Ripple Links The Blockchain To The Bank

Bitcoin tech innovators at Ripple are taking their blockchain connectivity ambitions to the bank. CoinDesk reported late last week that the group is bringing its solution to move money faster to market.

The company will be releasing the Interledger protocol (ILP), which the site said will act as an intermediary for multiple ledgers for banks. While ILP isn’t a ledger itself, reports said the technology offers a way to move money between ledgers and for ledgers to maintain their balances in their own units.

[bctt tweet=”Ripple is releasing an intermediary for multiple ledgers for banks.”]

“As long as your ledger supports [ILP], you can participate in a payment, and someone will be able to provide liquidity,” said Ripple Chief Technology Officer Stefan Thomas in a recent interview with the site. “It can be PayPal, Alipay, bitcoin, bank ledgers or Skype, anywhere people hold balances, they have a ledger.”

As a protocol, ILP is a way for different ledgers to interact and connect, said Monica Long, Ripple’s VP of marketing.

Reports added that Ripple, which has officially changed its name from Ripple Labs, is looking to provide enterprise customers with payment security, with companies able to remove transaction data from a public blockchain. Ripple will offer a way to move funds between private Ripple networks, according to reports.

For payments partners like PayPal, Ripple said that all they have to do is “add a new payment to [their] API,” according to Thomas.

Long added that the developments are part of a shift in the market to move “away from centralized systems.”

According to Ripple, while it is not the only player in the market looking to implement new ledger technology, it is focusing its innovation on cross-border payment settlements. Other players, like R3, Long said, are focused elsewhere — for example, on interbank settlements.

Ripple added that 30 partner banks are currently experimenting with ILP.

To check out what else is HOT in B2B, click here.