Tanya Abrosimova
Independent Analyst
- Bitspark experts believe that Bitcoin beats XRP as a currency for cross-border transactions.
- XRP is considered less liquid against multiple fiat curencies.
While Ripple promotes its cryptocurrency as a perfect solution for fast and cost-effective cross-border payments, some experts believe that Bitcoin is a much better option.
Thus, the head of Bitspark George Harrap says that Bitcoin is more practical and usable as it is more popular and accepted by a more significant number of companies. Meanwhile, XRP is less liquid when it comes to the exchange in fiat currencies, which make it a costly and less attractive payment option for users.
Bitspark researches published a rank of cryptocurrencies evaluated by their suitability for international payments. Thus, Bitcoin and Ethereum are ranked as coins with medium viability as a means of payment. Meanwhile, Stellar (XLM) got a higher rating due to the integrated decentralized exchange and the convenient mechanism for creating stablecoins.
xRapid and xCurrent solutions developed by Ripple got low grades due to their inferior liquidity. The company believes that Ripple failed to create liquid markets in fiat currencies, which is a necessary prerequisite for successful development. According to Harrap, xRapid is useful when you deal with a single currency, but it becomes a pain in the neck when you need to transfer US Dollars to a less popular currency like Kenyan Shillings. It would require routing the payment through multiple nodes and currencies.
"The number of Ripple gateways that exist hasn't changed in four years and basically consists of bitcoin exchanges for people to speculate on the price of XRP for BTC," Harrap adds. "None of these companies are remittance companies, nor are they using XRP for its intended purpose," he explained.
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