Crypto-purists hate Ripple. I guess they hate making money, too.

Here's the deal; the hardcore crypto-purists believe that a cryptocurrency's first job is to displace the central banks of the world and have money exist outside of government. Since Ripple is playing nice with the banks, this means "it's not real crypto. " It's a co-opted movement supported by the big banks.

I completely agree. But outside of my political beliefs, when I invest, I want to make money.

And because of that, Ripple is a fantastic investment.

Why Ripple Will Rock

Ripple's prime directive is to replace the banking system's SWIFT technology. SWIFT started in the early 70s and adopted in the US in 1979. So the tech is really old.

So old that if you want to send money to another bank, it takes 3-5 business days, can only be done when the banks are open, and is very expensive. Ripple's CEO says it's easier to get on a plane with a bag of cash, instead of sending it through the banking system.

Ripple is looking to replace SWIFT and it has a helluva chance in doing so because its transactions take 3.5 seconds and is 80% cheaper.

Given this huge tech disparity, it's clear that SWIFT's days are numbered.

The Road Map

There are about 25,000 banks in the world, and Ripple has signed up about 100, one of which is the 4th largest bank in the world, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG).

MUFG will utilize Ripple's blockchain to keep track of account balances in between different global banks they work with. They aren't using Ripple's crypto currency yet, XRP.

That's because the first phase is to get banks using the blockchain, then convert them over to XRP to settle up balances.

You might have heard the common criticism of XRP as an investment; the banks don't have to use it, so it's just junk!

Not so fast. The second phase of Ripple, getting banks to start using XRP to settle up balances, truly won't be implemented for another 3-5 years. But in the meantime, XRP be slowly implemented in the early adopting banks, which means the supply of available XRP will slowly go down, thus bringing up the price.

Concerns About Ripple

One of the biggest concerns about Ripple is that it its currency, XRP, is "pre-mined," which means that all the XRP that will ever exist, exists today.

The other concern is that most of the XRP in existence is held by employees and shareholders of Ripple. This could mean that at any point in time, the majority of XRP could be dumped by Ripple employees, which would send the price crashing.

To counter this concern, Ripple announced they would be locking up half the supply of XRP, 50B, into a smart contract that will be released once a month for 5 years, a steady trickle supply of XRP, thus ensuring no dramatic dump.

At the same time, as banks begin to use XRP to settle up balances, a little bit of XRP will be destroyed in every transaction. This will also make XRP more valuable

Ideology v. Making Money

I'm an anarcho-capitalist and do not like the government at all. But putting ideology aside, Ripple looks like a fantastic investment, and that's why I'm stacking.