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and, today, about XRP.
Reminder, tomorrow on the live stream,
I've got Jeremy Hogan and John Deaton coming on to talk about Ripple lawsuit,
so make sure you're there.
If you're in the XRP community, go ahead and throw that X up.
You guys know I'm wearing a 589 shirt today.
You guys like this? Somebody made--
A BitSquad member made this for me.
Absolutely phenomenal.
But there's been a lot of stuff going on in the news this week,
specifically about the SWIFT system.
Now, the SWIFT system, the archnemesis,
the SWIFT gpi versus Ripple.
Who will win to carry out all cross-border payment transactions?
Well, I definitely think it's going to be Ripple.
But, you know, the reason why it's in the news right now
is because Germany made a very surprising move.
So, basically, to get Russia cut off from the SWIFT system,
which we'll talk about what it is,
Germany had to agree to kind of expunge them off of the SWIFT system.
So the sanctions that were placed-- and Germany was part of this.
Germany and Russia are very close, and they align in a lot of things,
and Germany was having a hard time realizing that, you know,
it might be in their vested interest to come out on this side of it against Russia.
What this boils down to is the leader of Germany--
it's not Merkel anymore.
I think his name is Scholz.
He had to agree.
He basically had to agree to this.
And the reason he did it was because, basically, you know,
Putin lied to his face about invading Ukraine.
So that was really what happened.
They cut some banks,
some banks from Russia off of the SWIFT system.
Now,
you know, even if they cut off 80% of the banks,
if 20% didn't get cut off, there's still a lot Russia can do.
So, what is the SWIFT system? And why is this such a big deal?
Well, in theory, if Russia was completely, completely removed from the SWIFT system,
they would not be able to transfer money outside dollars,
the world reserve currency, outside of their borders. Okay?
But what the SWIFT system is,
you can think of it kind of like
it's an exchange of data.
So, if you want to send a cross-border transaction,
you do it through the SWIFT system.
No money is actually moved around really.
It's all accounting, right?
So the SWIFT system is like almost a network,
like an internet of data,
like a network of data,
where accounting information moves all around the world.
You could certainly say this adds to the derivatives mess that we're in.
Are they actually always, you know, making sure the money goes where it needs to go?
I'm not sure.
But it's really slow.
However, over the last couple of years, they made some big changes.
One was they got it to where
all the information, all the data, could go from one country to another.
In hotspots, in highly trafficked countries,
where there's a lot of transfers, they could do it in like 30 minutes.
But the money would not actually move for three to five days.
Recently, they came out and said they've actually got to the point now
where the data can move around in as little like 10 seconds,
which way faster than it had been.
But it's really moving stuff around,
and it is an archaic system.
Like, it's been around since 1974. Like,
guys, this is--
a lot of technology has changed since 1974.
You would think we could do something easier,
but banks are the last,
the absolute last organizations across the world to adopt any changes.
Why? Because, you know, they like the traditional system.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
They're already in control of all the money and power.
Why would they really feel the need to change?
Okay?
So, when you look at what Ripple offers compared to SWIFT,
Ripple can actually send the transaction, not just the information.
With SWIFT, it's a two-part system.
So you send the information, the accounting information,
and then the money comes three to five days later, in best case, honestly.
With Ripple and RippleNet,
this is all done in 30 seconds.
If you think of SWIFT as the intern-- or as a network--
let's call it network instead of internet.
If you call it a network of data transfer,
then RippleNet is a network of value transfer
because you can actually send the funds through the XRP token.
And that's why this argument that
banks were going to use the Ripple technology but they're not going to use XRP,
like, that's a dead argument. That's been over for about a year and a half now
since Ripple announced they were totally redoing a lot of their products
and the requirements for those.
We got rid of xCurrent, xVia, x--
xRapid. We got rid of those. And instead, we got RippleNet.
We got ODL, which is On-Demand Liquidity,
which is important because that's something that does separate
the Ripple network from the SWIFT network.
The SWIFT network is old data, right?
But with RippleNet, there's actually liquidity.
There's actually enough money floating around in the system
available to send the value immediately
where the entire transaction is done in less than 30 seconds
instead of three to five days.
It doesn't matter how fast SWIFT gets at transferring the information,
at transferring the accounting. It doesn't matter
because, ultimately, the money still comes much, much later.
With RippleNet, it destroys all that.
So, how does all of this really play into what's going on right now
with Russia getting cut off from the SWIFT system?
Well,
it doesn't on--
it doesn't really have much to do with the conflict going on right now. Okay?
Certainly, people, even that really support XRP,
unless you're, you know, Russian and really support the invasion,
or anti-Ukraine for some reason,
then you're not going to really want Russia to get around these sanctions anyways. Right?
I think probably at least 90% of people agree with censoring bad people or bad actors financially.
Now, this is where the situation is quite complicated because
what is a bad actor?
You know, we're all going to have disagreements on that.
But I think we can all--
we would probably all be in agreement for the most part
that Russia probably should not be invading Ukraine.
I think we're all in, you know, in agreement there for the most part.
So, it's not like if Russia was using Ripple, all of a sudden that this would go away,
but the XRPL Ledger-- the XRP Ledger,
it is permissionless,
and so there's not really a way using the XRP Ledger
to go in and cut Russia off in the same way.
So, some people would say that's actually like a negative thing.
That that wouldn't be an option.
David Schwartz, CTO of Ripple, been around for a long time,
he came out and said this. Several other people have reiterated this.
I saw HammerToe on Twitter talking on this thread,
talking about the same thing.
Matt Hamilton discussing how, you know, it's not a permission system,
and so just because you think somebody is a bad actor using the RippleNet Ledger--
or the XRPL, the XRP Ledger,
you can't--
you couldn't, like, cut countries off,
but it would still be up to individual countries to do those transactions.
