The petition to make Ripple (XRP) the official cryptocurrency of the Winter Olympic Games in 2020 was launched by Ken Takahashi ten months ago. He created the campaign on Change.org – a popular petition hosting site but did not receive much attention at first as people had very little interest in it.
Of late, however, the petition has been gaining a ton of attention, garnering more than 9,000 signatures out of the requested 10,000. The petition reads:
As tourists stream into the country, demand for the local currency skyrockets, causing long lines at currency exchanges, as seen at past events like Beijing 2008 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. Confusing exchange rates and language barriers further complicate the problem.
According to Takahashi, using XRP as the official digital currency of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would help in addressing many challenges associated with logistics. He believes that using Ripple (XRP) as the official currency of the international sporting event would reduce the pressure on the Japanese Yen. He also said the security provided by Ripple Labs, fast transaction times with almost zero fees make a huge contribution toward addressing this issue.
Japan is one of the top crypto friendly countries. This can be attributed to the technological advancements in the country and the willingness of the population to embrace new technologies. Japanese local currency Yen accounts for nearly 50 percent of worldwide cryptocurrency volume, according to Japanese media. Last year, Japan acknowledged digital currencies as legal tender. Also, the crypto exchanges in Japan operate under one of the most liberal regulatory environments in the world.
While Japan as a country has embraced crypto, Takahashi’s demands are quite controversial. He wants Ripple (XRP) to replace Yen as the official cryptocurrency of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It’s quite hard to imagine any country would replace their official currency with another currency for such a major international sporting event.