Correct, Ripple's InterLedger Protocol and R3's Corda are the new digital rails. They are interoperable meaning you can settle in BTC, XRP or even FIAT.  XRP happens to be the fastest, cheapest and most secure train running on those rails.  It's obvious why Ripple would want customers to settle in XRP but for an independent company like R3 to choose XRP independently is validation that XRP has no equal when it comes to settling value.  XRP will be the global standard for cross border payments.  It's designed to be run in the background mostly B2B and not a customer facing tool, at least not yet.  I've been confident in this for the past 18 months but this morning more than ever.  I suspect whales have setup massive sell walls to keep the price down as seen on bitstamp to accumulate for as long as possible.  Buy XRP now and sell no sooner than 2022 and you'll be very glad you did.  The internet of value is worth many Trillions of dollars and XRP is a critical tool in solving for this! 

What is your opinion on the DAO attack and Etherium's response to it?  The fact that they rolled back the clock and redistributed funds goes against everything blockchain stands for.  Etheriums blockchain is not immutable.  The fact they did this loses all credibility for ETH.  It's the whole reason ETC was born.  On the other hand XRP has closed 44 million ledgers without a single security issue.  From the argument of blockchain when comparing XRP to ETH its clear who the winner is: XRP.  

On your second argument its clear that the ecosystem for ETH usage is shrinking due to the consolidation happening in the market.  As projects die and others languish behind it hurts ETH.  Now, I do agree that some whales see ETH as a long-term investment but this pales in comparison to the money coming in for XRP.  With todays news of R3's corda settler using XRP to potentially settle cross-border payments that brings the total global enterprise clients to 350+ that will potentially use XRP to settle payments.  Also, look at the comparisons between Codius and Etherium.  Codius is more flexible and robust than Etherium so even in terms of smart contracts I think Codius will dwarf ETH in 2-3 years.  That doesn't mean ETH will go away, it just won't be the industry leader on smart contracts is all I'm saying.  

Please correct me where I am wrong with facts.  I'm always looking to learn and grow.  

Also, when reviewing their enterprise partners you'll need to keep clicking on "more" about 7-8 times, lol.

https://www.r3.com/ecosystem/

Thats not exactly true.  Ripple has developed Codius which is arguably a more robust smart contracts platform than Etherium.  In fact, Vitalik interviewed for a job at Ripple in 2013 but it didn't work out for visa issues if I recall.  Ripple decided to focus on building the ILP instead of Codius realizing that interoperability was the most important thing for the ecosystem.  They just released Codius a few months ago and has already seen strong adoption.  If Etherium had a clear path for their much needed 2.0 updates I would be more hopeful for them but it seems that they are more than 2 years away from moving away from DYING PROOF OF WORK.  Its too bad.  

Of course, ETH will never be able to compete with XRP in terms of speed and low transaction costs.  Also, the fact that the DAO happened really loses a lot of credibility for ETH.  XRP is faster, cheaper, more secure and the XRP ledger is now more decentralized than ETH and BTC.  I think in a couple of years ETH will be #2 again... behind XRP at #1 and maybe BTC remains in the top 10?  Good luck to all!

https://www.coindesk.com/r3s-new-corda-app-supports-payments-in-xrp-cryptocurrency

Wow, an entity with no direct relationship to Ripple has decided XRP is the obvious choice for settling cross-border payments across their MASSIVE network of partners! Massive news, buy and hold for 4-5 years folks and don't touch it!  This also builds an even stronger argument against XRP being a security.  Even if the US SEC drags its feet on regulation XRP can facilitate remittences through Asia and Middle East improving the lives of millions of those under the poverty line.  This group of people living at or below the poverty line are paying as much as 20-30% in remittence fees- its horrible.  XRP will enable fees to come down to less than 1%.  Incredible.  The "internet of value" will be a real thing thanks to the amazing community at Ripple with XRP as a powerful TOOL enabling this new paradigm.  Its now easy to imagine a world where money moves as quickly and inexpensively as information does today all while not destroying the planet. 

Who knows the future?  My best guess is that we trend sideways for a bit longer before things takeoff early next year.  Im not sure if XRP will take over the #1 spot in 2019 or 2020 but perhaps ETH will get its #2 spot back ahead of BTC in 2 years if/when ETH 2.0 is released.  Proof of work appears to be a dinosaur and I can't find any evidence of BTC pivoting into relevance.  Its slow and expensive and becoming more and more centralized every day.  I hold 3 tokens: XRP, NEO and FCT.  Don't be foolish and only look at price and market cap.  Those are distractions and worthless.  Look at fundamentals.  Who are this projects user base?  Who are they selling to?  What problems and at what scale are the solutions to these problems?  What is the revenue stream?  DO YOUR HOMEWORK PEOPLE!  XRP is a critical tool and can solve for a multi-trillion dollar set of problems.  Money moves across borders too slowly and with too much friction currently.  XRP is uniquely positioned to solve for this.  I'm buying more XRP and FCT and have less and less confidence in NEO.  Of course, I am not a trader and plan to hold them all for at least 5 years.  Good luck to all! 

