RippleNet General Manager, Asheesh Birla, recently spoke of CBDCs, noting that RippleNet would be a perfect system for bridging different currencies.
Ever since Facebook announced its own cryptocurrency, the stablecoin Libra — central banks around the world started entering the race to launch their own cryptos. The move was led by China, which revealed that it has been researching the idea of a native cryptocurrency for years, now.
That gave the rest of the world incentive to move and try to beat both, Facebook and China alike. At this point, Facebook is facing regulatory difficulties, while China is still in the middle of testing in different areas across the country.
However, many other countries’ central banks are forming teams, creating regulations, and developing or at least researching digital coins.
Ripple executive offers a solution for emerging CBDCs
One thing to note is that Financial Times recently published a report that says that Libra will be a simple USD-backed stablecoin — as opposed to being basket-backed crypto — and that it is scheduled to launch in about a month, in January 2021.
While other countries undoubtedly want to prevent both Facebook and China from becoming the dominant forces in the world of digital finance, there is no denying that their research has found that CBDCs could significantly improve payments. Moving the money via blockchain would be quick, cheap, and available to everyone with a smartphone.
All that they lack right now is the appropriate infrastructure that would allow them to move assets. However, that might not be entirely correct, at least according to RippleNet’s General Manager, Asheesh Birla.
Birla recently spoke about the issue during a podcast from Lend Academy. CBDCs emerged as one of the many topics that were discussed, and he seems to believe that all of these central banks do not need to create their CBDC infrastructure from scratch. Instead, they could just use RippleNet.
The idea of using Ripple for CBDC is gaining support
Birla is not the only one who believes that RippleNet can take these local CBDCs, and act as a bridge between them. There have been several reports suggesting the same, and noting that Ripple’s technology is capable of bridging currency and handling CBDC transactions.
The same was recently suggested by a leading independent panel of major financial industry figures known as the Group of Thirty. The Group specifically mentioned Ripple, noting that it has great potential, and that it could redefine the financial landscape, as it is right now.
Even the Bank of France noted that Ripple and Ethereum would both be perfectly capable of driving the digital euro. This might even come to pass, considering that the European Central Bank did not do much about developing its CBDC, even though it has been researching the idea for quite a while.
Lastly, Birla himself added that the needs of companies exceed remittance service, and that Ripple has to offer everything that firms need in a cryptocurrency, including the new product called Line of Credit.
