On September 17, it was known that the blockchain platform Ripple is planning to launch a commercial version of its new cryptographic product – xRapid – in October.
According to an interview for CNBC by Sagar Sarbhai – chief of regulatory relations for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Ripple – the platform is currently getting ready for the launch of a new crypto-based financial solution.
“I am very confident that in the next one month or so you will see some good news coming in where we launch the product live in production,” Sarbhai asserted.
The spokesperson explained that xRapid is a settlement platform in real-time aimed to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments. Currently, traditional transactions suffer from slow processing times and liquidity costs, and these are the issues this new product will address.
Unlike other solutions developed by Ripple, xRapid will use the XRP cryptocurrency as a transaction vehicle, which will enable cross-border payments to be carried out in a faster way.
Sarbhai highlights the benefits of their new crypto-product with an example:
“Let’s imagine that an entity is about to send U.S. dollars to an account that needs the funds in Indian rupees. Normally the operation would take a lot of time to be reflected in the receiving account. On the contrary, if these banks use the xRapid platform, those dollars will be converted to XRP tokens, send them, and then automatically converted to rupees – all instantaneously.”
Institutional blockchain adoption
On the other hand, the Ripple’s representative asserted that in his opinion, the position of regulators and lawmakers worldwide towards the cryptocurrency is starting to change, as they become more aware of the benefits these digital assets offer, so their future, in this sense, looks promising.
“A couple of years ago the narrative was: blockchain good, crypto bad. What we’re now seeing is more and more regulators, policymakers taking the whole space in one conjunction,” he said.
At the moment, more than 120 banks and other financial institutions are partnered with Ripple for settling international transactions via their blockchain-based product xCurrent. Looks like we have to wait for the next month to see not only if they actually release their new product, but also if it will provide even more efficacy than xCurrent.
