XRP, Libra and Visa to Fight It Out for Cross-Border Remittance Crown

Cross-border remittance is the lowest hanging fruitAccording to the World Bank, remittances to low- and middle-income nations reached $529 billion in 2018 - the highest level ever recorded, exceeding the figures from 2017 by almost 10%. The bulk of these remittance payments, according to the organization's data, occurred in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

By operating without third-party authenticators, such services provide a more cost-effective solution for cross-border remittance payment.

Cryptocurrency payment appears in many ways to be an extension of the strides made by internet payment companies over the last few years.

Blockchain startups like Ripple say it can materially decrease the cost of remittance - not only in terms of fees, but also the resources required to maintain a cross-border payment infrastructure - by leveraging decentralized ledger technology.

Royal rumble: Facebook vs. Ripple vs. SWIFT vs. As reported by Cointelegraph, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon doesn't believe cryptocurrency projects can upstage the bank's relevance in the payment arena.

"We move $6 trillion a day around the world. It is very cheap, very secure. It works. And the banking system has already built Zelle, real-time P2P, and TCH, the clearancing house, with the banking system built real-time payment. We already have all that."

For one, Ripple's multiprong approach of engaging in useful partnerships with banks and payment processes could see complete disintermediation of the global payment transaction matrix.

The second likely scenario is that Facebook's Libra scales all the regulatory hurdles and becomes the payment monster that some commentators say it can become.

Libra becomes the de facto money transfer standard - and Facebook, a private central bank - with the likes of Visa paying top dollar to run nodes on the network.

Rather than using a basket of stablecoins, XRP becomes the liquidity vehicle for global payment - a bridge currency for international transactions.