Ripple is an impressive and astounding accomplishment in marketing hoax. Ripple Labs has successfully painted their brand as friendly and amenable to establishment players, yet there is practically zero adoption whatsoever, and Ripple requires establishment adoption because there is essentially no way for it to be useful on a purely peer-to-peer basis. The business model of Ripple Labs depends on XRP being preferred as a reserve currency for building exchange paths, yet the massive founder holdings and mickey mouse lolfunbucks distribution swings like a sword of damacles of counterparty risk over any possible appreciation due to adoption in that way. Ripple is absolutely terrifying, because I am hard pressed to think of any FUD story that is unfairly hoisted upon Bitcoin that doesn't turn out to be literally true about Ripple.