Visionaries vs. Protectionists
How many times have you seen the self-righteous battles raging over social media?
How many times have you seen Bitcoin maximalists deride any new technology that purports to move the entire field of digital assets forward in meaningful ways?
Before we condemn them completely for their actions to protect an environmentally-destructive technology, it's important to see the world from their perspective:
They've been incredibly fortunate. Most experiments in electronically-issued money had resulted in immediate regulatory enforcement and shut-down by various international organizations. But in the case of Bitcoin, these early experimenters were rewarded in a way that allowed them to turn around and use their new capital for a variety of purposes.
But it was incoherent, chaotic, and disorganized; and while some crypto-anarchists like the sound of that, this lack of clear organization also resulted in a measurable number of early Bitcoiners playing a protectionist role for Bitcoin, using their newfound wealth to obstruct any other choice that dared to threaten their coin's dominance. Without so much as a second thought to the underlying innovations of new projects, these protectionists use slogans, memes, and whatever emotional appeals they can construct, to continue to support Bitcoin's (ongoing) dominant role as market volume leader.
But the market's participants are becoming immune and desensitized to the constant bashing of 'non-Bitcoin' projects, and some are starting to look very closely at what's happening with XRP.
And well they should.
The champions behind XRP were part of this initial crypto revolution, and some of Ripple's founders and first employees and executives were part of this early group of "Bitcoin millionaires." But they understood the nature of technology itself in a way that was missing from the Bitcoin protectionists.
Instead, they forged their own way, using blockchain technology not to isolate and protect their new coin, but to connect it. To connect it with as many other currencies, both fiat and crypto, as they could. They even created entirely new interoperable technology - Interledger - to accomplish this. And now, years later, we are seeing several major plans starting to bear fruit:
Each of these projects has a gargantuan potential market; it's not about 'win/lose' or 'protecting,' though. It's about connecting and creating something much greater.
The people behind XRP's champion organization are first-class visionaries and business leaders. Not only will they succeed: XRP will rise and prove their vision in the most spectacular way possible.
It will upend the social order of crypto.
Their vision will burn the chaff and reveal the difference between an obsolete, environmentally-destructive technology, and one designed to better the world at the speed of information.
Ripple News
Bit by suspenseful bit, we're learning more about the lineup for the 2019 SWELL Conference.
First the location was teased (Singapore), then we gradually learned that some concepts from the 2018 edition would be making a re-appearance, such as the short presentations that comprised much of the compelling content from last year.
Then came the 'by-invitation' process, which is still ongoing, that requires interested parties to request an invitation to the conference.
And recently, the site has been updated and new agenda information, along with biographical information about some of the speakers, has been added.
There is also a short promotional video with some exciting clips from last year's conference; seeing former president Bill Clinton only reinforced the high bar of expectations associated with this year's SWELL event. It will be interesting to see who is chosen for the keynote and closing address for 2019.
The Ripple Drop
The latest episode in the Ripple Drop, Ripple's series of videos profiling their business dealings and company developments, was released on August 15ᵗʰ:
The short, two minute presentation included segments where Reinhard Cate, Ripple's Head of Content, interviews Ethan Beard, Ripple's SVP of Xpring, Stefan Thomas, the CEO of Coil, and Zach Katz, the CEO of Raised in Space Enterprises. The theme for this episode was Xpring, which is timely, since Xpring is now just over one year old, and especially since it just recently allocated its all-time-largest investment to Coil.
The segment started off with a quick touch-base from Ethan Beard, where he indicated that Xpring has made over twenty investments totaling roughly $500 million dollars. The major part of Ethan Beard's session was his comment on the fresh focus for the initiative - that of developer tools:
"𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘟𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨.
𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘟𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘈𝘗𝘐𝘴 (𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴), 𝘚𝘋𝘒𝘴 (𝘚𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘒𝘪𝘵𝘴), 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥."
It was obvious that this was the most important part of his message; so what does this statement mean in regards to future Xpring projects?
My guess is that there will be a much more focused effort by Ripple to use Xpring to complete the technical components that are necessary to make the entire ecosystem of their partners work together. In the first year of Xpring's history, there was an obvious effort to fund projects that were just starting out, and to provide momentum for some of the new use cases that Ripple is pursuing for XRP, including that of web monetization, micropayments, smart contracts, and tokenization.
