
Ripple co-founder is now richer than the Google founders on paper - NavyDish
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/04/ripple-co-founder-is-now-richer-than-the-google-founders-on-paper.html
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cwkoss
The thing that makes me bearish about Ripple's price is that so little of the
currency is in the hands of the public. From what I've read, total amount of
XRP is fixed at 100B, but it seems like only about 1.3B units are in actual
circulation, with the other 98.7B units held by Ripple Labs, the founders, or
institutional partners. ~37B is 'held' by these entities (mostly the founders
I think), and another ~60B is locked up in smart contracts to slowly release
these remaining funds to these actors at a rate of up to 1B per month.

I find it concerning that so many people are valuing Ripple off the 'market
cap' because the 'true' circulating supply is much less than the commonly used
figure of 38B. If the 'true' circulating supply is only 1.3B, what will happen
when founders and partners start to cash out their ~30x greater stake then
what is currently on the market? Can the market absorb 30x more supply?

Does anyone have a good source on what amount of Ripple is held by the
'public' (vs those with direct business relationships with Ripple Labs)?

Disclaimer: I'm long Bitcoin, and not a Ripple expert. Have been a detractor
for several years: don't like the technical design, reliance on network
effects, and amount of centralization.

~~~
hndamien
Ripple is for people that prefer debt based money over equity based money and
lack the imagination to understand that a ledger entry is money. For those in
debt that enjoy being a debt slave, buy Ripple. For those that want to end
debt slavery buy pretty much anything else. Bitcoin would go a long way, but
Monero is great as are many of the others.

~~~
donkeyd
Ripple is for people that don't have a clue what any of those words mean. I
see people all around me investing in Ripple, because 'it's the next Bitcoin.'
These people haven't invested in or even paid attention to crypto or any other
market in their lives, but now they're experts because they did 'research'
over the weekend.

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yakitori
There isn't any depth to the ripple price. If I created 1 trillion digital
yakitori coins and I got my father to buy 1 yakitori coin for $10, I am
theoretically worth about $10 trillion. "Theoretically". Will journalist at
cnbc do an article on that?

Is it me or are the media pushing out a ridiculous amount of clickbait lately?
Or am I just more aware of it because of HN.

What's crazy is this isn't journalism. The article comes off more as a paid
advertisement for ripple than an article.

~~~
pietjepuk88
According to coinmarketcap.com[0], the traded volume of Ripple today was 8
billion USD. That's a bit better than your Yakitori coin.

I am a bit confused about the volume of e.g. Amazon on Yahoo Finance[1], which
is either 3 million or 3 billion USD.

So if such calculations are allowed/typical for someone like Jeff Bezos and
his AMZN shares, why wouldn't it be for a cryptocurrency?

[0]:
[https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ripple/#markets](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ripple/#markets)

[1]:
[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/amzn/](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/amzn/)

~~~
hndamien
Wash trading does wonders for exchange numbers.

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hknecht
Ripple is certainly an interesting technology to have emerged in the
Blockchain sector and one of the few which has serious commitments from
outside relevant parties.

This has come with compromises, and while I do applaud their business acumen
and look suspiciously at their centralization, it’s honestly out of my mind
how it could be valued at such a high price and I’m not so sure that market
capitalization can be a valuable indicator, due to their centralized approach,
both in functioning and ownership.

Let’s see where all this goes in the following months, it’ll be a fun ride

~~~
ideal0
ICOs in general will see a big correction once the SEC decides to bear down on
insider information and compliance amongst the larger investors in these
fundraises.

The case, in greater detail, is made here:

[https://medium.com/@seiso_matt/investor-liability-for-
icos-c...](https://medium.com/@seiso_matt/investor-liability-for-icos-could-
be-downturn-catalyst-e902ffdb9eeb)