You've been on the forum for a while and so I'd really appreciate a response on evidence that XRP is centralized?  Can you show me current XRP ledger statistics that demonstrate centralization.  I'm seeing the exact opposite in that Ripple only control 7% of validators on the network.  Additionally, their control of UNL's is now down into the 30% range and dropping.  Also, the XRP that Ripple have are locked in Escrow only to be released at 1% of total supply each month for institutional sales.  In the past quarter institutional sales of XRP have gone up 400% indicating that customers are choosing to hold XRP for utility on the network.  Are my facts wrong?  Please show me where because the evidence I am currently looking at show that XRP is significantly more DECENTRALIZED than both BTC and ETH.  Ripple has created totally open source projects including the InterLedger Protocol.  XRP has no built in advantage on this ILP but Ripple knows that XRP will be the preferred digital asset used because its 1000x faster and 1000x cheaper to transact in that BTC.  Any other cryptos that offer comparable speed have ZERO liquidity meaning you can't actually buy and sell a meaningful amount without price slippage (nano, XLM, etc...).  Please help me understand the flaws in my conclusions.

Does Cardano have a working product yet?  Who are they selling it to?  What is the revenue stream?

XRP is being used by remittence companies NOW to settle expensive and archaic cross border payments dominated by SWIFT with the same tech since the 70's.  They offer their customers incredible savings of 40-70% with the usage of XRP and a significantly better user experience.  This will result in network effects- research Metcalfe's Law.  XRP is a critical tool in Ripple solving for the internet of value.  The internet of value is a trillion+ dollar solution and nothing else can fill the settlement void besides XRP.  Further, Ripple in the past year have followed through on their decentralization roadmap and continue to do so.  XRP is significantly more decentralized than BTC and ETH.  They arguably have the best development team on the planet and have never missed expected deadlines and milestones.  They are working with Central Banks, the IMF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Xpring is an initiative for any startup to take advantage of XRP to build their business.  Finally, Coil is moving at light speed toward bringing streaming micropayments to the masses and have worked with the W3C standard.  XRP has a very bright future and I continue to buy as much as I safely can.

well said OP, and if you think patience is hard on the way down.  You just wait until you get closer and closer to your exit #'s on the way UP.  That will test your patience like no bear market ever will.  One of Warren Buffett's most important sentiments is that the markets move value from the impatient to the patient.  Don't be Greg! 

If this happens it would be huge for XRP.  Most people don't realize that for clients on RippleNet to settle their payments in XRP the wider and deeper the liquidity pools means larger settlement amounts.  In other words having exchanges support new and different markets around the world allows Ripple's remittence and corporate clients an avenue to settle in XRP.  The more money being transacted allows the clients to settle larger and larger amounts without any slippage on the exchanges.  This institutional use of XRP to settle will drive the price higher and higher and will decrease the reliance on speculation.  Funny thing is, once the market recognizes that the price is rising from institutional use of XRP to settle than an avalanche of money then pours in from the retail market because its proven to be a safe bet.  Then the flood gates open and I retire.  My guess is 4-5 years from now. 

Having XRP as a base pair on binance means significantly deeper liquidity.  XRP will be the global standard for cross border settlement, its happening right before our eyes, this would just fast track it.  You'll also see an increase in trading on the exchanges because XRP is 1000x faster and 1000x cheaper to transact that BTC.  It makes much more sense for exchanges to use XRP as a base pair and you are seeing many newer exchanges do just that to be more competitive.  This Hash war shines a light on the major flaws of POW and IMO is the beginning of the end for BTC, BCH and ETH unless they move to a different consensus mechanism.  While XRP is now nearly completely decentralized the POW coins are becoming more and more centralized.  If you don't believe me just look at the XRP ledger and the UNL's.  Ripple only controls 7% of the network now and that number may be zero a year from now.  

