RIPPLE Breaking News: MoneyGram & XRP Currency Transfers

Ripple, a blockchain company and rival to bitcoin, on Thursday announced a tie-up with Dallas-based money transfer giant MoneyGram. The move is significant because the arrangement involves the use of XRP, Ripple’s digital currency, which has recently soared in value but also faced questions about its practical uses. The partnership will see MoneyGram pilot the use of XRP through a new Ripple service, called xRapid, designed to provide liquidity to financial institutions. In a release announcing the news, the companies touted the speed and efficiency of XRP: XRP remains the most efficient digital asset for payments with transaction fees at just fractions of a penny, compared to Bitcoin fees of about $30 per transaction. Similarly, the average transaction time for XRP is 2-3 seconds with other top digital assets ranging from 15 minutes to an hour. In a statement, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse described the MoneyGram tie-up as a strategic one, and said it would demonstrate XRP’s ability to lower costs for money transfers between friends and families.