Libra will not necessarily work with financial system but transform it completely: Ripple exec

Social media giant, Facebook, released its vision for the upcoming digital coin, Libra, on Jun 18, 2019. This whitepaper was met with a lot of criticism that highlighted the drawbacks, even though some acknowledged it as a good tech that will help the space. Soon thereafter, the whitepaper and the vision for Libra was halted due to regulators’ concern regarding Facebook and their history with user privacy.

Ripple’s global head of banking, Marjan Delatinne spoke to GTR regarding the same and shared her thoughts. Delatinne said that the likes of Facebook and J.P. Morgan entering this space provides more credibility to the already amazing technology with massive scrutiny from the regulators. She added:

“So the more names, the better. For us, it’s just a validation of what we have been saying for seven years.”

Delatinne added that Facebook’s business model “is slightly different from ours”, and that they “are working in the consumer space, where they have the network”. Although Libra was just a vision, which will change over the coming years, Delatinne said:

“… their approach is not necessarily that they are going to work with the financial system – they want to completely transform it and bring a completely different experience.”

Furthermore, she added that Ripple’s approach was quite different and that they are working with “the system, banks, regulators and the payment providers” to help make the space more secure and efficient.

Speaking about plans of Ripple in the near future, she stated:

“Now our focus in on the critical mass that we are building in terms of users. The first priority for us is volumes. If I compare to two years ago when the network went live, it is amazing: the network is really growing fast, and you see the network effects with the numbers that are added on a weekly basis. We are continuing to build this momentum.”