One of the things that made Ripple a stand out among other cryptocurrencies is the fact that it can potentially have a practical application. Until today, adoption is key in order to see another bull run in the crypto market. For Ripple, its XRP has been used to lessen the cost of cross-border transactions. In the last months, Ripple has been working towards working with other companies from banks to institutions.
And recently, a consumer payment platform that is backed by Mastercard and MIT Media Lab is now using xRapid. Ripple’s xRapid is said to “bridge” virtual currencies and fiat. How does xRapid make it possible to lessen the cost of cross-border transaction? Banks, for instance, buy XRP which is used to send funds across borders. XRP will then be converted into the fiat of choice using the xRapid. This will ultimately decrease the number of institutions involved when it comes to transferring funds.
This time around, SendFriend is expected to launch this year in the Philippines. This aims to make it easier for Filipinos abroad to send money home. The project was developed at MIT by its CEO and founder David Lighton. And also, this is also the winner of the MIT Media Lab Translational Innovation Alliance Award. SendFriend is filled with different prominent backers including Barclays, Techstars, Ripple, MIT Media Lab, Mahindra Finance and the MasterCard Foundation.
David Lighton says that the xRapid brings a new level of efficiency. He said that “That allows us on the back end to be more efficient with our capital. These are real-time settlements so we don’t have to do pre-funding, we don’t have to park money in the receiving corridor and then manage the foreign exchange risk. We can just do it one by one as the transactions go through”.
The Philippines as a Great Market
One of the Philippines’ backbone over the last decades has been its overseas Filipino workers (OFW). OFWs in May 2018 have reached a total of $2.7 billion in remittances. That is up by 6.1% from the same month last year. From January to May of the year, OFWs were able to send $13 billion in remittances.
The Rise of Ripple?
Ripple has been considered as a game changer if you are going to ask Cory Johnson who is working as the company’s Chief Market Strategist. He even thinks that XRP is “Bitcoin 2.0”. He even blasted Bitcoin about the alleged carbon emissions that mining operations produce.
In fact, since the inception of Ripple’s xRapid, it has been able to take the place of Ethereum on two occasions. And also, there is a review that was a conducted by Lennard Neo Picolo Research that the XRP token has an intrinsic value of $1.75 which is at least 289% from its current price.
It wasn’t always a smooth ride for Ripple this year. There were lawsuits that claimed Ripple selling investors a security.
Though Ripple has been dealing with lawsuits with a claim that XRP is a security, it has done its part in order to get adopted by banks and institutions. Ripple has partnered with the likes of Santander and even Western Union.
