The New Miner Guide To MinerGate

Getting Started

Welcome to MinerGate!

This is an introductory guide to Pool mining with the Minergate App 8.1 on (Windows 7 min.)/Mac(10.9)/Linux/Ubuntu(16.04)/Fedora(25).

You have downloaded and installed the latest GUI 8.1 miner software and wish to start mining. If you are having problems downloading the App due to your Anti Virus identifying the file as a threat, turn it off as well as the site blocking option in your browser to allow the download to proceed. Go to Advanced Settings in Chrome and turn the option to “Protect you and your device from dangerous sites” OFF to enable the download.

What is a Mining Pool?
As a registered user you automatically have access to mine all coins in the MinerGate Pool and one can see the Total Number of miners for each coin on the Dashboard except BTC or LTC. The size of the Pool affects the Hash Rate and therefore the speed at which the Block is found to complete the process of gaining the mining reward. How Mining Pools work.

MinerGate GUI Display
On launching the MinerGate GUI you will see:-


Menu Options

• Built in Wallet for all coins, no need to connect an external wallet.
• Smart Miner – selects the best coin to mine.
• Miner – displays all available coins.
• Other Pools – enables access to external Cryptonote Pools.
• Benchmark – does a hardware performance check.
• Achievements – a novelty for those who like rewards.
• Support

Internal Columns

• Currency Balance from Confirmed Mining
• CPU Mining (Set Cores)
• GPU Mining (If available and Supported)
• Shares (Good/Bad/Last)
• Shares Difficulty – impacts Hash Rate
• Unconfirmed Balance (See confirmation levels below)
• Reward Method (PPS/PPLNS) Select PPS for slower hash rates.
• Merged Mining – mine 2 coins for the same hash rate.

You may toggle which coins are displayed using the “eye” symbol.

Which Coins Do I Mine?
Your hardware determines the coins which you can mine, due to the Hash Rate they offer therefore expecting to mine 1 ETH is in the realm of fantasy without multiple rigs and for any new miner is impossible with a CPU only based system. A single GPU will offer you an improvement but do not raise your expectations beyond the unrealistic until you fully understand about mining.
Up to 1000 h/s – Low Difficulty Coins using PPS
1 KH/s + – Medium Difficulty Coins PPS or PPLNS
1 MH/s + – High Difficulty Coins PPLNS

To evaluate your system hardware the following site Whattomine provides a means of checking what your system will generate i.e. Hash Rate, Earnings and Power consumption cost.

Dashboard


The Dashboard is your mining data centre to view your various balances, mining speed (h/s, KH/s etc.), online/offline, Workers = devices mining, Good/Bad shares, Total mined and Blocks. If you have invalid shares they will display here too.

- Account Balance is the of all mined coins and one may toggle this to display the value in BTC/USD/EUR.
- Total Mined is the all time mined amount of coins inclusive of withdrawals and again may be viewed in the currencies given above.
- In addition you see the Pool’s total mining speed with Total number of Miners in the Pool and the World mining speed along with the Blockchain height and Difficulty.
- The Top 5 users in the pool with their individual Hash Rate.
- Withdrawal and Transfer options.




Enter your Blockchain address to send to your external wallet or add your e-mail for sending to Freewallet.

Transfer allows you to send coins to a miners MinerGate account using their e-mail address.



You may also toggle the display to view the coins that you are mining and also adjust their position using the up/down option.

Confirmation Levels
Each Currency here confirms after a certain amount is mined. (DSH:0.1), (BCN:20), (FCN, QCN, XDN, MCN:1), (ETH, ETC, ZEC:0.001), (AEON, XMR:0.005), (BTG:0.01)

When using PPS the unconfirmed will automatically transfer to your Balance while PPLNS requires the Pool to find the block before transferring from the unconfirmed.

Withdrawing to Wallet or Exchange
MinerGate provides 3 Options for withdrawal and are shown where possible on the coin’s display panel, HitBtc, Changelly and FreeWallet as well as your own Blockchain Wallet.

Withdrawal Amounts
Min Amount Withdrawn to External Wallet – This does NOT include Free-Wallet.

(BCN: 100), (XDN: 1), (XMR,BTG: 0.1), (LTC, BTC, AEON, FCN, DSH, QCN, MCN: 0.01), (ETH,ETC: 0.001), (ZEC: 0.0001)

Withdrawal Fees
Does NOT INCLUDE Withdraw Amounts. (AEON, BCN:0.01),(DSH, MCN, ETC, ZEC, BTG:0.001) (XMR:0.02), (QCN:0.005), (ETH:0.0052), (XDN, FCN:0.1)

Do I need an external wallet?
Your mined coins may be stored at no cost, securely while you continue to mine and increase your balance towards significant amounts. By making withdrawals of the minimum you are reducing your profit and will incur fees un-necessarily in so doing. Think longer term and have targets that ensure your mining is worthwhile otherwise your efforts will simply evaporate before you are able to realise any gain whatsoever.

