Can Ripple Truly Disrupt VISA and SWIFT, or is it a Lifeline to the Legacy System?
What is Ripple’s Action Plan?
Ripple seeks to innovate the financial sector by providing the RippleNet platform, which allows clients to use faster and more cost-efficient global payments.
“Today the world sends more than $155 trillion across borders. Yet, the underlying infrastructure is dated and flawed. Ripple connects banks, payment providers and digital asset exchanges via RippleNet to provide one frictionless experience to send money globally.” – Ripple.com
RippleNet offers its clients a selection of blockchain-based payment services, including xCurrent, xRapid, and xVia, each of which are aimed at solving issues with scalability, speed, and cost.
Is XRP Relevant in the Grand Plan?
Many in the blockchain community have expressed concerns regarding Ripple and its native digital asset, XRP, which trades for $0.82 at the time of writing and has seen an all-time high of above $3.30!
The concerns circle around the belief that XRP will be obsolete when Ripple’s payment network goes live. Clients using the xCurrent and xVia platforms do not need to power transactions with XRP, but xRapid does.
“xRapid uniquely uses a digital asset, XRP, to offer on-demand liquidity, which dramatically lowers costs while enabling real-time payments in emerging markets. Built for enterprise use, XRP offers banks and payment providers a highly efficient, scalable, reliable liquidity option to service cross-border payments.”
– Ripple.com xRapid description
It’s also worth noting that while it is not compulsory for Ripple’s clients to use xRapid or all of the other RippleNet alternatives, Ripple holds the majority of the XRP tokens (around 60-70%).
As a business, it is in Ripple’s best interest to ensure the success of the native digital asset. The xRapid service has the capability to give XRP greater liquidity, but also independence from Bitcoin’s market influence, which is currently seen as the digital reserve cryptocurrency.
Can Ripple Take on Established Payment Platforms?
VISA and SWIFT are the established competitors to the RippleNet platform. VISA connects consumers, businesses, and financial institutions together through its payment network, while SWIFT offers secure financial messaging services.
Since the emergence of the commercialized Internet based on ARPANET, the world has seen a technological revolution in the way we exchange information, communicate, and even how we buy and sell.
However, the innovation around exchanging information and business has accelerated faster than it has with payments, which still incur high transactional costs, an average waiting period of 3-5 days, and multiple centralized checkpoints that can become compromised or manipulated by “bad actors” from both inside and outside the entity overseeing the transaction.
Since Bitcoin emerged, humanity has seen an alternative and less corruptible way to exchange value across the Internet of Things. The Dotcom boom is still an excellent example of what happens to companies that cannot adapt and scale to meet the demands of an ever-changing market.
VISA and SWIFT have been researching and conducting tests involving blockchain technology to seek out the benefits it brings to payments and data management. Data is the new oil in the 21st century, and while the blockchain creates decentralized platforms, it can be equally as effective as a centralized platform.
If VISA, SWIFT, and other competitors release and patent their own blockchain solutions, Ripple could face serious competition. That is unless Ripple has been chosen as the next big company to dominate the payment sector…
Does RippleNet Give the Legacy System a Lifeline Against Bitcoin and Other Decentralized Cryptocurrencies?
Despite the RippleNet offering superior technology to what VISA and SWIFT offer, there is still a considerable amount of progress to be made in order to phase out the old, established system and usher in the new system.
Ripple’s greatest advantage is that it provides the financial sector with the tools to innovate, and it actually gives the legacy system a lifeline as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, and others begin to wake up the masses and show how useless and toxic central banks have been for centuries!
Will Ripple create the Internet of value? Will XRP have a relevant function in Ripple’s grand plan? We will see!
“With the Internet of Value, a value transaction such as a foreign currency payment, can happen instantly, just as how people have been sharing words, images and videos online for decades. And it’s not just money. The Internet of Value will enable the exchange of any asset that is of value to someone, including stocks, votes, frequent flyer points, securities, intellectual property, music, scientific discoveries, and more.”
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, and it is strictly for educational purposes. Please conduct research on any cryptocurrency you may decide to purchase. The blockchain sector is still being forged in the market, with volatility and rapid innovation growth. There are no guarantees of anything happening in this space.