In the past few days, there has been a lot of commotion revolving Ripple and their XRP token. With the entire cryptocurrency market-cap sitting somewhere in the 600 billion USD range, it seems that major news outlets are jumping from covering one crypto project to the next, as reader's and viewer's interest is at an all time high.

Repackaging Bitcoin

The idea behind Bitcoin has been taken and repackaged as “the blockchain”. Governments and banks that have been so vehemently opposed to the very idea of Bitcoin are saying “hey, we may not like Bitcoin, but we like this blockchain thing - what a great piece of technology!”, refusing to acknowledge that in essence, they are one and the same. At first glance, this seems harmless, but it is far from it. These very institutions are taking the idea of something open source, uncensorable, and decentralized and spitting out a “product” that is kinda open source, very much censorable, and clearly centralized (despite what some proponents might argue).

This is where Ripple comes in. As of writing this piece, Ripple and the XRP token has just overtaken Ethereum as the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. This should worry you - a movement that started as grass-roots is being infiltrated by the very things it was designed to overtake - the banking system.

“(Ripple)... it’s the bank's PayPal. It’s everything that was wrong with PayPal after it got captured by the banking regulators - only worse” - Andreas Antonopolous

Ripple fitting in with other cryptocurrencies

XRP is not minable. Once it’s supply has been generated, that’s it. There are varying reports as to how many tokens Ripple have kept, but the amount ranges from 60% to 70%. And since XRP is not minable, no new tokens will be created. Regardless of whether the number is closer to 60% or 70% - Ripple owns over half of the entire supply of XRP. Let that sink in for a minute.

XRP: To Crypto or Not To Crypto?

The danger that comes with Ripple and the XRP token is that there is an entity that is responsible for it. Ripple can be sued, blacklisted, attacked, and is prone to more government regulation than any other cryptocurrency. The difference between Ripple and other cryptos is that Ripple will have to adhere to all regulations that are imposed on it - that’s how companies work. That is the danger of centralization. In order to regulate a truly decentralized cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Vertcoin, you would have to regulate the very users of the currency. Something like that is simply impossible to do. At the very best you can regulate the very fringes of something like Bitcoin or Vertcoin - their exchange into Euros or Dollars, but nothing more. I will touch upon this subject further in the near future.

It should worry you that the very people bashing Bitcoin are warming up to Ripple. In an age where cryptocurrencies threaten the very existence of banking, Ripple serves as a sort of Band-Aid for the current financial systems, attempting to breath life into it. XRP may be listed as a cryptocurrency, but it is at best Visa 2.0.