Report, I review the effect of recent negative publicity, as well as remind XRP investors about some key considerations that they should remember when seeing resistance to the change that Ripple - and XRP - represents. And of course, we will look at Miguel's quarterly XRP report to see some surprising numbers for Ripple. Spoiler alert: Ripple made as much money in one quarter than they did for an entire year. I'm not giving it all away, however, so you'll have to read my blog to find out more. I hope you enjoy the read - please leave any feedback below. Feel free to share my blog with a friend or on any other media, and thank you in advance for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread