While giving an exclusive interview for the “Gregarious Mammal” Podcast, Ripple’s CTO Stefan Thomas expressed his opinion about the latest improvements in decentralization and payment processing. Thomas also explained the underlying philosophy that has made Ripple one of the most rewarding companies in the world of DLTs.
Ripple is one of those blockchain companies which has gained the trust of main stream financial institutions in a short span of time. Despite the controversies it faces over the XRP token, none in the crypto sector doubts the legitimacy and seriousness of the company in achieving its objective of providing a world-class blockchain platform that will simplify cross-border payments in a cost effective manner.
Stefan Thomas also revealed that American Express, a financial services giant, has agreed to test Ripple’s platform for processing fund transfers. Interestingly, Thomas stated that Western Union has also expressed interest in adopting Ripple’s platform. He believes that Western Union’s decision is an acknowledgement of the platform’s strength and convenience provided through distributed ledger technology.
Readers who hear the Podcast are suggested to listen carefully at approximately minute four of the interview when Thomas hints that American Express may have already begun its trial of Ripple’s platform.
“Some of the companies that have agreed to use xCurrent and xRapid are companies like American Express and Western Union, so there are big companies that are testing this.”
Even though Ripple’s innovative blockchain platform has brought some of the largest financial institutions on the same platform, still, there are companies which are averse to crypto currency sector.
However, Thomas’ statement indicates that Ripple is not bothered about them at this point in time.
“Ripple has always been a payments company first, and blockchain has always been in our DNA, but we were never dogmatic about what we acknowledge to apply … there’s a little bit of blockchain in all of our different products.”
Thomas also stated that he is not bothered about the criticisms made against XRP ledger’s characteristics. According to him, XRP is far more decentralized than Bitcoin as the hashing power is concentrated among four major mining pools.
Stefan Thomas also argues that most of Ripple’s critics are people who have made huge investments in Bitcoin and other altcoins. Thomas denounces this kind of thinking as “Hey, you’re competing with us, we’re gonna make you sound not so good.”
