Let's face it, it’s tough explaining Ripple to your friends and family.  Heck, it was tough explaining Bitcoin to your friends and family.

Let's draw an example of how this goes.

The scenario: You just discovered how good XRP is compared to any other crypto-currency (and compared to any other mainstream payment system like PayPal).  You attempt to share what you've learned with your Dad:

"....because it can handle over 1,000 TPS native  and over 50,000 TPS using XRP pay channels, and closes its ledger like... every three seconds." 1

Dad pretends to hear what you’re saying.  He's your Dad, after all, and he wants to encourage you in life!  He gives his usual head-nod and smiles slightly.  Looks like junior is off on one of his little tirades again about... something.

You sigh deeply and try again, this time reaching for something that he understands:

"When you want to buy something with Bitcoin, it can take up to six hours to settle your transaction.  XRP can do it in four seconds.

Bitcoin can handle 6 transactions per second, max.  Contrast that with XRP, which can handle the same number of transactions per second that VISA can process – XRP payment processing has been clocked at more than 50,000 transactions per second!" 2

Then his eyes light up.  He recognized a respected name - VISA - and he also understands that six hours is a long time to be standing at a cash register.  But then there's a little glint in his eye and he tilts his head to the side, thinking for a moment.

"Well, why wouldn't I just use VISA?"

You take a deep breath to keep calm; now's your chance!  You try to explain:

"VISA charges huge fees! XRP charges literally almost zero fees to use their payment network!  3  XRP can also convert any currency you want to pay in, to any other currency that the vendor accepts!

It doesn't matter whether its US dollars, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, Euros, Indian Rupees, or South Korean won.  XRP can transform instantly into any of these!"

His eyebrows rise and he shrugs his shoulders.

"Huh.  Okay then.  Well, I've got to go water the plants now."

And so it goes trying to explain your favorite crypto-currency!  If you're a fan of XRP, this has been something you've been dealing with for a while now.

Ripple: A U.S.-based Company.... with a Crypto-Currency

Ripple, the US-based company behind XRP, has done their job exceedingly well from beginning to end.  Their product is literally the biggest thing to happen to worldwide payments in a generation, and yet, we don't hear much about it.

Does their corporate symbol remind you of anything?

Ripple’s Corporate Symbol:

Spinner Toy:

Looking at these spinners in every gas station that you walk into in the United States, you might think that it's a lost marketing opportunity for Ripple.  Maybe they could somehow do some marketing and tie in the Ripple spinners?

Yes, maybe.  But Ripple doesn't have a history of slick marketing.  Their customers are banks and financial institutions, and those clients want to see hard numbers, liquidity, network speed, and are very concerned about performance.  They don’t care about Ripple spinners.

And yet, looking at the marketing teams from Apple and Google, we all know that it's not just about overwhelmingly good technology.  It's about brand as well, and Ripple has become very self-aware of their brand.

They’ve taken steps to separate themselves from their would-be, crypto-coin competitors, who often have a shadowy non-profit foundation headquartered in countries with very loose financial regulations.  They’ve distanced themselves with anything that could even be perceived as a potential violation of AML or KYC regulations.   Unlike their competitors, they’ve kept rigorously to the straight-and-narrow, with a clear vision of taking their technology innovations to the next level.

But they don’t say “no” if you want to purchase some XRP!

The crypto industry is a growing one, and the money from investment bankers and early angel investors, as well as the ordinary day-to-day crypto-coin buyers, has been truly astounding in the first half of 2017.

Ripple's digital asset, XRP, has jumped in value over 4,000%, and is poised to double or triple yet again before the end of the year, even if the pace of investment only remains constant:  The pace of investment in crypto-currency has been anything but constant, increasing month-over-month, moving the price of XRP, Bitcoin, and other crypto-currencies higher and higher. 4

Ripple doesn't obsess on the price of their digital asset, however; instead, they've been focused on banking integration of their technology, which can be used with or without XRP.  At the time of this writing, the number of banks performing Ripple technology integration was somewhere just south of 100, give or take.  And these are not just small banks - fifteen of the top 50 banks in the world are using Ripple technology.  These include names like Bank of America, UBS, Standard Chartered, and BMO.  It also includes very large foreign-based banks you might never have heard of, like National Australia Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and SBI.  Together, Ripple’s client list handles trillions in payments across the world. 5

So why hasn't my Dad heard of XRP … or Ripple?

As I said, Ripple is conservative.  Their customers are banks, not young technology adopters who purchased the Apple watch.  And so any advertising they do tends to be low-key, at industry conferences.

Where's My XRP Swag?

As an example, even I have asked the company for at least an online store where we fans can purchase Ripple or XRP memorabilia - something that other new technology is quick to do; get the word-of-mouth out using coffee cups, t-shirts, calendars, or even Ripple spinners!  Hopefully they are working on something for us fans of XRP that won't offend their banking customers' delicate business sensibilities, but I'm not holding my breath. 6

Ripple wants to be the first financial technology company with a digital token to go mainstream and it looks like they might already be there... your parents just don't know it yet!

Sources:

1. https://ripple.com/xrp/market-performance/
2. http://www.econotimes.com/Ripple-announces-new-features-bringing-transaction-throughput-to-Visa-levels-622104
3. https://ripple.com/build/transaction-cost/
4. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/cryptocurrencies-market-capitalisation-crosses-100-billion/articleshow/59025224.cms
5. https://ripple.com/insights/ten-new-customers-join-ripples-global-payment-network/
6. https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/6861-ha-ha-look-what-i-got/?do=findComment&comment=65766