Protect Your MinerGate Wallet with 2FA
To set up 2FA go to https://minergate.com/a/e1c7053f7fdf60c9b8994e15 . Download Google Authenticator and scan the QR image, ensure you keep a backup of the codes in the event of loss. If you require help to set it up here is a video to step you through the process. If you, by chance, lose your phone or forget the backup codes that are required to maintain it’s functionality you can only re-enable by contacting Support to restore your 2FA.

Successful mining = good hashrate and that requires using the appropriate devices to achieve that, meaning a PC minimum with GPU(s) otherwise you are really consuming electric for no profit. Choose carefully and learn through continued research and meet fellow miners in the chat who began just as you are. If you believe your Mobile phone can compete with desktop PC’s, GPU’s and Asic miners then you have a serious problem given the level of hash rate they deliver – DO NOT MINE WITH A MOBILE PHONE.
Useful links
MinerGate Health
MinerGate Pool Stats
Chat Rules
MinerGate FAQ.
Google

As you will note from the coins listed on the GUI, BTC and LTC are missing and may only be mined using Cloud Contracts or Asic Miners on MinerGate respectively.

This Guide is a basic collection of the main “need to know” points to get you started and has hopefully been helpful in meeting that requirement for you to proceed. Once you are ready to advance into it seriously the next stage is for you to look towards Console Mining and the benefits you will achieve by doing so, i.e. faster Hash Rates compared to the GUI.

If you feel there are topics I have missed please post in the Comments with your suggestions, thank you.

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Menjadi mitra World Mining - SCAM

WARNING - PROJECT INI SUDAH TUTUP PENIPU. 

BAHASA GAULNYA SCAM

World Mining adalah perusahaan Inggris yang terlibat di dalam penambangan cryptocurrency.
Pada bulan Oktober 2017 terdaftar secara resmi di Inggris. World Mining memiliki pengalaman yang solid dalam beroperasi di pasar.

Sejak bulan Februari 2017, Perusahaan secara profesional dan sukses bekerja di bidang penambangan cryptocurrency, menggunakan peralatan yang kuat dan modern dengan kapasitas rata-rata lebih dari 67 PH/s. Sampai baru-baru ini, World Mining tidak hanya menangani produksi emas elektronik untuk digunakan sendiri, tetapi juga penyewaan server dengan beragam kapasitas yang dapat disewa. Pelanggan kami dapat memilih daya dan kecepatan server yang disewa, menghitung keuntungannya, periode balik modal sewa, ukuran dan keuntungan bersih. World Mining menyediakan jasa untuk menambang Bitcoin dan fork-nya pada algoritma yang berbeda, seperti SHA256, X11, Dagger-Hashimoto, Scrypt Mining.

Dari bulan Februari 2017, Perusahaan terus meningkatkan database cryptocurrency, memperoleh momentum industrial dan modernisasi kapasitas produksi.
Sekarang, dalam dunia penambangan cloud dan software sepertinya sulit menemukan tawaran yang lebih baik untuk pendapatan yang stabil. Selain itu, faktanya World Mining menawarkan harga sewa terendah, tingkat suku bunga yang baik, persyaratan yang wajar, dan banyak lagi. Tim kami sangat bangga dengan stabilitas dan keandalan sistem yang dengan senang hati kami bagikan dengan mitra kami.

BERGABUNG SEKARANG, KLIK DISINI.

Perusahaan World Mining terus berkembang dan menunjukkan tingkat pertumbuhan pendapatan yang baik sejak awal beroperasi. Tujuan utama kami adalah untuk menambah kapasitas pusat data, meningkatkan daya saing dan efisiensi penambangan cryptocurrency.

Di antara pencapaian dari World Mining adalah sebagai berikut:
• Peningkatan pendapat dari Maret sampai September sebesar 15%
• Pembelian peralatan baru yang lebih kuat
• Pengurangan biaya listrik dan sistem pendinginan sampai dengan 23% dengan menggunakan sumber daya alami dan beralih ke pendinginan alami
• Penandatanganan berbagai kontrak energi yang menguntungkan
• Pemberian suku bunga yang tinggi di server sewaan untuk para penyewa kami
World Mining adalah penyewaan peralatan dengan bunga terbaik, tarif sewa server yang rendah serta program afiliasi yang menarik dan menguntungkan.

