Ripple recently made its blockchain platform xRapid commercially available. The CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse made the announcement a few days ago at the Swell annual conference of the company.
Three firms start using blockchain platform xRapid
The solution from the venture behind the third largest virtual currency Ripple (XRP) is receiving a good response with three firms already signing the production contract. These three payment firms are Cuallix, MercuryFX, and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, a cooperative financial company. Cuallix and MercuryFX participated in the beta testing phase that started at the beginning of 2018 and found it to be both cost and time-saving.
xRapid solution uses blockchain-based technology for conducting cross-border payments and uses its XRP coin in the form of intermediary currency. However, it is the first time that the payment service provider is using its cryptocurrency in the commercial application of xRapid. Garlinghouse did not disclose the volume of payment of these three clients.
According to the SVP of Ripple’s blockchain platform xRapid, Asheesh Birla, “I’m really excited to bring the product into the market at a time when there is a lot of skepticism about digital assets and their real use case. Here’s something where we’re finding a ton of value and providing a ton of value to our customers using digital assets to move money more efficiently.”
Banks not to use XRapid solutions
The blockchain platform xRapid was until now in the beta testing phase. Few financial institutions participated in the pilot trials. According to Ripple, now all the customers interested in adding xRapid in their payment system can integrate it into its production environments. As per Ripple, the solution, “eliminates the need for a pre-funded nostro account when executing a cross-border payment and sources liquidity from XRP on exchanges around the world.” That is why xRapid can guarantee faster cross-border transactions at comparatively low cost than the traditional methods.
Apart from the three firms, MoneyGram and Western Union also participated in the pilot run. But banks do not have any plans to start using XRapid anytime soon. Birla stated that banks around the world are not the first to adopt xRapid product however financial institutions are coming forward to integrate it into their working.
