You've most likely heard that Ripple (abridged as XRP) has taken off, dramatically multiplying since Christmas.

The general market cap for XRP (i.e. the consolidated value of each and every token) now surpasses $140 billion.

In the unimaginably faddish and unstable cryptocurrency sector, this makes Ripple the coin of the month.

This week we've been talking about avoiding MAJOR slip-ups.

Keep in mind - it won't make any difference how much success you accomplish if you lose everything making awful financial decisions.

You don't need to get a whole lot right in life as long as you don't get a whole lot wrong.

This is one of the most straightforward budgetary proverbs to live by.

More often than not, disastrous budgetary choices are totally avoidable on the off chance that we practice presence of mind.

As we have seen lately, there's not a whole lot of presence of mind nowadays in the cryptocurrency sector.

Crazed speculators keep on bidding up cryptocurrencies to more prominent heights without the scarcest comprehension of what they're purchasing.

What number of individuals who are bragging about the amount they have made in Bitcoin have even tried to read the first 9-page white paper, or have the slightest clue of what a Merkle Tree is?

Presently we're seeing another crazed rush into Ripple (XRP). And, if you will humor me for a minute, I'd like to provide some perspective.

As a matter of first importance, RIPPLE IS NOT A CRYPTOCURRENCY LIKE BITCOIN.

While Bitcoin and most cryptographic forms of money were intended to work as a medium of trade, XRP is an institutional cross-border settlement asset intended to enhance bank liquidity.

But most importantly , XRP is just a -part-of what Ripple is all about.

Ripple is, on a very basic level, an innovation that was created to solve the huge difficulties tormenting international bank payments.

The process of sending money from one country to the other is inconceivably slow and expensive, loaded with fees and bureaucracy.

It's 2018. Sending cash ought to be as simple as sending an email.

As the CEO of Ripple Labs (the organization which created Ripple and XRP) joked lately, the fastest way to send cash from New York to London today, was to get on a plane with a suitcase full of money.

Sad, but true.

Ripple's technological platform, which incorporates what they call the Interledger Protocol (ILP), streamlines and connects various payment networks together so that they can transact in real time.

Through ILP, the US banking system's ACH network will have the capability to talk with Europe's SEPA banking system, which will in turn, talk to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express' payment networks, which will have the capacity to talk with Bitcoin's blockchain.

And they'll have the ability to settle with each other instantly.

While Bitcoin exchanges can take a hour to clear (and sometimes a few hours when the system is congested), Ripple takes around 4 seconds.

Also, as far as versatility, Bitcoin is only able to process around 5-10 exchanges per second.

Ripple can complete 200x that, and they're planning for 40,000+ transactions per second, which would put the technology at the same level of Visa or Mastercard.

This speed and effectiveness significantly lessens the cost of monetary exchanges.

It's presumably clear at this point that Ripple is a tool for BANKS and other real financial institutions like Western Union.

It was not intended to be a speculation for small investors.

In any case, the XRP cost is taking off.

Incidentally, XRP's cost is now up 500x in the course of recent months. That makes Bitcoin's 15X price gain look tame by comparison.

In any case, now that Ripple is all over the news, investors are eating up XRP like there's no tomorrow.

Much the same as Bitcoin, the cost is 'reflexive'.

By that I mean- - as the cost goes up, the asset becomes more attractive. Individuals have a tendency to be attracted to assets that are rising.

And as more individuals buy, that excess demand pushes the price up… which makes more individuals want to buy it, which makes the price to go up even more.

As we saw with Bitcoin a year ago, this reflexivity phenomenon can create very rapid price increase.

However, it works the same in the other direction, i.e. the cost can crash just as fast.. .

… which leads me back to avoiding mistakes.

I know there are many individuals who feel like they 'missed' Bitcoin's rise. And, they're seeing XRP as a chance to compensate for that.

Once more, I'm not recommending to NOT purchasing XRP.

Ripple's fundamental innovation is very fascinating; I began my own particular bank a couple of years back and have been looking at adopting Ripple for quite a while (however it has some genuine downsides).

What I am recommending is to remain reasonable.

Keep away from major financial decisions that are driven by strong feelings like greed and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

In the event that you need to purchase Ripple, research it.

If after your research you conclude that you want to purchase, only speculate with what you can bear to lose.

As a last point, XRP is surging as a direct result of the rumor that it will soon be offered for purchase at Coinbase, the #1 crypto exchange on the planet.

If/when this happens, Coinbase's a huge number of clients could push the cost significantly higher.

This is a key motivation behind why little speculators are scrambling to purchase XRP now, in anticipation of the 'Coinbase Effect'.

So if you do choose to purchase now, you'll need to do so through another exchange like Kraken or Bitstamp.

Given the backlogs it will probably take up to 14 days to open an account.

So if you think you even -might- be interested in XRP, it wouldn't hurt to begin the account opening procedure now.

It's free, so there's no drawback, regardless of whether you choose buy XRP or not.