Anda juga bisa menambang secara gratis hanya mengandalkan PC anda anda bisa menambang beberapa coin dengan mudah.
Silahkan download software disini WORLD MINING.

Setelah selesai mengunduh file, anda harus bergabung disini untuk mendapatkan
PASSWORD DAN LOGIN anda . Klik disini.

Untuk menambah kecepatan world mining juga menyediakan 30GH/s secara gratis,
anda bisa pergi kehalaman bonus dan aktifkan kecepatan anda.

Jalankan software dan ada bisa langsung menambang secara gratisan.
Jadi tunggu apalagi , Selamat mencoba.

Anda juga bisa membeli atau menyewa server mereka dengan profit yang sangaaaaaat menguntungkan.
- Biaya sewa: dari $15 ke $2025
- Masa sewa: 360 hari

Keuntungan dalam Usd, Keuntungan per hari: ≈ $ 0.15
Keuntungan per bulan: ≈ $ 4.50
Keuntungan untuk seluruh periode : ≈ $ 54.00

Kapan lagi anda punya penghasilan dalam 1 tahun dibayar oleh perusahaan.

LEBIH JELASNYA ANDA BISA KLIK DISINI UNTUK KALKULATORNYA.

Bergabung sekarang juga, dan dapatkan berbagai informasi terbaru dari saya.

Karena teknologi dan prinsip kerja dari penambang awal sering digunakan untuk membuat Trojan, banyak antivirus melihat algoritma hashing sebagai software berbahaya. Spesialis di World Mining dengan hati-hati memeriksa setiap algoritma yang digunakan dalam program penambangan kami dari ancaman terhadap pengguna. Dengan demikian World Mining menjamin tidak adanya virus dalam kode penambangan.

Karena program penambangan pribadi sering menyebabkan ancaman palsu pada antivirus, untuk menghindari hal ini, World Mining merekomendasikan untuk membuat sebuah folder untuk menginstal program penambangan, sebagai pengecualian – sebagai daftar yang diizinkan (optimal) di antivirus Anda. Juga pada saat melakukan penambangan Anda sebaiknya untuk sementara waktu menunda perlindungan antivirus. Meluncurkan penambangan dalam mesin virtual kurang optimal, tetapi sebuah pilihan yang valid.

Software penambangan

Persyaratan Minimum
Windows 7 or newer operating system 64-bit
For CPU mining a modern CPU with SSE2 support
For AMD mining any AMD GPU with OpenCL support
For NVIDIA mining any NVIDIA GPU with Compute capability (SM) 2.1 or newer up-to-date drivers for all GPUs
Reliable internet connectivity

Pastikan untuk menonaktifkan antivirus ketika menggunakan program, karena banyak antivirus memperlakukan algoritma penambangan sebagai software berbahaya. Hal ini akan mempengaruhi pengoperasian software. Anda dapat menggunakan satu akun untuk beberapa perangkat. Penambang World Mining akan menerima tugas komputasi dari server dan membuat perhitungan matematis yang berguna, yang dari sana Anda akan menerima uang.

Anda tidak perlu mengatur apa pun; program akan melakukan segala sesuatunya sendiri dan akan mulai memberikan Anda uang setelah satu kali klik. Program ini dapat bekerja di sebagian besar CPU, dan juga kartu grafis AMD dan NVIDIA menggunakan algoritma Crypto Night, sehingga kartu grafis dan prosesor Anda tidak terlalu panas, dan efisiensi kekuatan prosesor menunjukkan hasil yang lebih baik dibandingkan dengan algoritma yang lebih tua dan populer.

Untuk meningkatkan efisiensi penambangan, kami sarankan Anda untuk tidak menonaktifkan aplikasi ketika Anda keluar rumah. Software ini selalu diperiksa oleh para ahli kami dan benar-benar aman untuk perangkat Anda.

Untuk semua pertanyaan-pertanyaan mengenai program ini, Anda bisa mendapatkan jawabannya dalam chat telegram: @WorldMiningOficial

 untuk mendapatkan PASSWORD DAN LOGIN anda . Klik disini.

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Ripple Powered Mobile App to Provide On-Demand Domestic Payments in Japan

The Japan Bank Consortium will release a groundbreaking smartphone application called “MoneyTap”— powered by Ripple’s blockchain technology — to allow customers of the bank consortium to settle transactions instantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“MoneyTap” is the first mobile app of its kind to be developed and used by multiple, different banks in the country.

Three members of the Japan bank consortium: SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank will be the first to go live on the mobile app in autumn of 2018. This will be followed by a staggered roll out to the rest of consortium.

