Good luck with the new Youtube channel
@goldmercury
I think Ripple will continue to rise in the short-term. I don't know how long that short-term will be though ... a few years maybe?
The problem with Ripple is that it's not a true cryptocurrency, at least not in the decentralised sense. It has a close association with the banks, enabling them to control the supply and manipulate the price, which kind of misses the point of cryptocurrencies entirely. There is of course a lot of hype and ignorance surrounding cryptocurrency investments right now so I expect such institutionally controlled cryptocurrencies will continue to benefit from that for some time.
However, in the long-term, as awareness of cryptocurrencies grows, I think Ripple's popularity amongst cryptocurrency investors will diminish, even if it remains popular with the banks. In fact I think we'll see not just a move away from institutionally controlled cryptocurrencies in the long-term, but a move towards even greater privacy and anonymity and an increase in popularity of cryptocurrencies such as
Deep Onion. As cryptocurrencies move into the mainstream and become more popular, governments will attempt to control them by introducing tighter regulations and restrictions on their users. One thing we've learned from file-sharing history is that attempts by governments to change or 'attack' the internet ultimately makes it stronger by leading to the evolution of networks that are control-resistant.
Question: why was the new rig crashing at first, but now is really stable?
I would take a closer look at the risers, in particular the USB connectors and the small PCIe adaptor PCBs. I've had a few rigs that were intermittently unstable like that, presumably as a result of brief connectivity issues caused by slight movement in one of the riser connections. A little glue from a hot-melt glue gun worked well for me.