[Photo: Western Union and Ripple. Source: Youtube.com]
If Ripple were a lady, she’d be feeling pretty good right now. All the major money transfer companies want to talk to, and work with Ripple. The latest addition to this list of money transfer companies is Western Union.
Although the said partnership has not been confirmed as can be seen in this article, it is causing ripples across the Crypto-Verse. And if Rumors are anything to go by, this could be huge for both Ripple and Western Union.
So why would Western Union want a partnership with Ripple?
Firstly, FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. I am very sure the Board of Directors at Western Union got goosebumps as soon as Moneygram and Ripple formed a partnership. I bet Western Union has fears that Moneygram will come to surpass them with respect to transaction speed and customer base. This in turn means less business for Western Union.
The Moneygram/Ripple partnership promises to use the actual Ripple coin to settle transactions through the xRapid network. According to the Ripple website, xRapid uniquely uses, XRP, to offer on-demand liquidity, which dramatically lowers costs while enabling real-time payments in emerging markets. Ripple goes on to add that xRapid is built for enterprise use. It offers banks and payment providers a highly efficient, scalable, reliable liquidity option to service cross-border payments.
With such technology such as xRapid, no wonder Western Union wants a partnership with Ripple now!
Secondly, Western Union must have uttermost trust in the management at Ripple. It is willing to change its entire payment system in favor of xRapid. Looking at the management team on Ripple’s website, one can only compare them to the Avengers, but of technology. Ripple’s CEO has a very impressive resume with leadership roles in companies such as Yahoo, AOL, Dialpad Communications and SBC Communication. He is one guy who can be trusted to steer the rudder of Ripple Labs towards the future.
So what should we expect if Western Union is indeed on board?
To start, we expect other money transfer companies such as Worldremit, Payoneer, HiFX to join the list of partnerships with Ripple. The allure of a 3.3 second funds transfer from anywhere in the world is too good to resist. To add to that, the same transaction costs a few pennies on the xRapid. On top of that, and as I mentioned earlier, the Fear Of Missing Out by these money transfer companies will lead them to follow in the footsteps of Moneygram.
A second thing that could happen is that other major global banks will see their core function of international money transfers via swift becoming obsolete. A bank customer would rather withdraw his $1,000 and walk to a Moneygram or Western Union point of sale and send the cash to another person due to the lower transaction fees. Once again, it will be a case of FOMO for the banks. Swift money transfers, run by TransferWise might become obsolete. Or the same company, TransferWise, will also have to partner with Ripple or come up with a better money transfer platform.
All this is good news that lead to good scenarios for Ripple (XRP) the coin and Ripple Labs (The Company).
I do believe that XRP will see a steady increase in value around the various cryptocurrency exchanges as more and more partnerships are announced.
One can only come to conclude that Ripple has achieved what all cryptocurrency wish to achieve by demonstrating proof of concept.
The biggest hurdle for cryptocurrencies right now is to prove their ability to solve real world problems rather than being a store of value like the most famous coin, Bitcoin.
In the case of Ripple, the fact that Ripple Labs is partnering with major banks and money transfer companies, proves that its xRapid platform can actually help in reducing money transfer costs and time.
I hope by the end of this article, you are happily holding on to the XRP that you own or considering to buy more even after the market crashed today, 16th January.
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