I wrote a post the other day about it. I'm still pretty new in the crypto space, and a lot of it's edited from a Facebook post, aimed largely at people who know nothing about it, so it might sound a little naive to some of the elders here, but maybe offers another perspective that doesn't seem to be getting discussed enough.

https://steemit.com/crypto/@cmaccu/30th-september-crypto-move-ripple-what-else

I found my way into this indirectly through researching smartphones for my PhD research, and when I saw the numbers of people coming online in the "developing" world, which is something like 83% of the world's population, then I started to realise how much bigger the coming shifts are going to be than many people realise. It's been between a fifth and a quarter of a billion people connecting to the internet for the first time each year for the past decade, mostly with phones. Many don't even have power to their homes.

We're already seeing people in deprived regions starting to use Bitcoin — with their phones — and the use of Bitcoin in Venezuela (weirdly often mined using an MMORPG), it's clear that ultimately a lot of growth will be driven by that kind of usage, among potentially huge numbers of people. Billions of people live in Africa and Asia, and huge numbers of them don't have any kind of bank account. So it's needed more there than anywhere.

My point is really that, just like the internet spent the bulk of its first two decades dominated by the 17% (less then) in the "developed" world, in our own little bubble, at the moment the crypto-sphere is mostly dominated by people who are deeply involved and enthusiastic and can understand the complexities of it, because this is whole thing is so complicated, which is the moment a major barrier to entering the space.

One of the downsides to that I think is that people might forget that for it to really go mainstream, people need to be able to buy a loaf of bread for the same price it was yesterday, and not have the money they're using drop by $1000 overnight and make it cost twice as much. At the moment the only one that comes close to that is XRP. I think Ripple is probably intending it that way, because that stability is crucial, but I also think the prices is lower than it's worth and will end up at the moment because people are seeing it as 'the evil banks' or something.

So personally I just can't see how it won't keep growing as more people realise this and get over their ideological rejection of it. You can hate fiat currency too if you like, but you still need to use it every day. It might not spike as quickly as hugely as the others do, but that's a good thing, and it will actually work in its favour long term.