@mars75 nicework
Shift/Shift Payments
Since 2014, Ripple has been experimenting on multiple projects developing a debit card that would allow owners to easily spend their digital currencies. It first began as a joint effort along side Shift Payments to create the "Shift Card". Which the project was focused on
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"working to make it as easy to spend digital currencies, cryptocurrencies and loyalty points as it is to spend regular, fiat money."
https://ripple.com/insights/a-debit-card-powered-by-ripple/The prototype card was integrated with both Coinbase and Ripple accounts at one point with the partners wanting to integrate the card with loyalty point programs and regular bank accounts in the future. Ripple was planned to be used for the settlement protocol for payment between fiat currencies, digital currencies, mobile minutes, etc. And in further innovation,
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"The card works offline, online, and internationally, thanks to the support of a major international card network."
https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/shift-is-developing-a-debit-card-that-lets-you-spend-digital-currency-loyalty-points-and-regular-money/It would later be released that Shift Payments, now Shift, was introducing a VISA backed Bitcoin debit card. Suggesting the probability Ripple had been introduced to VISA long ago....
https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/20/coinbase-partners-with-shift-payments-to-issue-bitcoin-debit-card/Unfortunately nothing came from it and the test wallets they used for the pilots have become dormant for several years. (although the main wallet has 375k XRP just sitting there)
https://bithomp.com/explorer/rKbtT6j1JGjFnwkUp2Na1W8XE5Z79VsMYihttps://bithomp.com/explorer/rpfFnyaChjzB8RNfT6VDYioFWfjghYXnvbShift appears to have moved on but a possible explanation as to why nothing arose from it might be how cryptocurrencies were not favorably perceived in 2014.
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“We learned very quickly that no bank here in the U.S. is willing to take that leap and actually support something like this. They were just too nervous and no one was willing to take that reputational risk”
However one of the co-founders of Shift, Meg Nakamura added that
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“It’s just going to take time,” she says. “U.S. banks are engaged and excited about the technology and its potential. They’re watching regulatory direction closely.”
https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/shift-is-developing-a-debit-card-that-lets-you-spend-digital-currency-loyalty-points-and-regular-money/Whether they ever use Ripple or not in the future is up for debate but one of Shift's co-founders was Gregg Kidd, the chief risk officer at Ripple during the time. Interesting enough both founded Hard + Yaka, a fund that makes early round investments in exchange space startups. Previous investments? Global ID, Gatehub, Ripple, Coinbase, Shift, Bitso (expect XRPL to run thru it), ShapeShift and to our next topic of conversation.....Marqeta.
http://hardyaka.com/Marqeta
Marqeta is an open API payment card issuing platform that has been enabling businesses to process credit and debit card payments. Marqeta has been establishing itself as a big company that has attracted notable clients and investors to utilize it's technology. Facebook and Oink are example of clients while this past July, VISA made a strategic investment in the company and formed a partnership to drive further innovations in commercial and consumer payments globally.
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"As it relates to Marqeta, Visa is poised to aid the company in three significant areas, according to Gardner: For one thing, the global payments company will instantly give Marqeta greater distribution by promoting its developer-centric products to Visa partners and customers. Given its global footprint, Visa also will be able to help Marqeta expand internationally. And finally, Gardner sees an opportunity for Visa and Marqeta to benefit from a technology exchange."
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/26/visa-marqeta-25m/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005359/en/Visa-Marqeta-Form-Global-Partnership-Drive-Newhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2017/visa-and-marqeta-partner-to-transform-global-card-issuance/https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/16/powering-the-facebook-card-marqeta-raises-14m-from-greylock-israel-to-recreate-the-starbucks-loyalty-card-for-merchants/Marqeta is compatible with the Discover, MasterCard, and VISA networks.
https://www.marqeta.com/api/docs/VhypzxwAANwA_Vgx/cardsThe CEO of Marqeta, Jason Gardner, has been very vocal and supportive of blockchain technology and it's possible applications.
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"When you see big banks like JP Morgan, IBM and Microsoft creating new technologies using blockchain, I don’t think it’s just a flash in the pan. I think people are realizing the efficiencies open-source tech can bring."
adding,
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"Marqeta, Gardner says, is interested in how banks are connecting with distributed ledger service providers such as Ripple and how the industry more broadly is building new ledgers that increase the speed and efficiency of money movement."
It was also revealed in January 2016 that Marqeta had been working with Ripple on a defunct debit card product that would allow users to spend cryptocurrencies at traditional points of sale.
https://www.coindesk.com/marqeta-ceo-bitcoin-blockchain-tech/With the test wallets to prove this collaboration,
https://bithomp.com/explorer/rwEFnxs7GQsHXBG9ARZNYcmBkZc81zphMChttps://bithomp.com/explorer/rwYx6Mp1n8yMbGN9K4MkHsSNvibK4MPjQF(being really active last year and even doing fiat exchanges between USD and JPY)
Only time will tell where this collaboration will lead to but it's safe to say that Ripple has really positioned itself well in regards to VISA and Mastercard. And one other interesting development has been Marqeta's new partnership with Ali Pay.
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"Through the partnership, Marqeta’s platform will facilitate the completion of Alipay’s payment process in real-time, providing Alipay’s more than 520 million registered users in China with easy and seamless purchasing capabilities at millions of domestic retail locations across the country."