The Japan bank consortium, led by SBI Ripple Asia, is comprised of 61 banks covering more than 80% of all banking assets in Japan. MoneyTap will have the potential to provide on-demand payments to the vast majority of the country through this consortium.
Flexibility with domestic payments is limited in Japan: transactions must occur on weekdays and between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm or risk delays.
While there are discussions to change the window on the current banking rail system to make it accessible 24 hours a day and seven days a week, the cost of implementing it would be high.


Blockchain powered domestic payments will speed transactions and lower costs
“MoneyTap” allows the bank consortium customers to make instant domestic payments and only requires a bank account, phone number, or QR code.
What’s more, MoneyTap helps shed the costs associated with existing banking and ATM fees that are currently applied to domestic money transfers in Japan, making those payments not just faster, but cost less overall.

“We are proud to leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology through our new mobile app, MoneyTap, to improve the payments infrastructure in Japan,” said Takashi Okita, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia.
“Together with the trust, reliability and reach of the bank consortium, we can remove friction from payments and create a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience for our customers.”

Ripple wants to revolutionize domestic and cross-border payments
Ripple has long focused on providing solutions to the problems associated with cross-border payments. Currently, over 100 financial institutions use xCurrent and Ripple has made recent new additions to pilots of xRapid that incorporates XRP into on-demand international payment flows.
However, the power of blockchain can be applied to solving domestic payment issues as well.

“The release of the MoneyTap mobile app shows Ripple’s continued commitment to provide its partners across Asia and the world with blockchain-powered solutions that dramatically improve the customer payments journey,” said Emi Yoshikawa, director of joint venture partnerships at Ripple.
“We’re proud to provide this production-ready technology that not only improves the international payments experience, but also have applications for domestic payments infrastructure.”

Removing friction from both domestic and international payments is central to Ripple’s mission of establishing an Internet of Value, where money can move like information — instantly.

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RippleNet Strengthens Emerging Markets Access into India, Brazil and China

According to the World Bank, global remittance payments are on track to grow by 3.4 percent or roughly $466 billion in 2018, with India and China having the highest incoming flows in 2017.
Together with this massive flow of capital, emerging markets are home to 85 percent of the global population and account for almost 60 percent of global GDP.

With a growing global need not just for access, but more efficient, transparent and cost-effective payments into and out of emerging markets — new financial institutions have joined RippleNet: two banks and three payment providers — that will expand reach in India, Brazil and China.
Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s largest private sector bank and Latin America’s biggest bank by market capitalization; IndusInd, a leading private sector bank in India; and InstaReM, a major remittance provider based in Singapore, will use xCurrent to provide faster, more transparent cross-border payments to other financial institutions around the world.

Two fast-growing global remittance providers, Beetech in Brazil and Zip Remit in Canada, will both use xVia to open payment corridors for their customers around the world. Additionally, both will look to establish a connection for their customers into China, an opportunity that is now possible thanks to the recent addition of LianLian International to RippleNet earlier this month.

RippleNet members have increased access to Southeast Asia
With over 500,000 transactions per year from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and India, InstaRem will use RippleNet to connect their customers to over 60 countries worldwide.
Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaReM, is excited to see the company join RippleNet and to serve as an additional bridge into broader Southeast Asia for other RippleNet members.

“We are pleased to partner with Ripple,” said Nanu. “Now, RippleNet members will be able to process a large number of payouts in Southeast Asian countries through InstaReM’s secure rails.”
InstaRem is able to send funds to over 3 billion people around the world and has a growing customer base of over 40,000 businesses and individuals who rely on their services. By joining RippleNet, InstaRem will be able to provide a faster, cheaper and more transparent payments experience to every one of their customers.

RippleNet makes payments cheaper for customers in emerging markets
For financial institutions that want to provide a better payments service into and out of emerging markets, adopting Ripple’s leading blockchain solution for cross-border payments is the obvious answer.

RippleNet’s end-to-end communication and ability to settle transactions instantly means that members can save their customers both time and money, something incredibly important in developing countries where financial flexibility is often limited.
Patrick Griffin, Ripple’s head of business development, believes that providing faster cross-border transactions at a lower cost is especially crucial for customers in emerging markets.
“The payments problem is a global problem, but its negative impact disproportionally affects emerging markets,” said Griffin.

“Whether it’s a teacher in the U.S. sending money home to his family in Brazil, or a small business owner in India trying to move money to open up a second store in another country, it’s imperative that we connect the world’s financial institutions into a payments system that works for their customers, not against them.”

RippleNet’s continued expansion ultimately makes cross-border payments easier and less expensive, bringing the world closer to an Internet of Value, where money can move like information.

