Opinion: new data have emerged suggesting that Ripple customers may be able to switch to xRapid, the company's main offering that uses XRP for liquidity, with ease. A document entitled "What's New in xCurrent 4.0" was released, showing a bevy of new updates for xCurrent, such as a new user interface, mass purchases of FX, zero downtime, and "enhanced product interoperability".
Ripple customers:
This marks an interesting development in the Ripple product cycle, as some of the major customers use xCurrent for payments. This includes 11 of the world's largest banks and settlement giants like American Express, MoneyGram and Western Union. Their banking clients include MUFG, the fifth largest bank in the world that manages assets worth $ 2.6 trillion, Credit Agricole, the third largest bank in Europe, Bank of America, Santander, Standard Chartered, SBI Group , Westpac and Mizuho Financial Group.
Multi-hop payments and the role of xRapid in it:
This also echoes the statements made by Ripple employees, who said that it is easy for existing RippleNet customers to transition to xRapid once the regulatory clarity over XRP's position as a digital asset has been obtained. Currently, over 150 members are connected to Ripple's network of banks, payment providers and financial institutions, known as RippleNet.
Other features that have been included in the new version of xCurrent include support for multi-hop payments, a technology that Ripple has recently performed. Multi-hop payments allow liquidity provision through XRP without banks having to have one-to-one relationships with those who can use xRapid. This is generally regarded as a simpler way to provide liquidity through xRapid, and it also provides something for XRP HODLers to rejoice in, as it translates directly into greater capital flow through the network.
Multi-hop can also provide faster and cheaper payments on RippleNet, with the company also promising to offer uninterrupted payment experience. Dilip Rao, Ripple's Global Head for Infrastructure Innovation, said during the launch:
"A milestone in the downsizing of RippleNet! Now any regional bank can act as a correspondent bank, linking senders and beneficiaries with multiple intermediate routes, but with full data transparency and an atomic (single) agreement on all legs. "
Product implementation:
Cory Johnson, Ripple's Chief Market Strategist, provided clarity about the launch of the company of its products, stating:
"I expect our launch to be … most will be xCurrent, some xRapid, and even less xVia. Over time this may change, but initially, the older stuff gets the maximum traction, because customers have had the chance to look at it longer and get used to the idea more quickly. "
This provides an interesting perspective, as it means that the maximum number of Ripple customers using xCurrent for cross-border payments has the opportunity to easily interact with xRapid to obtain liquidity. This opens up new avenues for financial institutions, allowing them to free up capital held in personal and personal accounts using XRP to provide on-demand liquidity combined with multi-hop.
Advantages of the passage:
Combining this with the presence of xVia, Ripple's third product that allows you to run onboarding on RippleNet via a unique API provides a fast track of sorts for financial institutions that start using xRapid. Moreover, the fact that xRapid is in one step will provide a fruit just outside the reach of financial institutions at the moment.
In addition to the pilot results for xRapid, those who tried the product reported an exponential increase in speed along with a 40-70% reduction in fares. This boldly encourages existing customers to take charge and start processing payments via xRapid. As explained by Asheesh Birla, Ripple's Senior VP of Product:
"They would use xCurrent and get rid of the need for the FTP server and wait three days to process the files.The magic is where xRapid is available, for example in Mexico.They can then add xRapid and move money on demand using XRP in Mexico and pay immediately. "
Other features mentioned in the document include forwarding forward to allow final visibility on the status of payments, easier peering of the counterpart through automation of the API workflow and improved control and monitoring services. All in all, this offers good competition to SWIFT's Global Payments Initiative, which should be implemented in all partner banks by the end of this month.
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