It's a very dangerous conversation.
The authorities - whether they be central bankers, tax collectors, governments, law enforcement, financial institutions, or private debt collectors, are quite nervous about this conversation. They don't like how it's going. They don't like the conclusions being reached.
What is that conversation?
Well, let's get it started: What should money be? How should private property work? These questions are very dangerous to those that would control a population. If you look around, think about how the vast majority of the populace is controlled.
The Shackles of Debt
In the United States, the public is controlled by its reliance on credit. From early childhood in the United States, we are taught to spend money. Commercials whip up the desires of children so they'll pester their parents for specific toys.
Then, when we're graduating high school, we're encouraged to enroll in - you guessed it - college! And then, even before most of us have entered the workforce, we're saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, shackling us to whatever company or corporation is willing to pay us the necessary monthly wage to survive.

According to the latest data, there is 1.5 trillion dollars in student debt in the US; it includes 44 million people with, on average, $37,000 in student loans. How recent and shocking is this? That average number increased by $20,000 in just thirteen years. The college debt crisis is a very real phenomenon; it's probably the reason for some of the politically-motivated calls for debt forgiveness. This won't happen, of course, but these promises make for good sound bites for presidential candidates.
And for those of us that have children after college, this situation can become even more precipitous, especially if you throw in events like medical problems or other unexpected costs.
And just like that, you are 'under control.'
Are you still skeptical? It's not overt; it's subtle. Think about this question: Could you freely engage in political demonstrations without there being any repercussions professionally? Most of you are probably shaking your head 'no' if you're being honest. Companies will not tell you officially that they conduct background searches on your political or social media activity, but they do; it's almost standard procedure now for some corporate jobs. Companies typically don't want 'uppity,' vocal, difficult-to-control citizens working for them.
So what happens if we can't pay our debt?
This is where things get interesting
Depending on what type of debt you have, and who you owe it to, the courts can dip into your savings and confiscate your money.
Before the twentieth century, this process was more physical than virtual, but with the advent of the digital age, it's all about electronic debt collection from centralized institutions where citizens have historically stored their money. If your creditors - no matter who they are - want your money, they must go through the courts to claim it.
This goes for property as well, but for our purposes, think about what digital assets - like XRP - do to this equation.
The ability for these same creditors to seize peoples' assets diminishes substantially with the use of digital assets. With digital assets, these individuals can store value using a secret key that is cryptographically-secure. No business, court, or tax-collecting authority can break in and take the value in these wallets.
It's not even technically possible.
And while these same institutions can certainly restrict centralized exchanges, that's about the extent of what they can do if their citizens decide en-mass that digital assets will be their preferred method of value storage. These creditors are now left to negotiate with the people that they oversee. It's a massive power shift from organizations to individuals.
Future Proof
Will crypto be around forever?
It's difficult to know; some popular science fiction franchises like Star Trek foresee that economics will become so advanced in the future that people will stop competing for scarce resources and instead focus on how they want to contribute to civilization in their own way. It's an inspiring, if somewhat-utopian vision of how society should be.
Personally, I think that there will always need to be a way to motivate and reward individuals monetarily. I also think there will always be a need for people to choose their own currency if they'd like. Many of us currently choose to purchase precious metals. This 'need to choose' will continue into the foreseeable future.
To truly future-proof XRP, a decentralized digital asset, the community will need to agree on improvements to the protocol itself, whether they are Cobalt-inspired changes or new features. This decentralized governance process is necessary to upgrade the network so that it doesn't stagnate like Bitcoin. And XRP's governance process has so far been very effective at promoting needed changes quickly and successfully.
Immortal XRP
The trend began two years ago.
Digital assets, no matter what gyrations the market makes, are here to stay. Although only recently created, these technological constructs will exist long after we are gone. It's strange to think that the XRP that each of us owns will probably outlast us.
That's the inherent strength of blockchain technology. Those are the obvious benefits of decentralization.
