The foray of the social media giant, Facebook, into the cryptocurrency space is bound to cause growth and development in the industry- aiding institutional adoption of cryptocurrency. In addition to its role of aiding the development of the crypto space is its capacity to compete with Ripple, an already established cryptocurrency. This oblivious fact needs to be made known to the holders and the users of Ripple.
Ripple boosts usage as top crypto that functions as a remittance platform. Ripple is a remittance platform that aims at defeating the decade’s long dominance of SWIFT in the remittance market. This role has been resumed avidly with its aggressive marketing and partnership with financial institutions in Asia, the United States and across the globe to establish its dominance.
The low fee of transaction, speed among others gives Ripple an advantage over SWIFT in the remittance market. However, this advantage is set to be made inferior with the launch of Facebook Libra which will take place in the first quarter of 2020. This is set to give ripple fierce competition in the crypto space.
Facebook Libra and Domineering Features
Facebook libra is a stable coin backed by a reserve of assets which will guide it against volatility. The cryptocurrency is built on a secure, scalable, and reliable blockchain and is governed by an independent Libra Association. The Libra association entails consortium firms in different spheres – Blockchain, E-commerce, Investment firms, Nonprofit, Payments, Ride-share, Social Media, Telecommunication.
Blockchain firms that are part of the consortium are; BisonTrails, Xapo, Coinbase, and Anchorage. From the E-commerce sector, there is; Ebay, Mercado Pago (MercadoLibre), and Farfetch. Investment firms are; Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Creative Destruction Lab, but Ribbit Capital, and thrive capital.
Also, the non-profit firms which are part of the consortium include Creative Destruction, Kiva, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Bank. Payment processing firms include Mastercard, Mercado Pago, PayPal, PayU, Stripe, and Visa. Few tech firms which include Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, Spotify, and Uber. Also, some blockchain firms like Anchorage, BisonTrails, Coinbase, Xapo, among others.
Notably, Facebook plans to increase the independent consortium firms to 100 before its official launching. The cryptocurrency will utilize a digital wallet known as Calibra which will enable the users to send and receive libra with their smartphones.
Libra has domineering features to compete with the established in the remittance crypto platform in the crypto space. These features include; wide network, wide user base, mobile wallet platform, scalability, and fee.
XRP holders need to beware of the wide network base of Libra. The wide usage of Facebook in the globe is enough network for the cryptocurrency. Adding extra zest to its network is its consortium of the firm, which are from different fields. These firms create a wide room of network for the adoption and use of Libra. Ripple is still making efforts to create and expand its network through a partnership with financial institutions around the world. The network offered by these financial institutions cannot match the network offered by Facebook and Libra’s consortium of firms.
Also, the Libra network provides it with an already established large user base for the cryptocurrency. Each of the firms that make up the consortium already has a large user base in millions and billions in comparison to that which is obtained by ripple.
In addition, libra’s mobile wallet platform is bringing banking to the unbanked populace of the world. This is simply turning smartphones to a bank. This will enable the remittance capacity of Libra, as it aids sending and receiving of funds across borders, through various mobile application associated with the consortiums.
Lastly, as Ripple is highly scalable with a low fee, so is Libra also. Thes features put them on the same pedestal with each other. However, based on the network and large user’s base, ripple holders and users should beware of a more superior remittance platform in Libra.