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Ripple and Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) Offer Pilot Program for Saudi Banks

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) — the central bank for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) — has signed an agreement with Ripple to help banks in the KSA improve their payments infrastructure using xCurrent.

This ground-breaking pilot program is the first of its kind to be launched by a central bank. Participating banks from the KSA will use xCurrent to instantly settle payments sent into and out of the country, with greater transparency and lower costs.

SAMA’s support of KSA banks using blockchain technology has the potential to radically shift how banks in the country send money globally. The KSA now has access to every financial institution (banks and payment providers) on RippleNet, which will not only help modernize their payments systems, but also further their reach into major corridors.

Additionally, KSA banks’ customers will experience faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border transactions. SAMA will also provide interested Saudi banks with program management and training.

xCurrent pilot program helps fuel global momentum for blockchain
SAMA is the second central bank to support the use blockchain technology to revolutionize payments, following the Bank of England’s successful proof of concept with Ripple in 2017.
Over 100 financial institutions already rely on Ripple to power end-to-end tracking and instant settlement for their payments around the world. The addition of the SAMA pilot program is part of a larger global trend favoring blockchain solutions for payments.

Dilip Rao, the global head of infrastructure innovation at Ripple, believes the agreement with SAMA is part of a wave of recognition by financial institutions of the impact blockchain solutions can have on payments.

“Central banks around the world are leaning into blockchain technology in recognition of how it can transform cross-border payments, resulting in lower barriers to trade and commerce for both corporates and consumers,” said Rao.

“SAMA is leading the charge as the first central bank to provide resources to domestic banks that want to enable instant payments using Ripple’s innovative blockchain solution.”
To learn more about xCurrent and Ripple’s other solutions to revolutionize cross-border payments visit our solutions page

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Demystifying Digital Assets Part 1

While blockchain and digital assets have become increasingly popular, it’s hard for many outside the industry to see beyond the buzz. The adoption of the technology combined with the right digital asset can provide benefits that can drastically improve the way financial institutions do business.

At Ripple, our mission is to revolutionize cross-border payments using both blockchain technology and XRP — the only digital asset designed for enterprise use. Over the last five years, we’ve been on the frontlines of the adoption and application of the blockchain, so we believe it’s only right to share the insights we’ve discovered.

Working together with Oanda — a leading global provider for foreign exchange data services and payments solutions — we’ve co-authored a mini thought leadership series to sort through the excitement for blockchain and digital assets to help readers understand the technology, its benefits, challenges and applications.

This first post examines how and why blockchain technology has been adopted by financial institutions around the world. It takes a look at the use cases for digital assets and how, specifically, XRP is used by financial institutions today. It also looks at potential uses for XRP in the broader B2B space. We’re excited to share this partnership and series of posts. Please check it out here.

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Banning Cryptocurrency Would be as Sensible as Banning the Internet

In the early 1990s, the rise of the internet coincided with the fall of communism and the Soviet Empire. It’s not a coincidence that as the internet grew in popularity and usefulness, democracies flourished around the world. The potential of the internet transcended borders and helped to change the world’s geopolitical structure.

However, as internet adoption proliferated, a number of negative uses cases emerged, sparking consumer protection concerns amongst regulators and governments. This isn’t much different from the early days of virtual currency when bitcoin was associated with drugs, guns and Silk Road.

In the case of the internet, officials and activists began calling for a blanket ban, not understanding the key role it would play in building a global community. Luckily, collaboration between countries and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) led to the creation of a global framework for electronic commerce in 1997, paving the way for internet adoption and growth.
You can read the rest of this article in The Hill.

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SBI Virtual Currencies to Exclusively List XRP at Launch

 

Adding to the momentum behind XRP’s growing global liquidity, SBI Holdings announced that its newly released digital asset exchange — SBI Virtual Currencies — will use XRP as the only digital asset supported at launch.

SBI Holdings is the leading financial service company in Japan. Their subsidiary, SBI Securities, is Japan’s largest online securities company with more than 4 million brokerage accounts. SBI Virtual Currencies launched in beta on January 30. The exchange is designed to provide a respected and reliable exchange for both its institutional customers and individual digital asset buyers in Japan.
XRP’s strong institutional use case and scalability (1,500 transactions per second) coupled with the growing demand for XRP in Japan, made the digital asset a natural fit for the launch.
In a post last August, SBI Holdings CEO and Executive Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao, told Ripple Insights why SBI Holdings believes so strongly in XRP.

“Not only does it have a clear use case, XRP is faster, cheaper and more scalable than any other digital asset,” Mr. Kitao said. “I strongly believe it will become the global standard in digital currencies.”

