The proof is in the deals with Japan and South Korean Banks who are signed up. Ripple labs proved a super fast transactional speed test and thus this is a functional business product in which it will sit on top of banks to transmit digits of money, hence it is a real crypto currency. Moving high volumes of money through countries across borders is very slow prior to what Ripple is offering. What exactly is Bitcoin BTC offering? Oh, "Store of Value" - nothing like the intention of 9 year old white paper of actually having fast transactions and low transaction fees. Quite the opposite! SAD!!!!