Thanks for the share, will look into Stellar some more. It is...

Thanks for the share, will look into Stellar some more.

It is sensible to be wary about the XRP held by Ripple, the Escrow set up was meant to give more certainty about coin supply and prevent a dump of new coins. I guess that is a risk if they decide to act as cowboys, but my understanding is that the main use of these coins is going to be to incentivise use of XRP by financial institutions, as from the link you provided. They are the number 2 player in crypto by size and may well BTC to claim number 1 in the not too distant future. The success in liquidity of trading and increase in XRP value in 2017 puts them in a good position to further pursue their goal of integration with the financial sector.

"Ripple Labs currently plan to distribute XRP primarily through business development deals, incentives to liquidity providers who offer tighter spreads for payments, and selling XRP to institutional buyers interested in investing in XRP. Ripple Labs expect to hold approximately 50 billion XRP by the end of 2021.
XRP is a deflationary coin. 100 billion XRP were created. When a user conducts a financial transaction in a non-native currency, Ripple charges a transaction fee. The purpose of the fees is to protect against network flooding by making the attacks too expensive for hackers. This transaction fee is not collected by anyone; the XRP is destroyed and ceases to exist."