By
Temitope Olatunji
April 23rd, 2024
Ripple is keeping its longstanding dream of becoming the Amazon of the cryptocurrency world in 5 years to come. The firm is positive it will achieve this thanks to its unique products which can find uses in both government and privately-owned companies.
Ripple Labs, the fintech company behind the development and issuance of the digital currency Ripple (XRP) coin is still aiming at its long term goal of becoming the ‘Amazon’ of the cryptocurrency world. First disclosed by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterly back in February when he said:
“I hope that in 5 years we’re not just Amazon books, we’re Amazon.”
While the claim back then was seen as a bold move considering the massive gap between Ripple and the firm it is looking up to, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Brad Garlinghouse has always been vocal about the Ripple Network’s potentials
The Ripple network was conceived by Jed McCaleb and built by Arthur Britto and David Schwartz who then approached Ryan Fugger and the team joined forces to develop the platform which was debuted in 2005 as a financial service to provide secure payment options to members of an online community via a global network.
Ripple offers a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange, and remittance network. It is built on an open-source distributed protocol and supports tokens which represent fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies among others. Since Brad Garlinghouse joined Ripple as its CEO in 2015, He has been advancing the use cases of the Ripple network.
While the coin was designed to hasten cross border payments, Brad and his team are beginning to look at extending the use cases of the network beyond payments and financial services. The resuscitated trust in Ripple becoming the Amazon of the cryptocurrency world lies in the belief that the network’s offering will become indispensable in almost every key sector of the global economy.
Using the analogy that Amazon started as a bookseller, it believed that Ripple starting as a payment service provider will be a springboard to explore new niches. Brad said:
“Amazon started as a bookseller and just sold books. We happen to have started with payments. Two years from now, you’re going to find that Ripple is to payments as Amazon was to books.”
Ripple Building Partnership to Become Crypto’s Amazon
If Ripple would follow the path of the e-commerce giant they hope to become in the cryptocurrency world, then the firm must extensively forge functional partnerships around the world. Ripple is in no way lagging behind with respect to this requirement and is particularly known to be forging alliances with regulators around the world.
Brad Garlinghouse attended the World Economic Conference in Davos in which talks about government-backed stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies dominated. Since then, Brad made it a mantra to educate regulators and to seek ways in which Ripple can provide the support needed to transition to the desired cryptocurrency-powered payment and settlement schemes About 10% of U.S.-Mexico remittance flow is currently been carried out using XRP coin.
Ripple Lab is also developing the Ripple Check with the sole aim of bringing more transparency and speed to boost payment systems around the world. This feature, in particular, is a selling point for the ambitious company as countries looking to digitize their payment system will blockchain will rather partner with the firm that already has a headstart.
Beyond government agencies, Ripple also has alliances with private firms including MoneyGram, and IBIS Management Associates Inc amongst others. Above all, Ripple’s management believes that its positive approach towards regulations will make the coin and its network to stand the test of time, an important trait in the drive to be the undisputed Amazon of the cryptocurrency world.