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By Gaurav S. Iyer, IFC Published : August 9, 2017

While most headlines in the cryptocurrency space involve Bitcoin or Ethereum, an increasing number of investors are thinking about investing in Ripple, the bank-focused blockchain company that is taking the crypto world by storm. With that in mind, Ive put together this report with a complete Ripple price prediction in 2018.

I know the names, tokens, and details can become overwhelming. Blockchain technology is widely misunderstood in part because the industry is so young; so the articles explaining it are still technical and full of jargon. Ill do my best to fix that.

But theres another reason that blockchain is so hard to understandit is radically different from anything thats come before it.

Ripple is certainly part of this story, and not just as a Bitcoin-imitator. It is much more than that.

There are fundamental differences between Ripple and Bitcoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and Ethereum and Ripple. Its not enough to say Ah! Forget these crypto coins or whatever they are called! Theyre more trouble than theyre worth!

Ripple is up 3,868% from its opening price in 2013. Even in its current lull, Ethereum prices are up 5,460% in the last two years. Can you really afford to pass up these gains?

I write about investments for a living and I rarely see four-digit growth in two or three years. Those are like shooting stars on the stock market, yet they happen on a monthly basis in the crypto world.

I think the risk is potentially worth the reward, hence this investigation.

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The first thing to know is that Bitcoin was viewed with hostility by many banks. Bitcoin wants to eradicate them as the middlemen of transactions, which obviously represents a ton of money for the banks. They like making money every time we use a piece of plastic.

Bitcoin is fundamentally opposed to that kind of top-down control, in which the banks are at the top and we are at the bottom. Its idea is to decentralize the payments process.

Bitcoin also wants to increase transparency, which as we all know is contrary to the modus operandi of many banks. Secrecy is, and perhaps always has been, closely tied to banking.

Also Read:Bitcoin Price Prediction 2018: Should You Invest in Bitcoin?

Thats why it was so shocking to see Ripple raise $55.0 million in venture capital from a bunch of banks and other financial firms. These were the exact middlemen that looked down their nose at Bitcoinso why did they love Ripple so much?

Its about control.

In Bitcoin transactions, a record of the transaction is recorded on the public distributed ledger, which is just a fancy way of saying a universal list that is shared across the network of Bitcoin computers. Since no one person owns all the computers involved, power is distributed.

This shattering of power is essential to Bitcoin. Its an open secret that the core community of developers got on board because they lost trust in the global financial system, so the success or failure of Bitcoin is tied to a political objective.

They need to get rid of central banks. They need to remove middlemen from transactions. They need to draw on a critical mass of vendors through popular support.

That is an awfully high bar for success. Ive always said that Bitcoin hurt its own potential by aiming so high.

Ripples aims are, by comparison, much more modest, which is why my Ripple price prediction for 2018 might seem overly generous.

The company is working to smooth out the settlement process between existing banks and financial institutions (using their XRP token, of course). Plus, their system doesnt allow for the kind of anonymity that made Bitcoin popular on the black market.

In other words, there is an added measure of control in Ripple. But I dont care about the purity of the technology as much as I care about its potential to succeed in the real world.

Banks from China, Japan, India, Switzerland, Australia, America, and Canada are already working with Ripple. There are literally dozens of partners lining up to take the best parts of blockchain technology and integrate them into their firms.

To me, that looks like a successful business model. Dont throw a Molotov cocktail through someones window. Just figure out what they need, how to work with them, and then go laughing to the bank.

Like all cryptocurrencies, Ripple experienced a fierce tailwind in May. It lifted straight off the ground and took flight, reaching $0.414795 at one point. I realize that the Ripple XRP price doesnt have an impressive four-digit price like Bitcoin, but dont let that fool you.

Investing is about the percentage gain. It is a lot easier to double the Ripple price from $0.41 to $0.82 than the Bitcoin price from $1,900 to $3,800.

So dont let size confuse you. Or if you must, look to market capitalization. Its a more honest reflection of where each currency stands.

Bitcoin has the largest market cap, at $31.29 billion; Ethereum is next, at $14.03 billion; and Ripple gets the bronze, at $6.82 billion. But dont forget that Ripple has raised about $100.0 million worth of actual money from its venture capital (VC) backers.

Now, lets get to the meaty questions like Is Ripple better than Bitcoin?

Heres my take on it.

Im extremely bullish on blockchain, not Bitcoin. There is still room to the upside for BTC prices, but the incessant Bitcoin volatility suggests that it can never become a global currency. Money needs to be stable and Bitcoin is anything but stable.

So Bitcoin has a low likelihood of succeeding.

Meanwhile, Ripple is not trying to become a global currency. It is working with existing powerbrokers to become a modern blockchain-based settlement system. It has a high likelihood of succeeding, hence the high Ripple price prediction for 2018.

Faced with those two options, Im almost always going to pick the likelier outcome. Its just a matter of odds for me, not a philosophical battle about good versus evil, us versus the central banks. I have no interest in that kind of political fight.

I just want to make money. Right now the XRP price looks deliciously favorable to that objective.

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