XRP is often called as ‘banker’s delight’ and banks love XRP as it has hundreds of partners globally with many of the world’s biggest names in banking. Banks are actually tired of using the SWIFT system which it turns out is not that swift. XRP can seriously put the heat on swift and provide money savings and transparency at every level. Bitcoin with its 10 minute block time and unstable fees can be a bit problematic when it comes to this but bitcoin is a massive improvement over the previous architecture and the banks themselves. Can XRP take over Bitcoin in the total market capitalization with the massive adoption of XRP by financial institutions all around the world? Let us make some comparisons.
No Forks
Another benefit of XRP is no forks. A real company with a real office run by professional people that you can contact if you have a problem. The whole bitcoin forking thing has been a very device issue in the crypto community and has done little to give large businesses any kind of confidence in the crypto economy especially when they are new to the crypto economy.
XRP a ‘security’ issue
XRP might be a security and is currently being litigated in the courts but until this is resolved there will be this uncertainty around XRP in the likelihood of seeing things like XRP futures, XRP ETF or major banks stockpiling XRP.
Proof of Work
While there have been many criticisms of the Proof of Work network including the massive burn rate of hardware and the huge environmental footprint in terms of energy consumption, we could do a whole host of what about the bitcoin energy use, but the reality is that the XRP ledger uses less energy than bitcoin. The long-term trend of Proof of Work mining and Bitcoin mining overall will at some point have some explaining to do as currently, we do see a lot of projects moving away from the proof of work networks.
Banks don’t like bitcoin
The Banks around the world really don’t like bitcoin and sure this is a badge of honor for bitcoin but the theory goes that they will actively work to suppress and hurt bitcoin. With the big Wall Street products coming specifically targetting bitcoin, it appears that the banks want to profit from bitcoin, not to crush bitcoin. The love and hate relationship of banks with bitcoin is currently in a love period. Interestingly both bitcoin and XRP could be put under real pressure by an influx of national cryptocurrencies or even more worrying for XRP, the banks implementing their own solutions. As of now, banks are loving the solutions that Ripple Labs are putting forward for them to use. It is much easier to implement someone else’s technology rather than build your own technology especially when it comes down to interoperability between hundreds of different international banks. XRP is not unique in this, other payment providers use bitcoin or stellar lumens to do the same thing that is done with XRP. The difference is of course that Ripple’s network and banking partners are huge. But then banks do not actually hold and stockpile XRP, they can actually just quickly move in and out to do transactions. But just because banks don’t need to stockpile XRP doesn’t mean they won’t. Previously, a report was published about South Korean banks which are currently holding around 1% of all cryptocurrency.
Daily Transaction Volume
In terms of daily transaction volume, XRP has dropped back to around half a million daily transactions from recent highs of 1.6 million daily transaction which is well ahead of bitcoin’s quarter million daily transactions. But don’t forget that the lightning network is still in its baby phases and so far away from reaching critical mass so we should really not underestimate the possibility of the lightning network to seriously disrupt this narrative around daily transactions in the future.
Transactional Fees
On the fees side XRP is consistently way lower than bitcoin with bitcoin having unstable network fees but again lightning network is coming.
Circulating Supply
Ripple’s control over the XRP’s supply vs bitcoin’s code based emission is another area of concern for many investors. As much as some people may want one or the other to fail. But it doesn’t seem that any of these are going anywhere unless XRP is deemed to be a security. But if XRP is declared not to be a security then maybe XRP can rise massively.
XRP is crypto and banking coming together. For some, it is like a dream come true and for others, it just gives them a headache as the true aim of cryptocurrency was to destroy the banks and not join them. If XRP ever does get mass adoption by banks and manages to have a larger market cap by bitcoin. Would this mean an end for bitcoin? Certainly not. The use case of XRP does not eradicate the use case of bitcoin.
What are your thoughts about XRP and its adoption by banks? Tell us in the comments section below.