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71286/alipay-joins-with-marqeta-for-us-payments-play Quote
"With the new connection in place, Alipay’s payment process gets a real-time boost making it easier for a new quantity of retailers in the United States to offer Alipay service to Chinese travelers going abroad. Reports put the total number of Marqeta-compatible merchants in the US in the “millions” range, which should prove quite helpful for those checking out the US on vacation."
https://paymentweek.com/2017-10-27-alipay-marqeta-team-alipays-payment-processing-ambition/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171020005664/en/Alipay-Taps-Marqeta-Expedite-Payment-Acceptance-RetailOne notable thing did occur (and is accelerating as we speak) this past March, Ripple introduced Payments Channels into the RCL/XRPL and ILP. Thus allowing the XRP Ledger to scale,
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"An XRP Payment Channel allows transaction throughput to increase to tens of thousands of transactions per second, bringing our scalability to the same level as Visa. With the capability to send money as fast as a credit card swipe, XRP Payment Channels have the ability to transform the way people send money and the payments industry as a whole."
https://ripple.com/insights/ripple-continues-to-bring-internet-of-value-to-life-new-features-increase-transaction-throughput-to-same-level-as-visa/ Quote
"Our Payment Channel is specifically designed for XRP and allows transaction throughput to increase to tens of thousands of transactions per second. XRP saw nearly 70K transactions with an average time of 3.7 seconds."
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ripple-claims-transaction-thoroughput-now/The network has now scaled enough to sustain the amount of transactions the VISA network sustains. One last note,
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"UK-based Wirex has formed a joint venture with fintech investing powerhouse SBI Holdings to launch a cryptocurrency payments card in Japan. Wirex already offers a Visa-backed cryptocurrency debit card but the new JV, called SBI Wirex Asia, will soon roll out a Yen denominated option. In addition, the partners plan to move into other Asian markets."
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31227/wirex-and-sbi-holdings-team-on-japan-cryptocurrency-payments-cardAirWallex
Ripple partners with ties to major credit card issuers don't end there. AirWallex is an international payments startup that is based in Australia that in October, it's partnership with Ripple became publicly disclosed.
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"Australia-based Airwallex will use RippleNet to process corporate payments at a highly competitive exchange rate, with low transaction fees, across the APAC region—through which 40 percent of cross-border payments are predicted to flow by 2025."
https://ripple.com/ripple_press/ripples-blockchain-network-now-100-strong/This past May, AirWallex held a Series A Round in which it raised $13 million dollars in funds for the company. These investors included MasterCard, Gobi Ventures/Partners which is one of Alibaba's investment managers, and Tencent leading the investment round.
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"Already it is working with Tencent to help lower back-end costs for its WeChat Pay service overseas — which is seen to have potential to grow alongside the emergence of outbound tourism from China, where WeChat is the dominant messaging app — but Zhang said the firm primarily deals with financial institutions, insurance companies and others that “do international payments at scale.” Two undisclosed clients, he said, are forecast to transaction “billions of U.S. dollars” each by the end of 2017, and the firm is on the hunt for more customers in this bracket."
Tencent's WeChat has roughly 980 million monthly users, with users sending about $1.2 trillion in mobile payments in 2016. Along with mobile payments in China, Tencent wants to expand WeChat Pay usage to other regions including South Africa, Philippines, and Malaysia.
https://bankinnovation.net/2017/04/alipay-wechat-processed-3-trillion-in-2016/http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/22/17/wechat-pay-launches-in-philippines-with-asia-united-bankhttp://www.marketing-interactive.com/tencent-confirms-plans-to-launch-wechat-pay-in-malaysia/http://blog.wechat.com/2015/11/25/south-africa-launches-wechat-wallet-the-first-country-officially-outside-china/And there is one more region that AirWallex is targeting thru a formation of a partnership this past week, Europe. On December 1, AirWallex announced a partnership with Railsbank to enable
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"Airwallex customers to transact in and out of the UK & EU SEPA zones, and Railsbank customers to access the cross-border FX and payments capabilities of Airwallex."
AirWallex also became Railsbank's
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"exclusive foreign exchange partner, facilitating cross-border transactions for Railsbank clients with Airwallex’s proprietary payments and FX solution, built for low latency, high volume processing."
Airwallex’s VP of Europe Expansion, Michael Stachowiak speaking on the partnership shared,
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“Our partnership with Railsbank means we can hook into domestic payment methods through one integration to offer our customers a fast and viable new access point to transact in and out of Europe, encouraging greater transactions and trade between a strengthening European economy and the tiger economies of the Far East.”
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71788/airwallex-joins-railsbank-platformhttps://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2017/airwallex-railsbank-international-payments-partnership/Along with it's partnership with AirWallex, the previous day Railsbank was one of eleven companies to be chosen by MasterCard to be included in it's Start Path program. With Railsbank being chosen for it's ability to give companies access to global banking networks thru APIs.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71779/latest-mastercard-start-path-program-includes-blockchain-digital-identity-and-healthcare-fintechsWant to know what happened on November 30? (same day of Railsbank and MasterCard's annoucement) The European Central Bank hosted a digital transformation conference that Ripple was invited to.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/conferences/shared/pdf/20171130_digital_transformation_conf/Conference_brochure_20171130.pdfA panel which consisted of Banca Sella, the Central Bank of Netherlands, PayPal, and Ripple was held to speak on the disruptive potential of fintech innovations for the retail payments ecosystem.
Want to know what happened on December 1? (same day as AirWallex and Railsbank's partnership) Brad gave us a nice tweet
The VISA and MasterCard connections are there and more subtle Alibaba and Tencent connections to Ripple are surfacing. There's a lot of money between Europe and China in e-retail.............
OMFG Mr. Pumperitis