Focus on fundamentals and long-term prospects.  I bought XRP last Summer and plan to hold it for 4-5 years.  The fundamentals of Ripple and XRP are incredible they are becoming more and more decentralized every month and currently only control 7% of the network.  They have expanded into new markets and their XRP/direct FIAT pairs have grown over 400% just this year.  Next year they expect exponential increases as we start to see the beginning of Metcalfe's Law take shape.  Also, Jevons Paradox will be a very real thing in the remittence market.  The future looks incredible.  Buy all the XRP you can and hold until 2022.  Don't trade it, touch it, don't do anything just lock it away and forget about it.  $10/XRP is nothing when you consider the magnitude of the problems XRP is uniquely capable of solving.  Unfortunately XLM hasn't done anything to expand their liquidity in the market.  Its just not functional nor is BTC, BCH or ETH.  Good luck to all!

Decentralization isn't a myth.  Look at where the Ripple and the XRP ledger was just 14 months ago compared with today.  Currently Ripple only controls 7% of the network and in a year from now it will be closer to ZERO.  With all the XRP locked in escrow and only releasing 1 B for sale each month they are stewards of XRP but have very little control over it.  I personally like that the founders hold their XRP and use it for charitable causes.  They want XRP to succeed just as much as I did when I bought last year after a month of intense research at .18.  Given where they are on the roadmap to delivering the Internet of Value worth many Trillions of dollars its current price is extremely low.  Not too late.  Oh and also, the bit about it being a bankers coin is definitely a myth.  Reducing friction in international payments does more good for the $2/day migrant workers around the world getting hammered on remittence fees than it does for Wall Street.  If you try to send $500 to Mexico now you'll pay $20 or more in fees and it takes 3-5 days with no transparency.  Ripple, powered with XRP as a tool will bring a 3-5 second near-instant settlement where they can get $499 instead.  Theoretically you should have been able to do that with BTC but unfortunately it doesn't scale and it would cost you $10-30 to send that money now and the person still has to wait hours.  Certainly better but just not good enough.  Good luck to all.    

Actually XRP is more decentralized than BTC and ETH.  Ripple only controls 7% of the validators on the XRP Ledger and as they bring in more and more third-party validators their involvement becomes less and less.  Saying they are centralized was true in 2014 but sorry, no longer the case.  Also, the XRP that Ripple has is locked in Escrow and can't be released at more than 1 Billion per month for sale.  Ripple cannot create any more XRP and the XRP held personally by the founders, while significant, demonstrates its in their best interest to see the XRP ecosystem thrive.  Ripple is a fintech payments company and XRP is simply the fastest and cheapest usable crypto to transact with.  Ripple build the InterLedger Protocol as a highway and hasn't forced XRP to be the car driven on the highway.  They are just confident that it will be because its superior to BTC, ETH and others for payments.  I care about profit but I also care about the Internet of Value and what that will do for the unbanked populations around the world making $2 per day and currently getting hammered at expensive remittence fees.  Ripple is solving this problem and XRP is a tool in that solution.  Ripple will ironically do more positive for mankind than any other blockchain based project yet people just don't see that.  Me and my family will profit immensely from XRP by simply holding it for 4-5 years.  The real world problems they are solving are worth many, many TRILLIONS of dollars!  Good luck to all and I would love to hear a counter-argument and a healthy debate if you have proof anything I said is incorrect.  

Well when you look at how long this bear market has lasted for and coupled with the fact that Ripple has had an absolutely incredible year shorting is extremely risky!  Also, the XRP ecosystem is unbelievably strong- its now significantly more decentralized than BTC and ETH and the new version of XCurrent and the new functionality released a few days ago is an absolute bombshell that the market has yet to realize.  Basically all XCurrent users can tap into XRapid without being an XRapid partner.  This is through a feature called Multi-hop.  XRapid uses XRP to settle payments and its consistently faster and cheaper than XCurrent.  All that remains before global mass adoption is for liquidity to grow in different markets.  The team at Ripple has expanded XRP/FIAT pairs over 400% from last year and this number is expanding at an incredible clip.  Additionally many new market makers are listing XRP as the base pair instead of BTC because its so much faster and cheaper to transact with.  If this continues to happen, and there is no reason to expect it won't, XRP will be #1 before the end of 2020.  Once institutional adoption occurs and the price of XRP is largely driven by utility of the asset speculators will see this as a much better option for storage of value.  Game over at this point.  Pay attention to XRP's growing liquidity and XRP/direct FIAT pairs in different markets.  If this grows so too does institutional adoption.  

Vitalik was sitting on the couch at Ripple's offices in 2013 looking for a job.  It didn't work out and he decided to pursue smart contracts when Ripple decided to focus on Interoperability first instead.  Ripple built the plumbing for a brighter future with the ILP before pursuing their smart contracts platform Codius.  Now when you look at Codius which was released several months ago and compare it to ETH its superior in every way.  Ripple has built a more robust and user friendly platform for smart contracts.  Now that XRP has successfully become more decentralized than ETH and BTC its really no surprise why XRP is decoupling from BTC and outperforming.  Its the future.  I don't want ETH to lose, its not about winning and losing but when you look at the long-term prospects of certain projects in comparison to their competition the market always picks the winners.  I'd much rather the whole market rise up and everyone win.  I think we can all agree that seeing Tether at #8 on market cap is extremely annoying!  Good luck to all!