SBI Virtual Currencies looks to join xRapid ecosystem
SBI Virtual Currencies (SBI VC) is looking to join the xRapid ecosystem — Ripple’s enterprise-grade solution — to help institutions source liquidity for cross-border payments between Japan and the rest of the world. Ripple will eventually integrate SBI VC’s APIs so that xRapid users — payment providers and banks who are transferring money into and out of Japan — can convert XRP to JPY and JPY to XRP instantly through SBI VC.
The high cost of liquidity inherent to cross-border payments is significantly decreased with xRapid, providing payment providers and banks with an efficient, scalable, and low-cost liquidity option — all while improving their customers’ experience.

Ripple’s senior vice president of business development, Patrick Griffin, believes that the partnership with SBI VC is another step toward reaching the company’s mission of establishing an Internet of Value, where money can move as freely as information.

“Today’s decision to make XRP the primary digital asset of SBI Virtual Currencies shows the utility, efficiency, and scalability respected financial institutions around the world see in XRP. This is a critical step forward in our mission to build XRP liquidity and build an Internet of Value,” said Griffin.

For more information about xRapid or any of Ripple’s solutions, visit Ripple’s Solutions page.

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Q4 2017 XRP Markets Report

To continually improve the health of XRP markets globally, we share regular updates on the state of the market including quarterly sales, commentary on previous-quarter market developments and Ripple company-related announcements.

Quarterly Sales
In Q4 2017, market participants purchased $20.1 million directly from XRP II, LLC¹ — our registered and licensed money service business (MSB). These participants tend to be institutional buyers, and their purchases typically include restrictions that mitigate the risk of market instability due to potential subsequent large sales
Additionally, the company sold $71.5 million worth of XRP programmatically as a small percentage of overall exchange volume. For Q4, these sales represented 0.075 percent (7.5 basis points) of the total $95.4 billion² traded — a decrease from Q3 2017’s 0.20 percent (20 basis points).

Market Commentary: A Quarter for the Ages
XRP markets ended the year with a statement — one that will likely be remembered as a defining milestone in XRP’s history. Though the beginning of the quarter was relatively quiet — with prices trading in a range between $0.20³ and $0.30 — XRP began rallying on December 12 and continued moving upwards throughout the month. It quickly reached and exceeded dollar parity on December 21. From there it climbed higher, briefly touching $2.19 on December 30 before retracing somewhat and finishing the quarter at $1.91. This price appreciation represents an impressive quarter-over-quarter increase of 887 percent and a year-over-year gain of 29,631 percent.

Given the price activity, in some respects, this quarter felt like Q2 2017. While XRP saw large percentage gains in the second quarter, its notional value was the more poignant story in Q4, expanding from approximately $8 billion at the end of Q3 to $191.0 billion⁴ on December 31, making XRP the second most valuable digital asset in the world. In short, XRP markets had a record-setting quarter.

An Eventful Quarter
Early in the quarter, market attention was focused on issues between bitcoin and bitcoin cash and the launch of Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) bitcoin futures. The anticipation for futures was particularly distracting, as markets awaited a pivotal development in the history of the digital asset space. Since XRP has historically been relatively uncorrelated to BTC or any other digital asset, it was not entirely surprising that while the rest of the space found its footing earlier in the quarter, XRP consolidated instead.

In late Q4, XRP markets began to connect the dots once again. Of particular importance were the American Express/Santander partnership announcement, the activation of escrow and the connection of Korean banks to the Japan Bank Consortium. The completion of escrow represented the company’s consistent ability to follow through on a previously announced initiative. Additionally, while neither the AMEX news nor the Korean bank initiative involved XRP, these key developments prove that Ripple is gaining customer momentum. Though it’s early, and today most RippleNet members are adopting xCurrent, each one of these client milestones increases the probability that institutions will eventually use XRP and xRapid to take advantage of more efficient liquidity, just like Cuallix does today. As digital asset markets grow and evolve, newer market participants will continue to look to milestones such as these to gauge XRP’s potential.

Lastly, the fourth quarter was also fascinating with respect to other digital assets. There were some great advancements in the space. Unfortunately, there were also some concerning developments, in particular, the very public bitcoin vs. bitcoin cash civil war and concerns around ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC) leadership commitment. This may be where XRP most significantly distinguishes itself going forward.

As established corporations consider leveraging distributed ledgers and blockchains, especially public incarnations of those technologies, dispute resolution and commitment will be key. Building pivotal infrastructure on top of technology that does not have clear governance is not palatable for large established companies. Also, from conversations with market participants as well as with possible clients, it’s clear Ripple’s consistent and steadfast support of XRP is a major advantage as the payments industry continues to seriously consider it as an alternative liquidity solution.

