DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor. All contents on this blog are solely my own personal views and for Cryptocurrency Trading education/entertainment purposes only. Cryptocurrency Trading is very risky. Losses can exceed deposits. Enter with discretion.
As a Virtual Assistant Freelancer, I will only base this writing over my personal experiences I had using SWIFT and PayPal as mode of payments. I will explain simply as possible the reasons that I found Ripple Lab’s XRP to be a more effective payment protocol over these 2 traditional cross-border payment platforms.
Image courtesy of Cryptogazette.com and Caspiannews.com
Let’s set aside the current price of the XRPUSD right now and disregard anything that is related to Cryptocurrencies technology and trading. I will highlights the XRP’s power as the fastest cryptocurrency in the world. I can say that the XRP is the most liquid crypto right now and offers the best utility for cross-border money transactions.
We are now living in an era where the technology has further developed to greater heights since the Internet’s inception.
Have you ever wondered that is a lot easier and faster to download an image in Google than is to send money to someone else over the internet?
Let’s read some quotes from Brian Brooks’ CNN Interview regarding XRP vs SWIFT:
It is very ironic to say that the cross-border payment system has become extremely behind the fast-paced technology we are living right now. This is where cryptocurrencies shine their lights in a COVID-19 plagued world. Take note that I am talking about money remittances on cross-border conditions using SWIFT/Paypal as mode of transactions and it is very different from using VISA or Instapay banking system. Do not be confused with that please!
Further explanations:
* I will say that VISA and XRP cross-border payments go par with each other because XRP can keep up with VISA’s massive capacity of transactions per second. Their only difference is that XRP has tremendously cheaper, almost-free, transaction fees.
According to a post I have read from Reddit.com:
“Ripple XRP can handle same throughput as VISA, but much more reliably and at a lower cost”
Image courtesy of Reddit.com
* Instapay is a near-instant interbanks or Bank-to-Bank payment system that Philippines is using right now. They currently waived fees at the moment to help the people in this pandemic times. It is limited as a CLOSED-BORDER payment systems inside Philippines’ participating bank networks only.
Image courtesy of Bsp.gov.ph
The cross-border payments using XRP are available 24/7, offers On-Demand-Liquidity (ODL) and solve fiat currency price volatility issues through it’s near-instant payment time.
Let me have an example for this because most people fear the use of cryptocurrencies merely on the fact that it is highly volatile at the moment:
Persons A and B agreed to settle their transactions using the XRP after Person A convinced B that XRP is a good alternative solution for SWIFT/PayPal’s expensive and slow processing time although B is scared to try. Person A lives in Canada while B in South America.
Person A taught B meticulously on setting up his own working and legit XRP wallet including how to immediately exchange the XRP he is going to receive to his desired fiat currency.
Person A is going to pay B 1,000 US Dollars in XRP. Person A recorded the time of the XRPUSD buy rate at 0.30 US Dollars per XRP, he sends right away to Person B the converted 1,000 dollars into 3333.333333333333 XRP costing him only 0.00001 XRP transaction fee deducted. To Person B’s surprise, he got 3333.333323333333 XRP and he immediately converted it at 0.295 sell rate giving him now a tolerable 983.3333303833332 dollars which he considered A-OK! :-)
The cross-border payment made using XRP was done in seconds, approximately 10 seconds at most. Person B can’t believe it! He thought that even SWIFT and PayPal fastest could be 1 day only!
Person B is so amazed that they did the payments directly between themselves just by using their respective mobile phones without going outside to protect themselves from the pandemic! He is so happy that he became an XRP fanatic right away! ;-)
Image courtesy of Plantemoran.com
I guess people need evidence like this to experience themselves the true utility value of the XRP at this time of COVID-19 plagued world.
In this scenario I illustrated, the XRP’s utility power has been shown here completely removing the need for a trust third party. Almost 0 transaction fee and greatly remove the fiat volatility concerns. The decentralization of XRP has also been showed here protecting their names when their transaction were made. They remained anonymous on the XRP ledger.
Now I will cite my personal experience with SWIFT and PayPal.
SWIFT
The company that I currently worked on pays me a monthly rate sent to my bank account. I have a fixed salary that needs to be converted to Philippine Pesos. So these are the challenges for me:
I have to fight the current fiat currency rate of my salary to my country’s rate hoping it will go up most of the time. :-)
The SWIFT took more than 24 hours before the money arrived to my bank account.
The last SWIFT cross-border transaction I had cut 600 Pesos on my salary upon arrival. That is tremendously high fee! I could have bought an additional kilo of rice, diaper for my baby girl, etc. :-(
In times of emergency, SWIFT is not reliable!
PayPal
I been working online since 2011 and PayPal has been the major cross-border medium that I had used over the years. It just that it can’t keep up with the current pandemic situations where money’s fast arrival is crucial in times of emergency. I have no hard feelings towards PayPal in fact they have helped me and my family throughout the years but here’s the challenges for me:
Most of the payments I usually get for my salary has been cut by PayPal already unless the sender shoulder the fees.
Withdrawal’s below 7000 Pesos charge me 50 pesos. :-( Money is money and every peso I got matters!
Withdrawal process takes a lot of time before the money arrive to my bank then to my palms. Average time to received the money is 3 days.
XRP suits my lifestyle and now that I trade it as well. I will always choose it 100% of the time if given the chance as the payments for my services. I just hope people and institutions will embrace it as the standard for cross-border payments. I am very hopeful and positive time will come for that. I am excited so let’s give it some time! ;-)
I have to move on. We all do. XRP is here to stay, the future of money. Thanks a lot Ripple Lab’s and the rest of the creators!
Thank you for reading this article. God bless!
Article References:
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet
Ripple vs SWIFT: Who is Going to Dominate Inter-Bank Money Transfers?
We need to adapt with the trend, and the market will decide what will be the winner.