San Francisco-based Ripple has not had the best of starts to 2018. Its cryptocurrency, XRP, has been on a downward slide since the first week of January and has lost almost 70% of its value. However, things could be about to turn around for the company as Western Union is now test driving its transfer technology.
RIPPLE PROVIDING THE PRODUCTS
Ripple has two primary products: xCurrent, which over 100 financial institutions are currently using, and xRapid, which is based on XRP. This is the one that Western Union is now testing. A Ripple spokesperson tells Yahoo Finance:
We’ve been testing different products with Western Union for a while. We’re excited about our work towards a pilot implementation of xRapid, which uses XRP in payment flows.
Western Union CTO Sheri Rhodes told media:
We continue to explore possible blockchain applications for our business, and we are piloting some settlement tests with Ripple for certain corridors. For blockchain in general, we’re looking at areas such as transaction processing and settlement, working capital optimization, regulatory technology, and digital identity.