Now that those twenty projects are in motion, it looks like the next phase may mean building out the capability to support those individual component projects and companies that are working together to help the entire ecosystem accelerate utility use of XRP.
The next part of the Ripple Drop focused on Stefan Thomas and his pursuit of the Web Monetization Standard, one of the cornerstone components for building the Internet of Value.
He talked about how the acceptance of a new web standard is not a well-defined type of event or milestone; it depends on a large number of diverse companies, individuals and stakeholders agreeing to support the new capability. It was a reminder that, like Ripple, Coil is tackling some of the most intractable obstructions to the IoV becoming a reality.
In addition to the short preview provided as part of the Ripple Drop, Reinhard Cate has since released an extended version of the interview with Stefan Thomas; I cover that extended interview later in this article.
The last part of the episode was perhaps the most fascinating to many people; even though Raised in Space Enterprises was greeted with substantial press coverage due to the high profile nature of its industry (music) and its executive staff, not many details are known about the small enterprise. It was great to see RISE's CEO, Zach Katz, offer some more details, along with Shara Senderoff, RISE's president:
"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 (𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤), 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳."
Zach Katz added onto her statement:
"... 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘟𝘙𝘗 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵-𝘧𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴."
It was an intriguing series of quotes, and one cannot help wonder if the concepts that have been identified as focal points for RISE are multi-faceted ways that major artists and labels can use digital assets to create additional revenue streams.
There's no doubt that RISE may substantially benefit some of the more high-profile clients of its founders; I'm also hoping that the tools and other concepts championed by their project help smaller independent artists. It's exciting to think of what RISE will create, in addition to the existing components that are now being released, such as Coil & Cinnamon.
All of the Ripple Drop episodes are worthy of watching, and this latest one was a fantastic addition to the series, completely focused on Xpring.
Ripple Marketing
Have you ever wondered what goes on when a business attempts to establish a new customer base?
It's not an electrifying topic, but many of us in crypto are familiar with how important customer rolls can be for a growing business; both in terms of acquisition and retention. How many times have you heard Ripple talk about the 'number of new banks' that have signed onto RippleNet, or wondered how they engage with the remittance processors?
Despite its pivotal role in project success, marketing doesn't get the respect it deserves: Many aspects of business, technology, and even psychology, merge to form a well-defined marketing plan. Ripple's Senior Director of Audience Marketing, Shanna Leonard, recently talked about 'Business to Consumer' (B2C) and 'Business to Business' (B2B) marketing at a conference called 'RampUp,' on February 25ᵗʰ of this year:
When we think of Ripple marketing its products, it becomes clear that they focus (almost solely) on B2B marketing, because that's their core use case: payment processing technology for businesses and organizations.
Here are two questions and answers that caught my attention:
Question (Liam Blackwell, President at B2B QI ): "𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 (𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦s 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴) 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳, 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘊𝘐𝘖, 𝘴𝘦𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘐𝘖 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴; 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘵𝘺... 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵?"
Answer (Shanna Leonard): "𝘞𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩.
𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥, 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦, 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘭𝘺. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦.
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦."
Question (Liam Blackwell, President at B2B QI ): "𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘵 𝘙𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦: 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴."
Answer (Shanna Leonard): "𝘙𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘭𝘥. 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 300 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺. 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳 - 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 - 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰, 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴; 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦; 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦; 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺. 𝘈 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺.
𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘦𝘵𝘤., 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘭.
𝘙𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘴, 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘟𝘙𝘗, 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 ... 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰."
Shanna Leonard's answers revealed a very holistic approach to marketing by Ripple, where even their customers' customers (everyday workers receiving remittance payments) are carefully considered when communicating Ripple's software solutions. It's a smart move, because it aims directly at the decision-making process by banks and remittance processors.
Another aspect I found interesting in the discussion points from Shanna Leonard was how Ripple's go-to-market strategy evolved over time, from when it was a very small startup, to now, when it's the uncontested successor to the ancient SWIFT correspondence banking network.
I recommend the video to those who are curious about some of the contextual details of how Ripple has changed and grown over the years.
Thanks to Leonidas Hadjiloizou for his update about the video.
Technology Policy Institute: Aspen
The Technology Policy Institute is a research organization (a.k.a. 'think tank') headquartered in Washington DC. The organization hosts a series of meetings, presentations, and discussions about the intersection of new technology, economics, and public policy.
According to their own published material, their mission is to:
"... 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺."
