Ripple (XRP) which currently claims that 3 of the top 5 global money transfer companies have plans to use its cryptocurrency for payment flows in 2018, has witnessed an ascent that’s hard to ignore.
Ripple, a five year old start-up based out of San Francisco is a payments network developer for financial institutions. And the XRP is the coin that the participants utilise for transactions. The company claims that there are over 100 renowned financial institutions that use its networks – some of these include Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Credit Agricole, and SEB.
Ripple also claims that Santander and American Express FC International Payments would soon be using its network to carry out cross-border payments between UK and US, and that many South Korean and Japanese banks have been testing its network for same purposes, and if all goes fine, would actually implement it.
Ripple’s association with large and well known institutions whilst giving it a halo of legitimacy and acceptance is also causing much angst within the die-hard crypto-enthusiasts community – all due to its adherence to centralisation and co-operation with banks which is exactly what digital currencies do not aspire to be.
There are conflicting voices that are heard now – some claim that the Ripple surge is a bubble, with a recent cryptocurrency expert (Nathaniel Popper) questioning validity of Ripple’s claims of working with banks and stating that it’s a “tool for speculation and has little purpose in the real world”.
However, the dazzling rise of Ripple (35,000%) and its market cap (second largest) has still not been enough for it to be accepted by the currency marketplace Coinbase. To be fair, Ripple does offer some promising advantages over that of Bitcoin, especially faster speeds – what typically takes over an hour to settle on Bitcoin takes about 4 seconds as per Ripple’s claims.
What does, however, remains to be seen is how much actual every day usage that Ripple can muster, and how much of competition it can put up to other established cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum.
