Ripple’s third annual report dubbed ‘Blockchain in Payments’ has shown encouraging growth of XRP digital asset adoption and the entire blockchain industry.
From August to September 2020, Ripple conducted a survey showing how respondents react to the question of blockchain adoption and XRP use. The respondents, 854 in total who were spread in more than 22 countries, all participate in payment services provider.
Reliance on Digital Payments Increased During the Pandemic
Total inflow and outflow of remittances occurring at that country-level was the basis for weighing responses that are more representative in terms of blockchain use in payments. Surveyed companies were those that had revenue ranging from $500,000 to over $10 billion.
Ripple stated that the blockchain industry seems to be in its final phase of adoption when it compared the current results with those of 2019.
Although speed and business agility has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic, global reliance on digital experiences has been magnified to a greater measure as explained in the report:
“Business interest in digital assets, when paired with blockchain technology for payments, has grown sharply as early adopters look to increase the speed in payment settlements.”
Survey Reveals Majority of Blockchain Users are In Production
79% of participants made significant improvements in their services and products. They have entered unexplored markets according to the report. Additionally, 44% of respondents stated that innovation in payment technology was the most crucial as it had strong business last year. Reason being that customers of those companies expect them to continue innovating new and efficient payment modes.
The sector has now shifted from “early adopters to early majority” in terms of adoption as 34% of participants are leveraging blockchain for production use. 24% of the participants said that they anticipate to go for a pilot test and conduct a proof-of-concept within the coming two years as soon as they complete production.
Out of the 59% of respondents involved in the production or near production for payment solutions, emerging markets are leading with 37% say they are already in production.
The leading region is Asia and the Pacific (APAC) with 41%. Latin America (LATAM) follows closely in market share as the production between 2018 and 2020 increased nearly six-fold. Similarly, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), where 29% moved into production made catch up with 24% taking the production.
XRP Key in Blockchain Adoption
Diversification in use cases amongst companies that utilize blockchain technology is another major point that the Ripple report revealed.
For non-payments use cases, the response was also overwhelming as 62% in supply chain management and 51% in trade finance were in production. Therefore overall, 98% of participants are using a blockchain. In contrast to 2018 where 94% stated they could utilize XRP or similar digital assets as a medium of exchange or process payments, a surprising 99% of participants said the same this year.
Amongst the strengths of blockchain technology, 40% of respondents identified speed in cross-border payments as the topmost. Participating companies saw Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity solution and digital asset XRP as the most beneficial. Cost and reliability of the technology followed the queue for the strengths with 32% and 27% respectively. Obstacles to blockchain adoption that respondents mentioned include security, huge investments required, and a lack of regulatory clarity.
All-in-all, the report displayed that digital assets, especially XRP, are proving to be increasingly essential to blockchain industry development.