Even if we are not immortal, we can purchase a digital asset that is faster than Superman, more resistant to censorship than Donald Trump, and more likely to live forever than Elon Musk.
Ripple News
The biggest 'Ripple news' in the past week was the PNC implementation of xCurrent.
In September of 2018, we first learned that PNC, the 8แตสฐ largest bank in the US, had joined Ripplenet.
The announcement indicated that plans were in the works to implement Ripple technology for PNC's cross-border value transfer. And now, at the end of a relatively quick implementation, PNC has gone live with xCurrent, which will be used for the bank's cross-border payments:
One news source indicated that the purpose of the PNC implementation would be to support its PNC Treasury Management division, and quoted a spokesperson for the bank:
โ(๐น๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด) ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ด ๐ฃ๐ถ๐บ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐จ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ค๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ช๐ท๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ญ.โ
PNC now joins the list of many 'top 100' worldwide banks using xCurrent and RippleNet for cross-border payments.
Euro Exim Bank
One of the first banks to become an early adopter of using XRP in its international remittance payment flows is Euro Exim Bank. It was an incredibly exciting announcement at the time, because it was the one bank in a list of five xRapid partners at the beginning of the year.
In case you don't already know, Euro Exim Bank is headquartered in St Lucia, and has a branch office in the UK. They are a relatively small bank specializing in corporate services, and were the first RippleNet bank to 'flip the switch' on using digital assets.
On June 17แตสฐ, the bank announced that they'd received Capital Finance International's (CFI) 'Best Global Trade Services Bank' award for the second year in a row:
"๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฐ ๐๐น๐ช๐ฎโ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ค ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ."
The bank already made history as the first bank to use digital assets in their payment flows; it's great to see them win industry awards like the one that CFI recently conferred.
Consumer Tipping Point
The IAMTN is the "International Association of Money Transfer Networks." It's a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 with offices in the UK and Denmark.
"... ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ค๐ถ๐ด๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด.
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด, ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐, ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ, ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฆ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ด๐ข๐ง๐ฆ, ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ."
On August 28แตสฐ, the organization published an interview with Jeremy Light, Ripple's VP of Strategic Accounts. The article noted that he will be providing the keynote address in their IAMTN Global Summit in early October in London, and spent some of its time chronicling Ripple's history, as well as the history of XRP. It then quoted Jeremy Light on his perspective of what's to come:
โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ... ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ... ๐๐ด ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ข๐ต ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ & ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด-๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ.
๐ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ญ-๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ต. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ด๐ต. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ถ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ-๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐บ."
IAMTN's article found its way across the crypto news outlets subsequent to its release, and it's great to see such an eloquent communicator like Jeremy Light take a leadership position in industry conferences where other remittance operators may want to join RippleNet.
SBI Promotion
While I knew that SBI is working to grow its VC Trade division using a variety of tried-and-true approaches, I was surprised - and delighted - to learn that XRP was directly involved in their latest promotion:
"๐๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ท๐ช๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ (๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ต) ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ
30 ๐๐๐ ๐ท๐ช๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐๐๐ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต (100 ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด) ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ 30, 2019."
While the amount of XRP is relatively small considering what some traders currently handle, it is more than enough to pique the interest of a significant percentage of traders, and may prompt a large number of SBI customers to investigate further.
The part of this story that's most noteworthy is the size of SBI's customer base.
In one recent presentation, the company revealed that it had analyzed its own customer rolls, and projected that over eight million of their current clients would - or could - make the transition to trading in crypto as well as traditional securities.
It's this raw number that's most astounding; when numbers range into the millions, it doesn't take much in terms of XRP ownership to see what that might do to overall demand. And Yoshitaka Kitao, the CEO of SBI, is very "pro-XRP."