Between August 18-20ᵗʰ in Aspen, Colorado, the institute hosted a conference that included several attendees and speakers from Ripple, including Stuart Alderoty, Susan Athey, and Michelle Bond, Ripple's new Global Head of Government Relations.
Stuart Alderoty headlined, participating in an interview with TPI Senior Fellow Sarah Oh on Monday, August 19ᵗʰ:
Thus far, no video has been officially shared by the Institute; however, they have a history of posting content from prior sessions, so perhaps we'll eventually be provided with more details.
Congratulations to Ripple on their contributions to the think tank's topical coverage. It's great to see Ripple continuing its critical push for regulatory clarity on all fronts.
Coil
In the crypto space, there is an infinite thirst for information about business plans of crypto projects, and unending curiosity about the 'next major development' in blockchain. And where information may not be completely available, human imagination tends to take over in surprising - and sometimes shortsighted - ways.
Thus is the fascinating response from the broader XRP Community towards Coil.
After I penned my recent blog, titled 'The Big Deal,' I received a surprising amount of feedback, and it was gloriously mixed, from profound skepticism based off of a myopic understanding of purchasing behavior, to wondrously imaginative, casting Coil as a visionary cornerstone of a future Internet. I lean, quite obviously for those that read my blogs, towards the latter depiction of Coil's role.
And my positive perspective was only solidified by a recent interview Stefan Thomas provided to Reinhard Cate on the topic of the 'Web Monetization Standard.'
Web Monetization
If you haven't seen the short segment already, I would advise you to make time watching the two minute version of the interview:
The concept that underpins Coil is one that will, unavoidably, be opposed by dozens of other companies that have made substantial amounts of money off of the existing, broken Internet. It's almost reminiscent of Ripple's Herculean task of getting money center banks to set aside SWIFT and correspondence banking; Ripple is well on its way, having dynamically - and effectively - shifted its strategy.
And now Coil has a similar massive challenge: to get as many major tech players as it can to join them in a transformation of the Internet to support web monetization.
And in talking about this goal, Stefan Thomas revealed another aspect of his long-term vision that, if achieved, would mean something truly unpredictable. His idea is to bundle Internet access itself with a Coil subscription, or at least an option for an individual to set up their browser with a payment method of some kind:
"𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 (𝘸𝘦𝘣 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯) 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘣𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵.
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 ... 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘚𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴' 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴.
𝘚𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦; 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦; 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘣."
This idea is quite profound. To make his idea work, a membership would be one of the 'bundled' services that is offered by Internet Service Providers, or 'ISPs' for short. These companies typically have millions of customers.
Here is why that could be a secret weapon for Coil: Try to visualize thirty million Internet users all with a repeating Coil membership of $5 dollars per month.
If you're like me, not only did you do the math for my conservatively-small example, but you understand that this is a repetitive charge each month and could include multiple ISPs.
This idea is nothing short of genius.
My Coil Recommendations
I browsed a few new Coil articles this last week: Here's my links to a few of the content creators I encountered:
Author: Daniel Noack
Article: XRP's Potential Impact on Small Business
Topic: Small Business and the IoV
Author: Crypto Eri
Video Link: Daruma from Japan
Topic: Japanese Culture
Author: Marc Hemeon
Article: How to not suck at design, a guide for the non-designer
Topic: User Interface and web Design
Author: Best Footy
Link to Article: Dozens of Football (Soccer) Links
Topic: Professional Football (Soccer)
Author: Deyner López Fernández
Article: First Photographs Ever Taken of Jerusalem
Topic: Photography and History
Author: Ben Sharafian
Article: Writing a Web Monetized Game
Topic: Coding and Development
XRP News
Nasdaq, while half the overall size, based on market capitalization, than the NYSE, still plays a pivotal role in stock trading. While the NYSE is owned by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Nasdaq is its own company, and can actually be traded on its own exchange. The company also runs more than one website, including its flagship domain at www.nasdaq.com.
In the last week, there were several social media posts that excitedly noted XRP was added to the Nasdaq default listing for cryptocurrencies. I investigated, and sure enough, it looks like Nasdaq had made the wise move to include 'zerps' in the mix:
Speculation swirled around what prompted the change; some in the XRP Community suggested it may be due to more institutional interest and demand beginning to make itself known; others dismissed it as a small-but-interesting change in the exchange's approach to listing crypto prices.
