Ripple’s main business area is international remittance. Ripple considers the existing international money transfer system to be inefficient and aims to solve it with RippleNet.
RippleNet is an international blockchain-based payment solution developed by Ripple. This service is particularly popular in the Asia Pacific region, with an average annual increase in adoption of 130%.
How does Ripple see the future of international remittances in the Asia Pacific region? BBR asked Brooks Entwistle, Vice President of Ripple Asia-Pacific, for more information.
Q. Please introduce yourself
I am currently the VP and Managing Director of APAC and MENA in Ripple. Ripple is a leading provider of enterprise blockchain and cryptographic technology solutions for cross-border payments. Prior to joining Ripple, he spent nearly 30 years in the financial services and technology industry building and scaling companies such as Goldman Sachs and Uber. FinTech was a sweet spot between traditional finance and the fast-paced tech scene, as I always enjoyed the excitement of working for a dynamic growth company, and I was ultimately a natural place. ..
Ripple is growing rapidly, APAC is one of the fastest growing regions in RippleNet, and transactions are up 130% year-on-year. We look forward to working with talented teams and partners in the region to push new frontiers into the crypto space and provide innovative crypto-enabled financial solutions that solve real-world business problems.
Q. 2021 was the year when the mainstream financial sector began accepting cryptocurrencies and introduced a number of cryptocurrency-related policies. What do you think will happen in 2022?
Indeed, 2021 was the arrival of the crypto era. After passing the inflection, we can expect to see a more focused approach to crypto in 2022-the spotlight will be on the actual application of crypto. For example, addressing cross-border payment inefficiencies is a global challenge of US $ 120 billion if cryptography has attractive utility and is already in use today. With the growing demand for instant payments and immediate access to capital, the use of RippleNet’s on-demand liquidity (ODL) services in the APAC and MENA regions could continue to accelerate in 2022. Due to the fragmented nature of APAC’s payment environment, we should expect other applications such as trade flows and financial management to come to the fore.
Meanwhile, while significant advances have been made in the new regulatory framework for digital assets, APAC remains particularly uneven for the foreseeable future. The region is so diverse that the intertwining of social, economic, digital and political challenges in each jurisdiction creates a unique complexity. But as more traditional financial institutions join the crypto conversation, this is some of the ways regulators and policy makers can think in the long run and allow innovation within the crypto to mature and emerge. It will encourage you to set clear rules.
Q. Ripple focuses on providing cryptocurrency solutions for global payments. What are the advantages and restrictions of using cryptocurrencies for international money transfers? How can Ripple’s solution help address these limitations?
Using a blockchain-based infrastructure for international money transfers has two major advantages. It is reducing transaction costs and increasing speed. Existing global payment systems are outdated, unreliable and fragmented. Each country has its own process and payment infrastructure, this lack of interoperability creates a lot of complexity, and cross-border payments often require expensive workarounds. A good example of this is the global average fee for traditional remittances of around 6.5%.
RippleNet uses blockchain technology to address cross-border payment speed and cost challenges, offering payments within 20 seconds, near-zero failure rates, and 90% less fees per transaction than it currently is. To do. With both decentralization and standardization, RippleNet works without the overhead and constraints offered by traditional providers, allowing you to move money at the same speed and efficiency as moving information today.
Another important issue in the global payments scene that Ripple solves is the issue of liquidity. Traditionally, banks cannot make payments until they have cash on hand, which causes delays. Ripple addresses this issue with on-demand liquidity (ODL), which leverages the digital asset XRP to bridge the two fiat currencies. This eliminates the need for upfront funding in the destination currency, allowing real-time payments in emerging markets at any time of the year (including off-hours, weekends and holidays), while significantly reducing costs. Will be. Through Ripple’s ODL service, customers can also access the Line of Credit to raise capital on demand and initiate large cross-border payments. What this means is that customers can buy digital asset XRP with credit for a single transparent fee and receive approval faster than traditional means, so they can grow their business faster.
Finally, managing risk and compliance is a major concern for companies adopting crypto-enabled remittance solutions. To enable our customers to better understand and manage cross-border transactions, our solutions are seamless with existing systems and processes such as money laundering prevention management, fraud detection, sanctions review and regulatory reporting. Can be integrated. It provides a way to reduce operational and risk management costs while enjoying the benefits of immediate payments.
Q. In 2021, Ripple announced its entry into the NFT market and launched a $ 250 million creator fund. What was the motive behind this? What are the benefits of using XRP Ledger for NFTs and Ethereum?
When we first started looking at the NFT market, we realized that many of the challenges people face were due to the very primitive nature of technology. Companies wishing to enter this area required a vast amount of specific expertise. Developers, on the other hand, often face the frustration associated with high transaction fees and complex user interfaces on NFT platforms. Therefore, we have focused on building the right tools and providing financial, creative and technical support related to creators.
Specifically, the Creator Fund aims to enable long-tail use cases for tokenization. We encourage the industry to go beyond digital art and collectibles to enhance the usefulness of NFTs in functional use cases where asset costs are split among individual shareholders, such as interactive experiences and split ownership. I would like to.
XRP Ledger (XRPL) is perfect for growing NFTs further. Accessibility barriers, such as high “gas” prices and sustainability concerns, are now keeping creators and customers away, limiting NFT use cases primarily to high-value tokens. XRPL provides the unique combination of low cost, high speed, and great payment capabilities needed to streamline large-scale NFT creation. In particular, XRPL can maintain consistent transaction fees. This is not possible on most other platforms today. In addition, XRPL is already carbon-neutral and about 120,000 times more efficient than the leading proof-of-work blockchain, giving developers unique capabilities to run sustainable NFT apps and marketplaces. Offers.
In addition, federation sidechains (blockchains that work with other blockchains) will be available for XRPL in the coming months, expanding exciting possibilities such as unlimited transaction scalability and enhanced DeFi capabilities. increase.
Q. Finally, please leave a comment for Korean Tokenpost readers and Ripple supporters.
We are committed to enhancing FinTech’s payment environment and deepening our footprint across the APAC region. Last year, we also announced Liquidity Hub, a new solution that expands the RippleNet network with customers in new regions, including South Korea’s GME remittances, and enables businesses to easily and efficiently procure digital assets from the broader crypto market. ..
Beyond that, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will also be an important pillar of tomorrow’s digital payment ecosystem. Asian countries, from China to Thailand and Singapore, are currently exploring the use of the CBDC. To support the development of CBDC, we recently launched CBDC Private Ledger, which provided central banks with a secure, controlled and flexible solution for issuing and managing digital currencies. We have already worked closely with Bhutan to pilot a retail CBDC to strengthen domestic financial inclusion and work with more central banks in APAC to better understand the CBDC’s goals. increase. We hope that this will pave the way for CBDC interoperability and, by extension, a more streamlined cross-border payment environment.
With the rapid innovation of enterprise blockchain payment solutions and the openness of financial institutions, regulators and even end users, the future of digital payments in South Korea and the wider APAC region is very promising and will allow us to participate in that journey. I am honored.
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