Ripple's XRP Reserve is based on Game Theory or Nash Equilibrium economics. Google for more info.
XRP rise in price potential in 2017 is very strong after years of sideways movement.
I'm neither for/against Ripple but I like that they're established, I like Ripple's recent activity and also based on what I continue reading, that XRP fits well with banks who will be offering BTC to its customers for commercial use-cases starting June 2017 in Japan.
The following central banks are using Ripple: Japan, England, Abu Dhabi, European Central Bank. Ripple employees hold key board positions with the FED, HSBC, Barclays, BoA, the Bank of England, CHAPS.
Ripple demo between two banks in Canada & Germany using XRP as the bridge currency.
https://youtu.be/bAnHzDEP8GMJapan's Virtual Currency Act must be in play before May 2017 so all BTC exchanges must be in place and working by April 30, 2017. That means BTC will be legally traded and regulated in Japanese exchanges before June 2017. The exchanges offering this trading platform are switching to Ripple. Check SBI Holdongs news releases in Japanese (need a Google browser to translate? My wife is Japanese and she confirmed SBI Holdings news releases Google translations were accurate.)
Royal Mint Gold = RMG = 1 gram of gold = 1st Digital Coin of the Royal Mint
Will be released June 2017 and USA ETF trading of RMG will be hosted by the CME Group also will be using Ripple for their trading platform.