By
Mayowa Adebajo
March 15th, 2024
After joining other 120 financial institutions in RippleNet, BankDhofar has become the first Oman bank in this global blockchain network.
Oman bank BankDhofar announced its joining to Ripple’s global enterprise blockchain network, RippleNet. Thanks to this move BankDhofar has become the first bank in Oman to do that. As BankDhofar team informed their customers on their official web site, this initiative will provide their clients with an opportunity to transfer payments overseas just within seconds, with end-to-end visibility throughout the entire way of the payment.
Already more than 120 financial institutions have joined RippleNet with a view to enjoy the capacities of the blockchain technology. Moreover, it is expected that this number will continue its permanent growth.
It is not the first step of BankDhofar forward new technologies, some months ago it joined a consortium of over 27 banks called Bankchain that has an aim to explore blockchain solutions for the banking sector. In general, it can be said that this recent joining to RippleNet blockchain network is a part of the bank’s strategy “Together 2020” aimed at positioning BankDhofar as a leader of the Gulf region.
“This initiative is part of BankDhofar’s continuous transformation plan, which is putting digital technology and innovation at the core of its strategy to improve the experience of its customers”, the official press release reads.
It is not still disclosed which Ripple Products will be used to provide bank’s clients with new experience. Also, it hasn’t been revealed whether BankDhofar is going to implement the open-source codebase that utilizes the XRP cryptocurrency named XRP Ledger. So, further details are expected to be informed soon.
Speaking about Ripple, it is worth mentioning that on Tuesday the company attended a UK parliament hearing on Digital Currency dedicated to the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, Ripple was enforced to defend their products after receiving some obvious criticism, though some other participants of the debate were quite positive about its technologies.
Ryan Zagone, Director of Regulatory Relations at Ripple explained the way how Ripple can contribute to the transparency and efficiency of overseas payments. Especially, its technologies can be useful for transactions between banks, as they will help to increase cost savings up to 60%.
Some participants questioned the feasibility of using Ripple for interbank payment services due to its high volatility. But the company’s representative insisted on the fact that for conducting all your payments procedures you will need just a couple of seconds which means that you will face with minimal volatility risks that are, moreover, easily controlled.
Nevertheless, one of the main thesis that Mr. Zagone tried to make heard is that XRP had not been created by their company. It is an open source that is used by Ripple with a view to modernize payments.
Currently, according to the data provided by CoinMarketCap, XRP is traded at $0.85 and its market capitalization has exceeded $33 billion.