So, really, this would be an area where
if we were using Ripple instead of SWIFT right now,
that XRP Ledger couldn't really cut Russia off,
but what it could do is it could create a situation where everyone's responsible for their own actions,
where every country is responsible for themselves on whether or not
they feel like they should be doing business with Russia instead of cutting them off,
you know, like the overlords that the bank system is
and cutting them off.
This ultimately came, you know, from NATO's who, you know, put this into action.
So it's not like this would be a positive thing if they were using Ripple.
but is Russia going to be using Ripple?
And this is very interesting because if you go back to 2018,
there's actually a document that exists
that says that the Russian Central Bank has actually been testing out
and eventually will most likely move to using the Ripple system,
to using RippleNet.
We already know that Ripple has been expanding into the Middle East huge lately.
Let me tell you, I hear a lot of stuff from the Middle East.
A lot of these leaders, they're very interested in not just Ripple from an investment standpoint
but also from a RippleNet standpoint.
We know they're moving into North Africa, which is very similar to the Middle East.
They're very closely connected.
We know it's moving into the APAC region.
The Pacific, Asia, it's moving in there.
We know they're making moves in South America as well.
They're making moves everywhere.
So it stands to reason that Russia, you know, could be a target,
you know, for Ripple in the short term here
coming up in, I don't know, maybe the next few years or so.
But here's the big takeaway that I really want you to take from this video.
If we were using Ripple,
RippleNet,
if Russia were using RippleNet instead of the SWIFT system,
it wouldn't necessarily be better for this conflict.
It may not be worse for this conflict.
It would just be something different we're facing.
But Russia and the entire banking system is going to end up on this.
It's so clear.
It's so obvious.
When you think about the fact that you're looking at 30 seconds to do an entire transaction
as opposed to three to five days of a transaction done in two parts,
it doesn't make any sense.
This is why you have to open your eyes and wake up.
This is where things are moving to.
So that's really the big takeaway from this video.
There are a few other things I really wanted to get into.
I'll just mention them briefly here about Ukraine.
Just some interesting stuff about Ukraine and its relationship to Ripple.
Doesn't really have necessarily a strong relationship or ties to Ripple,
from what I've seen. Maybe you have some different information.
But when you look at what is going on,
on February 18,
just a few days ago, or maybe it was February 16,
just about two weeks ago,
Ukraine just legalized crypto.
They just-- they did not recognize Bitcoin as legal tender in this law,
but they did say it is legal.
Now, Ukraine is getting donations left and right,
similar to what we saw in Canada for the truckers,
and what Bitcoin.
Over a million dollars in Bitcoin has now been raised for Ukraine.
But you could say there is a slight relationship there
between the enemy of XRP, the enemy of Ripple,
you know, started by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, XLM.
We know they were actually looking at putting their CBDC,
their country digital currency, their country's stablecoin that will eventually be created,
it's looking to go on the XLM ledger.
I told you guys a while back,
I view XLM as basically a testbed for XRP.
XRP is going to crush XLM.
XLM will not be around.
Jed McCaleb thought he could play ball.
And I want you to keep this in mind.
Jed McCaleb has never touched anything successful.
Everything that he touches,
it's worse off when he leaves, right?
We got Mt. Gox.
Worse off when he left.
Why did he leave?
Because he couldn't handle any more. It was going downhill.
Of course then the hack.
Let's look at Ripple.
What happened?
Jed McCaleb leaves-- and I'm not saying Ripple got worse after he left.
What I'm saying is he left in a precarious situation
because he was against the token sale of XRP.
And I believe he's been working, most likely, with investigators on the SEC lawsuit.
I don't think there's anything, you know, to--
I just think he's tied to that.
That's just what I've said. I've said it many times.
I do believe that's probably the case.
He's the only person involved in Ripple in the beginning that did not get in trouble,
which is really, really interesting.
But Jed McCaleb has never really left something in a time of success.
And, you know,
when you look at Mt. Gox, it fell apart after he left.
When you look at Ripple, it got much better when he left.
And now, he's at XLM.
He just doesn't have a good track record.
He leaves stuff in inopportune times is really what I'm trying to say.
So, you know, I think XRP is going to absolutely crush XLM.
I don't think they're really on the same playing field.
XLM--
like, a lot of people say Ripple is very centralized.
XLM, way more centralized!
So that can also play into its downfall.
The last thing revolving all this, you know, involving all this,
it doesn't actually have to do with XLM or XRP or anything,
but Elon Musk turning on Starlink?
Is this true?
I've been reading about this. I'm not 100% sure this is accurate
that people in Ukraine are actually using this right now,
but supposedly, people in Ukraine, even if Russia cuts off their internet,
they'll be able to use Starlink.
So, that provides internet to people through satellites.
So we'll see what happens there.
Very interesting stuff going on with Russia and Ukraine,
but it's so much to unpack in a video.
I know I've been talking, this is a longer video,
for 13 minutes already on this,
so I'm not going to go too much more into this.
I can make entire videos just about that document from 2018
talking about Russia using Ripple,
talking about infographics between Ripple and SWIFT
and why, you know, XRP absolutely blows it away.
Maybe we'll do some of that.
I do want to go back to some more regular,
you know, regularly scheduled XRP content.
So, you guys, make sure to come back tomorrow on the live stream.
If you're in the XRP Army, throw the X up.
Make sure to hit that like button. Smash that like button on your way out.
Don't forget to come in on the live stream tomorrow
where we will be talking about Ripple for most of the time.
Very excited about this. We'll be talking about the SEC lawsuit and beyond.
Alright, guys. That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.