In a recent discussion on social media Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, that he holds XRP, stating that if there were a way for him to increase its price, he would definitely do it. During the conversation, another user pointed out that after seven years, XRP is still quite cheap.
He replied to XRP being ‘dirt cheap’ and said, “It *can’t* be dirt cheap. That doesn’t make any sense. If XRP costs $1, they’d need a million XRP which would cost $1 million. If XRP cost a million dollars, they’d need one XRP which would, again, cost $1 million.”
David responded diplomatically, saying that when he last checked, $1 million worth of XRP still costs $1 million. He explained that if someone needs to make a $1 million payment with XRP, it will still require at least that much XRP.
It *can't* be dirt cheap. That doesn't make any sense. If XRP costs $1, they'd need a million XRP which would cost $1 million. If XRP cost a million dollars, they'd need one XRP which would, again, cost $1 million. 1/2
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) November 20, 2017
The CTO also added an important point: a lower XRP price actually makes payments more expensive. He compared it to using Bitcoin, explaining that when Bitcoin was worth $300, it was impractical to buy a house with it. However, as Bitcoin’s value increased, it became more feasible. Similarly, lower XRP prices make payments more expensive and inefficient from an institutional perspective.
“That won’t make your payments any cheaper. It’ll just mean that buying and selling the same value of XRP moves the market against you more, making payments even more expensive,” he added.
He then shared his thoughts on using cryptocurrencies like XRP for payments. He pointed out that very few cryptocurrencies are being used for payments right now. Although XRP is widely available, ranks in the top five by market size, and offers low fees with fast transaction times, it still isn’t used much for payments. According to Schwartz, this is due to the same reasons that are holding back other cryptocurrencies from being used more in payment systems.