What’s Real About Crypto?

Cryptocurrencies impact the way consumers and businesses – in the US and beyond – interact with financial institutions, the planet and one another. However, crypto remains an abstract, misunderstood concept. It’s important to understand what’s real about crypto, and how it has become a very real force driving US innovation.

Like many other tech innovations that have fueled the economy, crypto – when used the right way – provides tremendous benefits and opportunities to people, businesses and governments. Crypto represents powerful innovation and companies, like Ripple, are tapping into that innovation in a transformative way.

MEET RIPPLE AND XRP

Ripple, a global technology company headquartered in the US, enables financial institutions in 55+ countries to send money faster, with lower fees, and greater transparency.¹ While developers use the cryptocurrency XRP for hundreds of solutions, Ripple uses XRP because, compared to other crypto alternatives, it’s fast, efficient, reliable, and carbon-neutral – and it seamlessly supports our customers’ compliance requirements.

Ripple is far from the only company using crypto to align with the needs of consumers, businesses, banks and regulators. There are many others alongside us working to remove friction, lower costs and increase transparency in financial services and beyond. Below you’ll learn what it looks like – and how it benefits businesses and individuals – when crypto is used the right way.

REAL BUSINESS IMPACT

Massive amounts of money move throughout the US and around the world every second to fuel commerce. Even small improvements to these processes can unleash huge cost savings and powerful new benefits when scaled — for both businesses and the customers they serve. Companies, like Ripple, are enabling real businesses to tap into those savings and benefits today.

Fact 1: Crypto can be used to make payments 24/7/365, without the weekend and holiday disruptions that inhibit the flow of standard funds.

Fact 2: Many prominent organizations such as Microsoft, Visa, PayPal, Starbucks, UNICEF and more are already using crypto for payments.

Fact 3: Traditional financial services often involve many costly intermediaries – crypto services can be more direct to save consumers money and time.

Fact 4: Ripple’s payments technology leverages XRP to enable businesses to free working capital that they can then invest in their growth.² 

REAL COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS

Did you know that crypto transactions are recorded on public ledgers? That provides transparency – often absent in cash transactions – critical for proper oversight, while still protecting legitimate privacy interests. Ripple prioritizes its customers’ compliance efforts, which include satisfying anti-money laundering and “know your customer” requirements, to achieve real compliance results.

Fact 1: Data related to crypto transactions is stored on public blockchains with information that is accessible to all for powerful transparency.

Fact 2: While some bad actors use crypto for illegitimate purposes, just as we’ve seen with cash, this improper usage of crypto is very small.³

Fact 3: For banks and regulators, the blockchains that power cryptocurrencies can actually streamline and improve regulatory processes.⁴

Fact 4: Ripple’s solution helps its customers meet compliance requirements in the US and around the world.

REAL SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is a global priority that must be driven by smart thinking and immediate action. While some cryptocurrencies consume large amounts of energy, many, including the cryptocurrency XRP, use a very different approach. Because sustainability was prioritized in its creation and design, XRP consumes very little energy, and is up to 61,000x more energy-efficient than some other assets. The truth is cryptocurrencies can and do achieve real sustainability, and many of the companies that use crypto care deeply about the issue.

Fact 1: Cryptocurrencies can actually be more sustainable than cash, using much less energy than their cash equivalents.⁵

Fact 2: XRP is a cryptocurrency powered by the world’s first major, global, carbon-neutral blockchain.⁶

Fact 3: There is broad crypto industry commitment to the goal of making the crypto industry 100% renewable.⁷

Fact 4: Dedicated to being a sustainable company, Ripple is implementing a plan to be carbon net zero by 2030.⁸

REAL INNOVATIONS

From increasing access to financial services to the underbanked, to powering new business opportunities, crypto is already removing barriers and making what was previously impossible now possible. And yet we’ve only just begun to tap its innovative potential. While it is a global technology, it is also a driver keeping America on the forefront of innovation in financial services today. The real innovations are just beginning.

Fact 1: Crypto can help bring unbanked and underbanked US citizens into the financial system to access basic financial services.⁹

Fact 2: Crypto is enabling workers to be paid on a daily or even as-they-go basis, and this can help them break the reliance on payday lending.

Fact 3: Crypto is powering new ways of doing business, like creators receiving micropayments for a single article or song.

Fact 4: Ripple’s payments technology uses XRP to dramatically speed cross-border payments — transactions that took days now happen in seconds.

WHAT’S NEXT: A CALL FOR CLEAR REGULATIONS

Ripple, like many who work with cryptocurrencies in the US and around the world, welcomes clear regulatory guidance that will protect businesses and individuals while supporting the next wave of American innovation. Clear regulatory guidance that leads to predictable outcomes will help this innovation flourish in the US and deliver powerful benefits to businesses and consumers.  There was a time when some lawmakers questioned the value of the internet, but as a group they crafted a framework that protected businesses and consumers while enabling the technology to thrive in the US. That time is now for crypto. We invite policymakers and regulators to do the same now. Let’s come together and discuss the best path forward on crypto.

Visit our policy hub to learn more.

Notes and Sources

1. The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlighted Ripple’s software solution for the fee-related transparency it provides consumers: Remittance Transfers under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) 
2. Organizations that send money across borders often have to maintain what are called “prefunding accounts” around the world that hold local currencies in anticipation of transaction settlement needs. Because Ripple’s solution can provide XRP on demand to assist with settlement, customers can reduce or eliminate these prefunding accounts and pass the associated savings on to their customers and/or put that money to work for their business.
3. The 2021 Crypto Crime Report
4. When Crypto Meets Compliance: Is Blockchain Ready For Enterprise? 
5. Measuring the Environmental Impact of Cryptocurrency
6. XRP Ledger Foundation, Ripple, and Energy Web Announce World’s First Decarbonized Blockchain
7. Crypto Climate Accord
8. Ripple Leads to Achieve Carbon Neutrality By 2030
9. Cryptocurrencies are democratising the financial world