Dramatic Volume Increases
Of all the developments in Q4, the dramatic increase in volume likely had the most impact on XRP’s likelihood of becoming an international standard for digital-value transfer. In order for XRP to be highly efficient as a settlement asset for cross-currency transactions, it will continue to need greater volume and depth of order books. These market attributes increase its ability to support much larger cross-border payments and thus increase its utility broadly. Overall, Q4 volumes averaged more than $807.6 million per day, a 35,341 percent increase over Q4 2016’s volumes of $2.28 million per day, with much of the volume growth coming late in the last month of the quarter.

Since December 11, XRP’s volumes averaged $2.77 billion per day as the price rally progressed in earnest. Of particular importance is the growth of strategically important XRP/MXN volumes in Mexico, one leg of the first xRapid corridors. In December, XRP/MXN activity increased by more than 25x its volumes in September, and at times outpaced BTC/MXN volumes. We believe this rise in volumes is partly due to additional market maker activity at Bitso, as well as the rise in speculative interest.

Lastly, XRP also became available across more than 50 exchanges globally — which was likely a driver of growth as well. This increased global reach is the result of Ripple’s continued investment in the XRP ecosystem and will more easily allow financial institutions to source liquidity for international payments through XRP going forward.

 
Korea’s Impact Continues
Though Korean markets continued to be a significant driver of XRP activity during the quarter, growing geographic diversification of XRP liquidity lowered KRW market share to 44.8 percent of total Q4 volume.

 

Interestingly, this retracement of market share didn’t apply to KRW prices. As XRP advanced in Q4, so did Korea’s premium over USD markets. At times, prices were as much as 40 percent higher in Korea than the rest of the world. While it’s still somewhat early to tell, it will be interesting to see if these premiums develop into a leading or lagging indicator of market activity going forward.
Towards the end of December, rumors of a Korean government clamp down on the space began circulating. On December 27, the official news broke. However, much to the market’s surprise, the impact was muted. In fact, many markets — XRP included — continued to rally. However, what seemed like insatiable demand may have some challenges ahead. Given South Korea’s outsized volume share on digital asset exchanges, a more restrictive stance there poses a significant market risk.

What’s on the Horizon for Q1 2018
2018 is likely to be a pivotal year for the broader digital asset markets as a whole, as well as for XRP markets specifically. Q1 will be key to ensuring XRP’s liquidity eventually becomes more like that of existing foreign exchange markets and XRP achieves its goal of becoming the digital standard for international value transfer.

xRapid
On January 11, 2018, we formally announced a partnership with MoneyGram — one of the world’s largest money transfer companies — to use xRapid and XRP for near real-time cross-border payments. In addition, there are a number of other xRapid deals at various stages of completion in the pipeline. We’ll look to make those public as they’re signed and our partners agree to be publicly recognized.

Institutional Hedging and Custody
While customers can use XRP for on-demand liquidity through xRapid, we want to build the necessary markets infrastructure for eventual direct usage of XRP by financial institutions. In Q1, we’ll begin work towards the launch of institutional hedging instruments and custody solutions. Both of these market components are important to institutional adoption and thus are important components of our 2018 roadmap.

¹XRP II, LLC is licensed to engage in Virtual Currency Business Activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

²Volume numbers reference xrpcharts.ripple.com volume data.

³Price data references on-exchange Bitstamp XRP/USD closing 24-hour bar prices.

⁴XRP total market cap is calculated using total distributed XRP plus total XRP held by Ripple, including XRP held in escrow, multiplied by the closing Bitstamp XRP/USD price on 12/31/2017.

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American Express Joins RippleNet – Giving Visibility and Speed to Global Commercial Payments

The movement to modernize the global payment system is quickly gaining momentum as another major global financial services company joins RippleNet.
American Express is the latest company to become a member of RippleNet, joining the ranks of Credit Agricole, Airwallex, Cuallix, and more.

American Express is joining Ripple’s blockchain network to provide real-time, business-to-business global payments that will ultimately enhance their customers’ experience.
Initially, American Express FX International Payments (FXIP) will partner with Santander UK to create a transaction channel between the U.S. and U.K. — a first and a boon for the corridor. The U.S. is the U.K.’s largest trading partner, creating an immediate need for frictionless corporate global payments in the U.K. market.

Partnering to deliver faster, better service
By leveraging the power of RippleNet, FXIP customers will see an immediate improvement in how they send money globally.
Compared with the traditional payment process, Ripple’s blockchain-enabled payments simplify connections with intermediaries and provide immediate end-to-end visibility into the transaction status and cost.

