The Crypto Rivalry between Ripple and SWIFT

The Cryptocurrency market has evolved quite a bit from its fledgling stages of 4 years, With Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple almost exploding in value since. Ripple has been at the forefront of the Cryptocurrency market for years now, with the organization starting to gain traction globally by establishing various partnerships across several industries. One of the most talked about sector for Ripple implementation is cross-border payments, which was regarded as one of the plus points for Ripple. With blockchain technology making major in rows into our daily lives, it is not surprising to find that it is starting to replace more traditional and longstanding options in the industry, one of them is SWIFT. SWIFT is a major inter-banking messaging service that handles half of the world’s high-value cross-border payments.

Ripple and Cross-Border Payments:

The payment industry received a welcome news when in early April, Ripple announced that they are teaming up with Spanish Bank Santander for implementing cross-border payment services for their clients in UK, Poland, Brazil etc. Santander became just one of the 100 financial institutions that have agreed to use Ripple’s technology and Santander’s new blockchain based system called Xcurrent, does exactly that.

Blockchain which largely uses a distributed ledger technology brings the power of decentralization, which indirectly also results in quicker, cheaper and secure payment processing services. The introduction of Ripple’s technology would certainly challenge the dominance of SWIFT, which itself is limited by centralization. Crypto-enthusiasts argue that SWIFT’s centralized system results in a lack of transparency, which Ripple provides.

How SWIFT Reacted:

The news of Ripple’s dominance has certainly let to the SWIFT board taking notice. According to Swift’s head of banking Harry Newman, they are in the work of transforming their existing 1998 model into a more contemporary system.  Many reports have indicated that SWIFT have recognized the viability of blockchain implementation and are working towards integrating it into their own systems.

Recent Developments:

The relationship between Santander Bank and Ripple started to flourish when it was announced that a new app will be released for international payments.  The app in question is called “ONE Pay FX” which promises quicker payment processing as mentioned earlier.  The system is supposed to be a marked improvement from the older system that used to take up to 5 days to do the same. With Ripple’s ONE Pay FX, Santander clients can now transfer funds internationally within a few minutes, with the app boasting a speed of 1500 or more TPS.

The fruition of the ONE Pay FX venture will result in marked improvements and probably drive the competition out if implemented correctly. According to both parties, this app succeeds both in terms of speed as well as transparency. It is also radically cheaper than other similar services offered. Thus, the app aims to address gaps in previous systems, by delivering improved user experiences, especially for mobile phone usage. When commenting about this, the Ripple team said: “It is what consumers require and expect in today’s market — whether it’s sending a secure message to a friend, hailing a rideshare or sending money across borders.”

Final Thoughts

In terms of market valuation, Ripple is doing very well. At the time of writing (07/06), Ripple was priced at $0.683681 USD with a market cap of $26,828,685,633 USD, firmly placing it in 3^rd position behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. With Ripple’s un-daunting push for securing tie-ups and partnerships globally, the rivalry between these two companies is unlikely to settle down any time soon. Ripple looks to be the undeniable leader in the Cryptocurrency market, however, with CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressing his optimism of Ripple replacing Bitcoin as the major global currency. Given the current scenario, things look very bright for Ripple at the moment.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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