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What's up fellow Steemians! Today we're swapping things up a bit from our prior "crypto's for beginners" format. We had a bunch of requests from subscribers to crank up the info provided and extend the videos out a touch... So we did! Along with extending our future "Two Minute Token" videos, we've also normalized some of the info covered to give you a more complete look at each coin every time.
Enough about that though!

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Ripple (XRP)

So, for today's Two Minute Token Talk we'll be taking a look at the Ripple project and it's XRP token!

As many of you are already aware, Ripple isn't exactly at the top of my list for "good crypto projects". All the same I think it's still good to look at the issues with Ripple and see why it has so many crypto fanatics up in arms.

Let's hit the basics first!

• Launch Date: 2012 (not available on market until 2014)
• Launch Price: ~$0.005 USD
• Current Spot Price: $0.45 USD (July 11, 2018)
• Market Rank: 3rd
• Market Cap: ~18 Billion (July 11, 2018)

The Ugly Truth

I'll do my best to refrain from ranting too much here, but I'll admit that's a difficult task when discussing a project such as Ripple. In short, this project is like the antithesis of everything cryptocurrency strives to accomplish. It's backed by banks, and mega-monopoly financial institutions. The project is, at its core; a centralized, and easily manipulated system. They also seem to have no qualms with rewriting their own rules, releasing more tokens into the market as they please; in essence they are partaking in the same unscrupulous actions that cryptocurrencies hope to shield consumers from.
And did I mention that the heralded "XRP" token holds little to no value for its holder's unless theyre transacting within Ripple's partner network? Yes, seriously. The "unbelievable speed" of the xRapid system will be essentially lost on consumers unless they are transacting via a ripple partner company.
I know I may take some heat for this one, but as someone who considers himself a cryptocurrency "truist", there are few things as hideous as seeing XRP perched in the top ten.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tidbit on Ripple!

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And remember, if you have a coin you'd like to learn about, an aspect of a certain project you'd like discussed, or even an entire point of comparison you think we should add to our coin tutorials, let us know in the comments!

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