Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Mitsubishi Corporation has announced a partnership to pilot Ripple’s technology for cross-border fund transfer. Standard Chartered of UK will also participate in the trial, which is aimed to speed up cross-border transactions and reduce cost. The financial institutions involved in the trial aim to deploy the technology for practical use in the next few years. In other news, an open source platform has invited Ripple supporters to create a new symbol for XRP and Ripple has tweeted its support to the initiative.
During the trial, Singapore dollars will be remitted from Thailand to Singapore. In particular, Mitsubishi Corporation’s subsidiary will remit funds from an account held in Ayutaya Bank under MUFG to a Standard Chartered account held by Mitsubishi Corporation’s subsidiary in Singapore.
Presently, financial institutions make use of the SWIFT payment system, which usually involves multiple banks. This results in delays, in addition to high transfer charges. Additionally, banks have to set aside a huge amount in Nostro accounts for smooth functioning of payment transfers. Ripple’s blockchain based technology eliminates such issues. The use of blockchain technology also eliminates the issue of data tampering. The technology also ensures the completion of a transaction within few minutes.
In other related news, XRP, the native token of the Ripple ecosystem is all set for an image make over. In a Forbes op-ed, Alexavier Guzman has unveiled XRP Symbol, an open-source platform. The initiative is expected to result in the creation of a Unicode-compliant symbol for XRP.
XRP is an ISO 4217 compliant currency code and not a Unicode Standard symbol. Guzman said
“The XRP Symbol is an open-source project that started after I realized that XRP was using an ISO 4217 currency code and not a symbol or currency sign. Other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were given a symbol that was added to the Unicode Standard, the symbol for Bitcoin is “₿”… I believe that XRP should be treated just like any other currency.”
Ripple Labs, the San Francisco-based blockchain startup has tweeted their support to the initiative of Guzman.
There is a community movement for a unique #XRP symbol. We agree! XRP is independent of Ripple. Submit your idea now. #XRPCommunity https://t.co/ZnfVMiK9i2
— Ripple (@Ripple) May 10, 2018
Commenting on the need to create a new logo, Guzman said
“Because XRP does not currently have its own symbol or logo, the currency is often associated with Ripple’s trademark. Because of this, many people believe that XRP is a product of Ripple, and even go as far as to call XRP ‘ripples.”
Guzman, in his article, explains in detail about XRP. He begins by saying that XRP is basically a cryptocurrency or a digital asset that is used on the XRP decentralized Ledger. The ledger is powered through a network of peer-to-peer servers. The codebase required for implementing XRP is a completely open-source project released by Ripple.
One of the advantages of XRP Ledger’s open-source software is that it allows scalability. Currently, XRP tokens are being used as native currency on the XRP Ledger. The XRP tokens can be used by financial institutions and bank in order to provide liquidity for cross-border global transactions at low cost.
Being an open-source software, the XRP tokens can also be used as a currency for making an everyday purchase. While cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin require a few minutes or even hours to process transactions, XRP takes only 4 seconds. This makes it ideal for use at point-of-sale terminals. Additionally, the XRP Ledger’s internal currency exchange has been structured such that it can be used anywhere in the world and can automatically be converted into the domestic currency.
