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Ripple Updates: XRP Going Global, Taking over Swift, Gaming Industry

Swift is joining up with R3 on blockchain technology. R3 recently made XRP the first cryptocurrency available through its Cor
Swift is joining up with R3 on blockchain technology. R3 recently made XRP the first cryptocurrency available through its Corda settler product.

Ripple’s biggest competitor Swift is joining up with R3 on blockchain technology. Swift is the dominant player when it comes to international settlements. They currently have 11,000 members global payments network whereas Ripple currently has around 200. They have announced the partnership with the enterprise blockchain custodian R3. Basically Swift and R3 have developed a proof of concept that links Swift’s GIP payments network with R3’s platform to monitor payments flows, settle payments through their banks and receive credit confirmations. Now absent from the announcement was any clear statement that Ripple would play any kind of role in the partnership.

Basically, R3 recently made XRP the first cryptocurrency available through its Corda settler product. Swift’s statement did not mention the Corda settler but R3 in a tweet in a tweet specifically said that Swift will be using R3’s Corda settler.


Role of Ripple’s XRP:

Very interestingly, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple participated in the panel where Swift and R3 made the announcement but there is no direct mention of XRP or Ripple and this is only a trial so there is no guarantee that there are going to be using XRP for anything but that has not stopped XRP exploding on the markets after the announcement because the fantasy of XRP holders is that this will become true. However, it is quite suspicious to see all of the three (Ripple, Swift, and R3) on the same panel.

The CEO of Swift Gottfried Leibbrandt said that the big part of Ripple’s value proposition is the XRP  cryptocurrency, He went on to say that there we do find the banks are hesitant to divert things into cryptocurrency right now because of the volatility in these currencies. Gottfried has already put in his resignation letter and he will be resigning before the trial actually finishes. If the fantasy becomes true, it could be really big for the XRP holders.

Euro Exim Bank using XRP for cross border payments:

Euro Exim Bank, a London based bank that is primarily focused on providing financial services for exports and import companies will become the first bank to publicly announce that it is using XRP cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. However, the Euro Exim Bank is a very small bank but it’s a bank nevertheless.

Saudi British Bank testing Ripple’s Technology:

The Saudi British Bank said that it is one of the three banks with the go-ahead from the Central Bank of the country to test Ripple’s technology. Ripple’s global head of infrastructure and innovation Dilip Rao has said that Ripple is rapidly expanding its presence in the middle east and has targeted the region as a primary place for the early adoption of blockchain based payment solutions. However, the Saudi British bank has not clarified whether it plans to utilize Ripple’s blockchain based payments solution XCurrent or the XRP powered payment product XRapid which means that they are probably going to use XCurrent. It is still big however to get these big banks onboard but it’s going to be a challenge to move them from XCurrent over to XRapid. They are conservative organizations, they might want to save money and make more money but they actually want to try it and see if it works and if they don’t actually need to use the XRP token, they might just stick on XCurrent.

Ripple Selling Huge amounts of XRP:

Ripple has been selling huge amounts of XRP. They have sold half a billion dollars worth of XRP in 2018 and 250 million dollars worth of XRP in just the current week.

Ripple Entering the Gaming Industry:

Brad Garlinghouse specifically mentioned that games built on the XRP ledger are coming. Entering the industry would be tough though and it takes more than just the XRP fans to really carry it. There are so many players right now focusing their blockchain specifically on gaming such TRON, NEO, Coco’s BCX etc. So XRP is going to face a lot of challenges while getting in here but considering that they have sold $750 million worth of XRP recently, they have a war chest big enough to have an impact here if they are investing that in this industry. Brad Garlinghouse mentioned at the Davos that the gaming industry is one of the areas where blockchain use is underhyped. He said its incredibly interesting in terms of which underlying blockchain is most efficient. He thinks that they are a couple being built on the XRP ledger and he thinks that it’s going to be a very interesting space to watch in 2019.

XRP’s Social Wars

Recently there was a social media war between the XRP army and anybody who calls XRP as Ripple. For example, Kraken came out and said that basically, Ripple was the payment protocol who’s native current is XRP. They are not the only one that is confused. A lot of people are finding confusion that the company having the same name as the protocol. Some claiming that buying XRP, for example, is buying XRP stock and there are a lot of people who never want to hear Ripple mentioned in the same sentence as the XRP because it is very important for Ripple that XRP to not be deemed security. Thus we see the XRP army coming out and correcting the record all the time on anyone who says the opposite. This is kind of a new thing to the extent that we are seeing it happening in the past few months and it is really going to be dependent on the court proceedings that we see going on.

Basically, there has been an effort to rebrand XRP. For example, we saw that XRP did not have its own logo, so they made an XRP logo. But the currency so often has been associated with Ripple. Many people believe that XRP is a product of Ripple Labs because they are the key developers of it. What Ripple Labs really wants to see is to see themselves in the same way that Consensus works with Ethereum.

XRP: A Security?

Whether you are an XRP fan or an XRP hater, you should be concerned whether or not XRP ends up being security because just imagine the markets. If XRP is deemed security, it is seriously going to impact the current cryptocurrency markets. It would probably tank the markets in a very big way. Not to mention all the XRP holders who would get wrecked and Ripple labs who would get wrecked but if you are an XRP hater, you would probably be cheering for those things to happen. In the end, this court case is going to take a long time to determine.

XRP FUD regarding market cap:

A lot of FUD was going on recently regarding the market cap of XRP. Messari  basically coming out and saying that XRP may have a significantly lower market cap than its advertised on all of the sites where market caps are listed. Things like restrictions around Jeb McCaleb only being allowed to sell a certain amount of his XRP at any given time. There is a very strong narrative on XRP being in the top 5 list of cryptocurrencies that means it is very important for it to stay there. So essentially if there is a much lower market cap and the volume is much lower than it is actually advertised, it means that all these people who have very big interests in XRP, especially the team behind XRP will be able to sell a lot less if the volume is actually much lower than advertised.

What are your thoughts on XRP and Ripple? Tell us in the comments section below.

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