I urge you to do hours of research into the problem that XRP is currently solving (The internet of Value) and what this means to the world.  This is worth many, many trillions of dollars in untapped and unrealized value.  They have been building the necessary liquidity for their customers to save massively in cross border payments.  As they are able to settle more and more cross border payments quickly and cheaply it will be used in more and more corridors throughout the world building ever deeper pools of liquidity.  Once you see the big picture and the end-game you'll laugh at $2.  We are still very early here.  Park your money in XRP and don't touch if for 4-5 years.  They have quietly just this year become the most decentralized digital asset in the top 5, much more decentralized than BTC and ETH.  It's not too late.  Full disclosure: I don't follow the 589 crowd and believe this is unlikely and certainly many years down the road. Whats not far fetched is that if Ripple continues to build RippleNet at its current pace something in the $30-75 range in the next 2-4 years and $100+ in 5-7 years is absolutely possible.  Certain factors such as Central Banks holding XRP as a reserve currency could move these figures above up several orders of magnitude. 

LOL 95% of people can only see what's happening TODAY.  The battle isn't for second place.  If you did your research and looked at usability its only a matter of time before XRP is not only #1 based on market cap (which is a terrible way to valuate digital assets) but #1 for trading.  Smaller exchanges starting up now are listing XRP as a base pair.  Its 1000x faster and 1000x cheaper to transact than BTC.  BTC can't scale.  This was evident during the december run when a BTC transaction would take 7 hours and cost $30+.  Its ridiculous... zoom out and look at the big picture people.  XRP has become more decentralized than BTC and ETH throughout 2018 and continues on this path with new recommended UNL's.  Oh and for everyone out there saying that XCurrent customers will never touch XRP, LOL have a close look at XCurrent v4.0 and its new features along with "multi-hop" and the functionality around this.  Research Temenos, SAP, SBI, etc...Game over folks, move your money into XRP and park it there for 4-5 years.  Its not too late...

Once XRP builds the necessary liquidity globally through institutions using XRapid to save time and money (40-75% savings over SWIFT) most, if not all, exchanges will have XRP as the base pair.  The most prominent FX traders around the world recognize XRP and expect their to be XRP pairs in the FX markets.  It's 1000x faster and 1000x cheaper than BTC to transact in.  Currently that's BTC's only real use case.  Also, for anyone claiming XRP is centralized please look at the details of the consensus mechanism.  It's currently significantly more decentralized than BTC and ETH and becoming more decentralized every day with the addition of new recommended third-party UNL's.  The XRP which Ripple holds is locked in escrow and released for sale at 1B XRP per month.  Ripple can't alter this escrow schedule.  It's impossible for Ripple to create any new XRP and the founders who hold 7% of XRP can't sell their XRP without disastrous implications for the XRP they are trying to sell.  They know it's all on a public ledger.  80% of my portfolio is XRP because its so obvious that solving for the internet of value is the worlds largest problem being solved.  XRapid solves the $10 Trillion dollar nostro/vostro problem and that's just one use case.  Coil, Xpring will bring unheard of use cases to fruition.  The future has never been brighter for XRP and the sooner you stop just listening to "centralized shit coin" and do your own research you'll come to the same conclusions I have.  

If you are an investor and not a trader than the answer is very simple.  If you did your due diligence and research on the projects you've invested in for at least a 3-5 year buy and hold and they have continued to show progress and developments fundamentally than the answer here should be very clear: buy more if your situation allows!  If not, just HODL for another 3-5 years.  Feel fortunate that the projects you love are oversold and offer substantial value at the moment.  If you haven't done your research appropriately than I can see why the fear and uncertainty and that's your own fault.  I'm personally more bullish than ever on XRP, NEO and FCT and am buying all I can.  Of course, I don't plan on selling any before 2021 or 2022.  Its a long road with curves and obstacles. 

Can some please explain to me exactly how XRP is centralized RIGHT NOW?  I get that it was in 2015 but with them carrying out their decentralization plan since last year it certainly appears by every single parameter far more DECENTRALIZED than BTC and ETH.  Broadly speaking, it's become very apparent that Proof of Work has failed to deliver any meaningful innovation long-term.  It can't scale, its expensive and cumbersome to use and every day it becomes more and more centralized.  I'm planning on holding some XRP indefinitely and probably most of it until 2022.  The future is extremely bright!