Blockchain has been touted as the next big thing after the internet. The technology that underpins bitcoin has been praised by big players including MasterCard, IBM and Bank of America as one of the best technological breakthroughs the world has ever seen. However, payment startup that processes transactions in over 70 countries thinks the blockchain tech has not proved itself as a worthy alternative to its existing framework.
A cross-border payment company ‘Transfer Wise’ has vowed never to foray into the blockchain space unless more banks begin to use Ripple network, Fortune reported. In an interview with Fortune, Taavet Hinrikus, chairman and co-founder of Transfer Wise, said:
“If every bank in the world was going through the Ripple network, it would be amazing. Yet how many banks are using Ripple today in production? It’s a very short list… if any of these gets enough adoption, and it actually materially help us do things cheaper and faster, we’d love to, but so far we haven’t found one.”
According to the payment company, many banks are yet to adopt the technology. Therefore, it sees no reason to embrace blockchain.
Transfer Wise claims that they take less than 15 seconds to move funds from Australia to the United Kingdom. It also charges a fee that is not more than 1% of the transaction amount.
“We’ve heard this dream many times from different people. However if you start digging into it, you realize that it may look great on paper, but in reality, to make use of it, it’s really hard… We’ve looked at different blockchain technologies, but yet we haven’t found anything which enables us to do what we do in a way that is cheaper or faster,” he said.
While Transfer Wise claims it has not seen the benefit of using Ripple, there are already many banking giants such as PNC and Bank of America that have embraced the Ripple network.