Ripple fans around the world would likely have given a collective cheer yesterday when Mercury FX, an international payments operator, announced on Twitter that they had used Ripple’s xRapid system to transfer XRP tokens in the first such commercial use of the platform. The company revealed that the transfer was made on behalf of an international customer who wished to pay for his honeymoon in the Philippines, illustrating a genuine use case for the system and the proprietary token that is missing from many blockchain platforms to date.
1/3 Mercury has just made history and completed the first ever commercial payment using #xRapid to the Philippines.
— Mercury-fx Ltd (@mercury_fx_ltd) March 5, 2019
XRP Fans Rejoice
xRapid is the system that Ripple uses to conduct international transfers, and represents the tool with which it hopes to compete with the aged SWIFT system. Ripple views SWIFT as slow and expensive, which in comparison it is – Mercury FX estimates that using xRapid saved them around a day – but so far, Ripple’s principle targets, big banks, have proved elusive, preferring to stick with existing methods. This has meant that Ripple has had to start small, but this hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of their base, with many XRP fans mocking other tokens and systems, including Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, and predicting that the news represents the start of great things for Ripple.
This is what I have been waiting for finally xrapid boom
— $xrp dog (@Jamie6815) March 5, 2019
“They’ll never use #xrp.”
– Everyone who was wrong
— Radiogenic (@Radiog3nic) March 6, 2019
XRP is the new BTC. seems to be the most stable coin with lower pumps and dumps
— JOHN XRP-Dog Whisperer (@JohnPaulRipple) March 5, 2019
News Doesn’t Affect XRP Price
At the time of the announcement XRP was valued at $0.31, since when it has fluctuated and actually fallen slightly, illustrating that the news, however well it may have been received, didn’t translate into positive price action. Only time will tell whether banks will eventually be swayed by Ripple’s technology, or if clients will remain in the Mercury FX mold, but XRP fans clearly think the company is only going in one direction – to the moon.
History in the making, congratulations and we’ll done. Onwards and upwards
?— Neptune XRP ? ? ?? (@JohnFul44968436) March 5, 2019