Notable Quotables
Every once in a while, a new 'fan video' of one XRP topic or another catches my interest; in this case, it was a video collage of quotes from Brad Garlinghouse:
The short two-minute video contains scenes from Brad Garlinghouse's recent AMAs ('Ask Me Anything' sessions) and conferences, and then suspensefully closes with a shot of the 2019 SWELL website background.
Thanks to @stuart_xrp for sharing the video.
Coil
The Coil blogging platform started out just months ago, and already, the amount of content is formidable. And we're not just talking about quantity; there are quite a few original authors and artists that are now making Coil their permanent home, and that's good news for XRP holders; the algorithm that the company uses calculates how much time is being spent viewing Coil-enabled content and then streams tiny XRP micropayments directly to the payment pointer belonging to that specific artist.
The artist can then choose to receive their payment(s) in XRP or in fiat.
If you are thinking of becoming a blog author on Coil, there is nothing stopping you! It is free to sign up and start writing immediately.
The other thing I've noticed is an increase in the amount of both entertaining and valuable subscription-only content for Coil subscribers. For only a $5 dollar monthly subscription, that person receives unlimited viewing of all Coil-enabled content throughout the entire Internet.
It's a great deal compared to site-specific subscriptions on other platforms, and will eventually result in a massive number of websites offering premium content for Coil subscribers.
For now, subscribers have thousands of articles and a treasure trove of premium content on the Coil blogging website.
If you haven't already explored Coil, I urge you to do so; no matter if you choose to hold XRP or not, subscribing to Coil supports a new and growing revenue model for the web; one that doesn't rely on exchanging your personal information and privacy for so-called 'free' services and content.
My Coil Recommendations
This week, I made an effort to browse a bit more than I usually do, and I was rewarded with some new finds. Below are some of the articles I encountered, and they are both fascinating and educational. I've placed my own 'topic' description below each one, based on my own understanding of the material.
Author: Billie Paige (@WannaWanga)
Article: George W. Bush Family Recipes
Topic: Cooking
Author: Isaac Hu (@Ichthyoid)
Article: How Decentralization Affects Everyone
Topic: Technology and Society
Author: Derek Groen (@whydoitweet)
Article: Small Sims (1): Simulating a Random Walk
Topic: Programming
Author: Cavan Winikates (@XRPUnderdogg)
Article: XRP: The Sleeping Giant?? What Sources Can I Turn To?!
Topic: Crypto Trading
Author: Chris Richards (@ripter)
Article: Day 1 - JS13k Game Dev 2019
Topic: Programming
If you have any new Coil picks that you've discovered, or an inspirational author or artist on the new platform, I would encourage you to use social media to share what you've found. The more that we can support some of these early adopters of Coil, the faster we can see web monetization begin to transform large parts of the Internet.
XRP News
Creating crypto 'collateral,' 'clothing,' and 'tchotchke' is a fun - and important - way to support XRP.
One community member that's created an impressive array of XRP-and-IoV-related graphics is @stedas (Twitter avatar):
Others in the XRP Community have contributed many amazing creations as well, including professionally-produced videos about the cryptocurrency:
Independent sellers have now jumped into the game, by selling XRP-themed merchandise that turns heads and starts conversations:
It's important for this overall effort to continue, to achieve more listings of XRP-related free artwork and images on multiple websites, including Unsplash, imgur, and others. The more that this happens, the more that these images can be freely and quickly used by others on social media.
In addition, it's important for business users of XRP to eventually be able to communicate about it in a simple and straight-forward manner: This can be achieved by various techniques such as using CSS scripts and website deep linking.
It's not always clear how the community should go about organizing itself around these particular activities, because of the decentralized nature of how crypto tribe members operate and support adoption. However, these efforts are important for 'getting the word out' and they definitely make a difference.
Already, we've seen various XRP Community members step forward with independent contests, using rewards of crypto to help motivate participants in their efforts. I predict there will be more of these in the coming months.
IoV Timeline
The Internet of Value is an idea; a concept.