What’s more, FXIP’s use of RippleNet will maintain the level of security that American Express customers have come to know and expect.
“We’ve already seen evidence that blockchain technology is playing a transformational role in the way customers are served,” said Greg Keeley, executive vice president of global corporate payments at American Express.
“Not only does this partnership with Ripple help decrease the time it takes for international transactions to be processed, it can make our transactions more effective for our customers,” Keeley added.

Joining forces to avoid settling for less
FXIP’s partnership with Santander UK to send cross-border payments between the U.S and U.K will help American Express not only streamline corporate payments, but also establish a wider footprint in the U.K.
José Luis Calderón, Santander’s global head of transaction banking, said, “This blockchain solution opens up a new channel between the U.S. and the U.K. and presents a significant opportunity for payments globally.

“Collaborating with forward-thinking businesses has enabled us to deliver this cutting-edge, secure, friction-free payment solution and extend our ‘Simple, Personal, Fair’ philosophy to American Express and their customers.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse agreed with Calderón’s statement stating, “Ripple is taking a huge step forward with American Express and Santander in solving the problems corporate customers experience with global payments.”

“Transfers that used to take days will be completed in real time, allowing money to move as fast as businesses move today. It’s just the beginning, and we look forward to growing this partnership to help other American Express FXIP customers.
Contact us to learn more about Ripple’s growing network, and how other companies are helping to create one frictionless experience to send money globally.

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Ripple Hosts World’s Central Banks to Explore Next Generation of Payments

Ripple recently gathered over two dozen central banks from around the world to explore how new technologies enable the next generation of payments.
The Central Bank Summit on Blockchain, hosted at Carnegie Hall in New York City, gathered central banks’ senior leadership, payment strategy leads and oversight staff for a focused discussion on blockchain.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse hosted the event and said, “The Summit provided an opportunity to explore the full payments landscape: central banks’ domestic trials, Ripple’s growing cross-border network and interoperability across systems. Together, these form the beginning of an Internet of Value, where payments move as easily as the data across the internet.”
Internet of Value: enabling connectivity and interoperability

The Summit started with a presentation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on fintech’s potential to change market structure, opening new possibilities in payments.
With this context, the Summit explored central banks’ experiments with using blockchain for domestic payments. These domestic trials explored rebuilding existing systems, building new backup systems, and creating new features such as a central bank digital currency.

The research has furthered the understanding of blockchain —  both the use cases for where it makes sense and where it doesn’t. The ultimate adoption of blockchain for domestic payments may not be universal. The optimal solution depends on the pain points and features needed in each market, which can vary greatly by country. With this realization, interoperability between systems —  both centralized and distributed  —  became a key focus area and the impetus of Ripple’s own work on Interledger.

One place where the pain points are universal is in cross-border payments. Cross-border payments — which are fragmented in nature —  are an excellent fit for blockchain technology. What’s more, the technology has been rapidly adopted in the market. Ripple shared how it has specialized blockchain for interbank payments, enabling cross-border functionality that is real-time with transparency into status and fees.
Ripple gave detailed presentations on how we use blockchain-based solutions to enable connectivity in payments. Ripple solutions connect the following:

• Banks with a growing network of over 100 financial institutions
• Payment systems, via a trial with Bank of England to connect RTGS systems
• Networks, through Mojaloop, a platform developed in partnership with The Gates Foundation to connect mobile money providers

Digital assets: The future of liquidity is here
The Summit’s presentations covered the future of seamless connectivity and interoperability, which led to the next critical component for payments: liquidity. To date, liquidity is achieved through pre-funded accounts with counterparties. Yet, that comes with costs and risks that limit reach to high-volume corridors.

The second half of the day explored the technological breakthrough of digital assets and their emerging use cases. For example, one use case that has presented great promise is using digital assets as a liquidity tool — this allows for global reach without pre-funding.
Ripple shared how the adoption of XRP to connect fiat currencies creates a new paradigm for liquidity, enabling greater reach at lower costs than previously possible. The Ripple team discussed our research on adoption models, cost savings, and key takeaways from our trials with banks.
Presentations also discussed other digital currency use cases including central banks’ experiments and the regulatory response to contain risk in ICOs.

Top takeaways for central banks
The key takeaway from the summit was that new technology is modernizing payments. There’s great potential and the Internet of Value is coming into view.
Garlinghouse concluded, “These blockchain conversations have been happening in isolation. The value of the Central Bank Summit was in exploring and connecting these efforts, as together they create the next generation of payments.”
The summit was the first of many forums that Ripple has hosted to connect banks to blockchain and digital asset luminaries, and we will continue to foster the conversation to improve the technology.

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