Ripple Takes Further Steps In Global Payments

Ripple, the company behind XRP, has the potential to gain a foothold in global payment and remittance systems via its suite of blockchain software. After recently releasing new products, like xRapid, Ripple is pushing ahead with its goals.

First Cross-Border Blockchain Payment Completed by MoneyMatch Malaysia

A Malaysian fintech company, MoneyMatch, last week completed its first cross-border transaction using Ripple’s xVia solution. A volume of Malaysian ringgits was transferred and arrived a few hours later in Spain as Euros, after being exchanged. The transfer speed beat traditional systems like SWIFT, which can take up to three days.

MoneyMatch has also now completed transfers to Ireland, Germany, and Latvia using xVia.

Ripple’s xVia uses a standard API interface and the RippleNet blockchain to “seamlessly” send and confirm payments. It compliments Ripple’s xCurrent and xRapid solutions. The product is applicable to emerging markets where digital payment platforms are increasingly common instead of traditional banking systems.

xVia is also used by FairFX, Exchange4Free, RationalFX, UniPAY, and its latest adopter, Platio, a smart banking startup platform in London, UK.

A New Partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Mojaloop

A partnership between The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ripple Labs and digital payments company Coil look set to use Ripple’s Interledger Protocol to support “pro-poor payment systems.” The Interledger Protocol connects different payment ledgers and works to enable quicker cross-border transactions.

The foundation launched open-source mobile payments platform Mojaloop to reach more of the world’s unbanked population. Mojaloop will likely integrate Interledger, but will not use Ripple’s XRP coin, at least so far.

The full details of this latest implementation for Ripple’s technology have yet to be released fully, but the Mojaloop website cites Ripple as a design collaborator for the platform.

Ripple Labs is actively building more and more partnerships with financial organizations to accelerate the use of its blockchain-based payments solutions. The price of Ripple’s native coin XRP shot up in September 2018, after news of the xRapid launch. Right now XRP’s price is hovering around the $0.45 mark.