One of top ten cryptocurrency today, Ripple (XRP) has swiftly come a long way.
Since its launch in 2012, Ripple (XRP) has been focusing on saving money for remitters and has built a payments settlement system and currency exchange network that can process transactions around the world.
The idea is that Ripple serves as a trusted agent in between two parties in a transaction as the network can quickly confirm that the exchange went through properly. It can facilitate exchanges for a variety of fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and even commodities like gold.
It’s native digital asset on the XRP Ledger, an open-source, permission-less and decentralized blockchain technology that can settle transactions in 3-5 seconds. XRP can be sent directly without needing a central intermediary, making it a convenient instrument in bridging two different currencies quickly and efficiently.
Faster, less costly and more scalable than any other digital asset, XRP and the XRP Ledger are used to power innovative technology across the payments space.
The cryptocurrency that runs on a blockchain based XRP Ledger was founded by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz.
Disrupting SWIFT
The system was designed as a replacement of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), a global standard for payment and securities trade transactions today.
SWIFT currently has around 11,000 members and sends over 41 million transactions every day. According the US Treasury, SWIFT handles about $1.25 quadrillion dollars a year.
However, transactions using SWIFT take days to process and commission of over 5% to 9% is incurred. If that is calculated trillions of dollars are only spent on commission.
To disrupt this, XRP has been working for years and they have revealed the rates. The standard fee to conduct transactions on Ripple is set at 0.00001 XRP, which is minimal compared to the large fees charged by banks for conducting cross-border payments.
Transforming global payments
RippleX is Ripple’s open developer platform for money. Through RippleX projects, developers can leverage XRP and its underlying technology in use cases from micropayments, to e-commerce to exchanges and peer-to-peer services.
Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, Ripple is proof of stake (PoS) mechanism which means it requires validators instead of miners. Being PoS based makes XRP environmentally friendly too.
XRP consistently handles 1,500 transactions per second, 24×7, and can scale to handle the same throughput as Visa.
Currently, XRP is trading at $1.31 per token as per CoinMarketCap on crypto exchanges. With a maximum supply of 100 billion XRP tokens, 46.5 4 billion tokens are under circulation with a market capitalization of over $60.82 billion.
Use cases
Banks across the globe have partnered with Ripple for using their payment system for cross-border payments.
Banks including Akbank, ATB Financial, Axis Bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Fidor Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG), National Australia Bank (NAB), National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), ReiseBank, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Santander, SBI Holdings, SBI Remit, Shanghai Huarui Bank (SHRB) are some to name.
Some banks are already testing Ripple, which includes Bank of England, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Western Union Yachiyo Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), DBS Group Holdings, among others.
Future
With tokenization of assets transforming how people buy, sell, track and manage assets – everything from art and real estate to intellectual property, equities and supply chain goods, ripple is also eying this space.
It was confirmed by Ripple’s Asheesh Birla, General Manager, which in its blog has said that asset tokenization is one of the most exciting use cases for blockchain and Ripple wants to make sure its XRP will surf that wave.
The World Economic Forum has projected that 10% of the world’s GDP will be tokenized by 2027, the blog added.
Ripple can really change the way people remit money. With more money in people’s hands by using XRP, the money saved in cross border payments will bring new joy to people’s lives and make their life better.
By Jagdish Kumar
Klever Writer
