Can Ripple (XRP) serve CBDCs for billions of people worldwide? Experts take and future outlook

• Stanford professor Darrell Duffie shares that despite rapidly becoming a global phenomenon, CBDCs still face multiple setbacks. 
• Ripple offers solutions that can help solve these CBDC pitfalls. 

Ripple, the developers of the XRP Ledger (XRP) blockchain, continues to explore the possibilities that Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) can unlock for countries. As part of its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), Ripple has recently highlighted the challenges and strides that countries are making in CBDC adoption.

Darrell Duffie, an active UBRI participant, noted in a Ripple blog post that CBDCs are rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. The Stanford Graduate School of Business professor highlighted that more than 100 countries that represent 95% of the world’s GDP are working on a CBDC.

Duffie also pointed out that among large economies, the U.S. is currently the least advanced in developing a CBDC. This is due in part to the lack of government regulations and opposing positions held by factions of the government.

In contrast, China leads the pack in pushing forward with CBDC adoption. China has promoted its CBDC despite having top-notch digital and mobile payment solutions like Alipay and WeChat Pay. While the rest of the world — from Nigeria and the Bahamas that have launched CBDCs to those conducting pilots like India— is somewhere in-between.

The Adams Distinguished Professor of Management also notes that the major problem facing all countries is getting citizens to adopt CBDCs. Duffie shares that even China’s e-CNY has struggled to gain traction due to privacy concerns of its citizens.

Ripple and XRPL can remedy challenges faced by countries in deploying CBDCs

Despite the challenges facing CBDC adoption, Duffie still expects that countries will continue to build out their CBDCs. And that digital currencies will gain more adoption as their use cases are proven. According to him, the usefulness of CBDCs for domestic economic purposes and cross-border transactions will grow as adoption also increases.

“Irrespective of the U.S., the pace of CBDC development around the world will accelerate over the coming years, with more and more countries moving into active pilots or tests,” Duffie said.

However, to get to this stage, governments must realize that will require a lot of work. They would need to educate as well as incentivize citizens on the benefits of CBDCs, Duffie asserts. Public blockchain ecosystems like Ripple with CBDC capabilities also have a role to play in citizens education.

Similarly, governments and all stakeholders need to actively work to boost payment systems competition and innovation. These could include government standardizing apps through which banks offer CBDC payments or capping interchange fees.

Notably, Ripple already offers a broad suite of solutions that central banks can use to deploy their CBDC efficiently. The fintech company already has the government of Bhutan on its roster of clients and expects more to follow.

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