Trying to gauge the potential impact of a such a change, I used a comparison site that looks at Alexa rankings. Alexa rankings are used to determine the popularity of websites, based on searches via Amazon's primary virtual assistive technology.
Here is what that ranking looked like for Nasdaq, compared to two other popular business websites; CNBC and Bloomberg:
Despite the apparent lack of market coverage suggested by the ranking, my own impression is that the listing of XRP is still significant, because of the focused nature of the viewers that use the Nasdaq website.
My own analysis goes something like this: "𝘐𝘧 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘲 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯."
In essence, my guess is that active traders will benefit from seeing XRP added to their list of 'barometer' cryptocurrencies in the market, and XRP, in turn, will benefit from the additional coverage.
South Africa: XRP Meetup
When it comes to meetups, I'm always amazed at the global reach of XRP.
We will be having a meetup in Japan in November after the SWELL conference; earlier this year, there were multiple meetups in Texas, two in the Netherlands, one in New York City, and one in South Africa.
The one on July 25ᵗʰ in South Africa was sponsored by Xago, and the company received a request to have another follow-up session. They sent out a notification that Wietse Wind would also be participating via video conference:
It's great to see increasing numbers of meetups being organized as XRP continues its global expansion; these sessions can be surprisingly fun for attendees, and some XRP Community members have managed to extend their own professional and personal network at these meet-ups.
Colodax
Colodax is an exchange based in India, founded in 2017. The exchange is owned by a company called Ganyt Solutions LLC.
On August 20ᵗʰ, the team behind Colodax announced that they'd added support for XRP.
The interesting part of this announcement, and really, all of Colodax's announcements, was that they were proceeding with crypto trading despite restrictions from the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) that forbid Indian-based banks from providing banking services to crypto exchanges' accounts.
In a response to XRP Research Center (Twitter avatar), the exchange indicated they were using a work-around until more tolerant regulatory guidance could be put in place:
Now that Colodax has pioneered their technique of working within the constraints of that country, I predict that other exchanges will soon mimic the approach; it's great news for many investors in India that wish to enter the cryptomarket.
CBANKX
CBANKX is a crypto exchange based in Malta. They've released both an iOS and Android app with their platform, and on August 19ᵗʰ, they announced that they'd added support for XRP trading pairs:
The exchange added XRP-CBNX, XRP-USDT and XRP-BTC trading pairs to the mix. Although I wasn't able to ascertain their daily volume, it's great to see that they've added USDT as one of the pairings, and hopefully they'll consider adding XRP to the list of cryptos that can be traded directly against Euros.
Simex
Simex reports a sizable daily trade volume - in the hundreds of millions - to Coinmarketcap each day; trade volume is considered an indicator of success for exchanges, and currently this one commands a sizable number of trades.
On August 13ᵗʰ, the exchange announced they'd be supporting XRP pairings:
A listing on Simex is good news; it will be interesting to find out how much volume will flow through Simex's new XRP pairings.
Thanks to @BankXRP (Twitter avatar) for the note about Simex.
goFaast
goFaast is a Canadian-based crypto exchange created by a company known as 'Bitaccess.' According to their own website, their platform supports trading of twenty-four different coins. On June 13ᵗʰ, the team behind the site announced that they'd be adding XRP support sometime this month:
Coinmarketcap.com doesn't (currently) list the exchange, so it's difficult to access volume information at the present time; regardless, it's great that their exchange has made the decision to support trading in XRP. Their official Twitter account reached out to me over Twitter DM (direct message) and indicated:
"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 (𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘟𝘙𝘗) 𝘢 𝘯𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳. 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘟𝘙𝘗 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨."
Hopefully they can build volume quickly like some of the other ambitious new exchanges, and I look forward to seeing their pairings for XRP grow over time.
Stay Sharp While XRP Builds Momentum
An irrational, chaotic market can spell doom for disorganized projects; but for those teams and solutions that look upon change as an opportunity to contribute innovations that bespeak profound future vision, it's an opportunity.
To keep up to date on the latest developments in the Internet of Value and XRP's ascendence, subscribe to my blog on Coil. In addition, remember to support others in the XRP Community as well!
Credits:
Thanks to Ian Dooley for eye photo
Thanks to Tom Parkes for cover photo
OhNoRipple via https://ift.tt/2PblI7a @Hodor, @Khareem Sudlow
