Earlier in January, MoneyGram and Western Union were two of the notable money transfer services to begin testing XRP-based transfers.
In April, Hikmet Ersek, CEO of Western Union, opined that Ripple’s platform is not sufficiently cost-effective to warrant adoption for cross-border payments. The opinion was made after performing only ten transactions, which came under wide criticism by the crypto community.
To Western Union’s statement about cost-effectiveness, Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s senior vice president of product, said
“If they were to move volume at scale, then maybe you would see something, but with 10 [transactions], it’s not surprising that they’re not seeing cost savings. They do millions of transactions a month, and I’m not surprised that with 10 transactions it didn’t have earth-shattering results.”
Ironically, Western Union has hogged the limelight, with a patent application for a system that proposes the use of biometric verifications for securing electronic payments. Ironically, the patent also explains about the integration of crytocurrencies in the system.
The patent titled “Recurring Transfer Notifications and Secure Transfers” was filed in December 2016. According to the patent filing, the system makes use of a biometric verification system to authorize a transaction by the sender. To accomplish the said form of verification, there is a need for fingerprint, retina scan or voice sample. The system is basically designed to function as a general purpose tool. This means cryptocurrencies and other types of electronic networks can be integrated with the system.
Regarding the use of cryptocurrencies, the patent filing states
“Thus, in various embodiments, electronic transfer network may be configured to support and perform transfers of various currency types, including traditional and/or digital currencies, centralized and/or de-centralized currencies, cryptocurrencies, and any other medium of exchange (e.g., credit, gift cards or certificates, points in a user point system, etc.), between client devices and/or external systems in different areas, regions, or jurisdictions.”
Notably, the patent filed by the Englewood, CO-based firm abstains from mentioning about XRP.