The idea behind it is that money should move through the Internet as easily as information does; and it's a tall order, because the world's population has become accustomed to sending text messages that are immediately received by others no matter where they are in the world.
To make this vision a reality, several tough challenges need to be overcome. Some of the obstacles are related to regulations of money transfers; others have to do with how liquidity is managed via the legacy correspondence banking system.
Substantial progress is being made, and the end-result promised by this vision will become a reality; the world's economy has far too much at stake to ignore it. Central banks like the Bank of England are pursuing real-time settlement, and the big four consulting firms each now have divisions allocated to blockchain technology.
So, naturally, investors in digital assets are interested in the time frames that these organizations have designated for plans at upgrading their stack with blockchain technology.
To that end, one XRP fan analyzed the various time frames and end-dates of a subset of significant blockchain projects:
His post is an example of what good 'DYOR' is all about. DYOR stands for 'Do Your Own Research,' and it's important for all crypto traders and investors to develop their own set of skills that are used to confirm information, and to investigate on their own.
Another helpful aspect of his post is that some crypto traders and investors don't understand the timeline normally necessary for implementation of large-scale technology projects. These timelines are normally measured in years, not months; the fact that Ripple is able to implement its technology for clients in months instead of years, is a reflection of their capabilities and technology encapsulation.
My own perspective on his research is that there isn't 'one date' or 'one year' that we can use to label when the IoV is 'complete;' I believe that it will be a continual process rather than discrete time frames.
The reason I say this is that the evolution of businesses, services, applications, and banking is something that's already been occurring for a while, and some stakeholder organizations may already be far along their path; but the timelines considered in his post are important as well, as they indicate that some organizations will inevitably be laggards, much like how some traditional companies and organizations were slow to develop an Internet presence in the early 2000's.
Whether you agree with some of his conclusions or not, the post contains an impressive amount of personal research, and you may find it illuminating.
OK Swap
OK Swap is a strange new exchange that emerged from nowhere a couple days ago, supposedly with a completely built exchange.
It's rare - and odd - to see an exchange built and released into the wild with no advance marketing. And the small amount of marketing that's been done is sure to draw the attention of regulatory authorities; the exchange seems to be indicating that its customers will remain anonymous. Here is the announcement tweet:
It's always good to see XRP listed on new exchanges, no matter the underlying technology; but given the way that the exchange is choosing to market its debut, I'm predicting trouble.
My prediction is that there are three possibilities for this exchange:
- It's a (real) centralized exchange
- It's a (fake) site, scam site or application
- It's a (real) decentralized exchange
The problem is that there's very little information that I could find on the exchange's official website about the technology underlying their platform. That's a red flag. If the exchange is a centralized exchange, and it's marketing 'anonymous transactions,' it will face regulatory scrutiny in short order. If the site is a scam trying to look like an exchange, it may disappear after stealing crypto from a number of individuals.
And my third prediction? If it's really one of these new decentralized exchanges, it may actually possess enough censorship-resistance to exist for at least a short period of time.
I would not use this site, because I cannot ascertain enough critical data points about the identity of the company or individuals running it, or much other information about the exchange, for that matter.
Note: I do not personally endorse any exchange or wallet.
Immortal XRP
It's the fastest digital asset in the market; it's steadily building liquidity; its use in banking and international payments is growing; and its scalability has resulted in billions of payments to date.
XRP is censorship-resistant. It's secure. It's decentralized. It settles with deterministic certainty in under four seconds. It is scalable to trillions of transactions per second.
XRP is on a mission to take over the cryptomarket. To stay up to date on the latest news about the growing IoV and its preferred digital asset, it's important to subscribe to my blog on Coil; while it doesn't supplant the need for your own research, I include all of my references linked in the article for you.
Thank you for reading, and make sure to support others in the XRP Community as well!
Credits: Thank you to Tadej Skofic for this blog's cover art. Thank you to Juan Ramos for the student debt - related photograph