Ripple’s chief market strategist Cory Johnson recently stated in an interview with Fox Business news that the XRP token “is a better technology” than Bitcoin (BTC). He referred to the technology behind Ripple’s XRP as the “Blockchain 2.0.”
The former hedge fund manager and co-host of Bloomberg West acknowledged that Bitcoin “was a fascinating idea”, however, he thinks that the flagship cryptocurrency is “breaking down in terms of [usability].” Johnson criticized bitcoin’s slow confirmation times and said Ripple was focused on solving a “business problem.”
Focusing On a “Business Problem”
Per the market strategist, the business problem is being able to effectively “move money across borders.” He gave examples of how easy it has become to share ideas, messages, and documents instantly because of the internet. He noted, however, that it’s currently not that simple or efficient to make cross-border payments.
Commenting on how slow and costly it currently is to make international payments, Johnson said:
If I want to move money from New York to Mexico city, it takes five days, it costs 500 basis points. That’s crazy in this era of technology.
In order to solve this problem, the New York University graduate stated Ripple has developed a suite of software products “to accelerate” the process of money transfer. By using the XRP token, Ripple’s developers are aiming to make remittance payments “in less than a minute,” Johnson said.
He added that XRP will have “great value over time” and that when it comes to transferring money, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are slow. On the other hand, Johnson claims “XRP moves really, really fast” since it’s based on a different technology.
He claimed that “fundamentally, money should move as fast as ideas move, as fast as data moves.” Johnson added that funds can’t yet be transferred in a cost-effective, quick way, which is hurting businesses throughout the world. This, he added, makes inconvenient for people working outside their home countries to send money back home.
Ripple Is “Thrilled” About Regulations
When questioned about how and whether decentralized cryptocurrencies should be regulated, the former hedge fund professional stated that “it’s really important for investors to be protected…and that [Ripple] is thrilled that regulators are getting involved.” He then implied regulations are necessary, pointing to cases of crypto-related theft.
Johnson added that Ripple’s XRP does not require mining since it was “pre-mined.” Therefore, its usage does not consume a lot of power, making it more cost-effective to operate an XRP-based node than running a full-node on the Bitcoin or Ethereum network, the Ripple marketing executive said.
In comparison to the US, Johnson said other countries are moving faster when it comes to adopting the latest financial technology and regulating its use. Per his words, countries like Switzerland, Singapore, and Thailand are investing resources to make sure businesses are able to leverage crypto’s underlying technology, the blockchain, to optimize their work procedures
