Ripple, the San Francisco, USA based cryptocurrency firm has been releasing its token XRP since 2013. Currently, in the terms of market capitalization (an asset’s share of the total crypto market), XRP is the third most famous cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ether.
According to a story by The New York Times though, Ripple is in a dilemma. People are purchasing and trading XRP, but they are not using it. Usage here means to perform any transactions other than buying or selling as tentative investments. Since users cannot precisely go to neighbourhood grocery stores and use crypto, Ripple has other ideas to get XRP moving around in the ecosystem. The company is chiefly paying attention to influencing populace to exercise their XRP to conduct international money transfers through banks by converting fiat to crypto to fiat, and Ripple has already allied with global financial institutions to make this possible.
Another approach that Ripple has incorporated to push the altcoin into the tide is launching more and more of their XRP in the market, through giveaways and donations. This March, Ripple bestowed $29 million worth of XRP to a charitable trust for buying classroom provisions for schools in the US. Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher (popular Ripple investor) also offered $4 million worth of XRP to The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund on behalf of Ripple while appearing on Ellen in May.
Ripple is not just providing XRP to trusts but is also pleasing its customers who use XRP. The company has invested $300 million in XRP into the RippleNet Accelerator Program last October, in 2017. This program is intended to prize fiscal institutions that use XRP. Most currently, during May, Ripple inaugurated Xpring, an enterprise that assists in funding and development of XRP-focused start-ups.
For Bitcoin, the number of transactions decides the number of Bitcoins in the world because more transactions mean more mining, therefore more BTC, whereas all the XRP on the globe was plainly created in 2013. Ripple had produced 100 billion XRP and cleared out 20% of it for distribution, keeping 80% for itself. This was the reason the company was blamed for allegedly influencing the XRP market, but it also means Ripple has a plethora of XRP to toss about.
Though nothing can be said about Ripple’s many proposals, whether or not they will actually assist XRP to change its demeanour from a speculative investment to a frequently-used asset, but certainly the bad exposure that Ripple has faced in recent times, counting condemnation in a UK court and a class-action court case in the US, bestowing millions to charity ought to help the corporation improve its public picture if nothing else.