The need to make money, or even better yet, save money is a constant theme, especially for young people. Cryptocurrencies offer a unique opportunity to invest in a growing asset class with possibilities for future expansion.

Bitcoin is obviously the dominant cryptocurrency. Its resilience in the past few months, despite a crash in March, has been impressive. Ripple (XRP) is another notable coin that has gained popularity because of its utility. Individuals can trade XRP on platforms like Prime XBT and use the asset either for transactions or investment purposes.

How XRP Differs From Bitcoin

Given Bitcoin’s prominence, it is fitting to analyze XRP using Bitcoin as a reference. Bitcoin is still by far the largest digital currency by market capitalization and adoption. Ripple, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash form part of the chasing pack.

The Bitcoin blockchain is a public blockchain, primarily known for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Bitcoin started as a medium of exchange but now doubles up as a speculative store of value assets. The network has developed scalability issues along the way, as well as inefficiency because of significant transaction confirmation times. Accordingly, Bitcoin is popular as a speculative asset yet inefficient as a payment medium.

Ripple has its own digital payment network and protocol with a greater focus on being a payment settlement, asset exchange, and remittance system. The best comparison in real life is the SWIFT international transfer system between banks. XRP, therefore, aims at being an instantaneous transaction protocol that is faster and more reliable than its competitors.

Accordingly, it is vastly better than Bitcoin in processing times and costs. Bitcoin users often have to pay significant transaction fees to get their transactions confirmed faster. Miners will prioritize transactions with higher transaction fees because it is better for their bottom line.

There are only 21 million Bitcoin in existence. XRP is in the billions. This shows the clear focus of the different founders of these digital currencies. XRP founders have a focus on adoption and usability which is a shortcoming of Bitcoin. Bitcoin will likely remain more valuable for a long time because it is scarcer and had a massive head start.

Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, hopes that the faster processing times and lower cost of transactions will prove decisive, eventually. XRP is proving more popular with banks, and is ahead of competitors in the digital currency space. The ease of XRP integration into existing systems is a key reason for believers to bet on this currency for the long term.

XRP Positioning Itself for Change of Government Policy towards Crypto

The idea of cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange widely accepted by governments is controversial. Bitcoin founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, seemed inherently skeptical about the government and may have informed Satoshi’s decision to remain mysterious.

To date, even though cryptocurrency ownership is legal in most countries governments have been mostly skeptical. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have done most of the heavy lifting, trading and selling crypto on crypto derivatives platforms like Prime XBT. However, in the past two years, governments have taken an increased focus on crypto with Central Banks researching on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). In general, the tide seems to be shifting.

There is nothing that will be more consequential to cryptocurrency adoption than established institutions implementing payment solutions like XRP into their systems. The fact that cryptocurrency market capitalization is in the hundreds of billions already is impressive but the ceiling would truly be blown off with mainstream adoption.

Accordingly, Garlinghouse is navigating the politics on adoption as carefully as he can. The recently concluded US election, for instance, will have policy implications for the financial industry in America and internationally.

He has expressed readiness to align with the incoming Biden administration policies. One of the things that will change is American policies towards the environment and climate change. The Ripple CEO welcomes this policy shift as the environmental issues that face the world needs American leadership.

The Future of Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin could indeed skyrocket in value. However, it has probably run its course as a cryptocurrency and will remain a speculative asset for the long term.

The next arms race is which cryptocurrency will provide the perfect settlement layer for rapid transactions. XRP all the boxes and has rightfully become a contender for international banking adoption.

Governments will still likely want to exert significant control over national currencies. This means that they will put significant resources into researching CBDCs. Ripple is as good as it gets in terms of a decentralized solution that still gives governments or institutions a level of oversight over monetary policy. To this extent, it is the most likely to gain the adoption that will carry it over the edge as a truly global rapid transaction platform.