As previously reported, the Libra Association wants to launch its cryptocurrency Libra in the first half of 2020. Libra is said to become a stablecoin, which is covered by different national currencies. The Libra Association consists of a consortium of large well-known tech companies such as Paypal, Uber, Spotify and many more. They want to create easy access to money for users from all over the world. Cross-border payments should no longer be a problem with Libra. This post is explaining the key differences between Libra and Ripple.
Ripple is a decentralized network on which the native token XRP is drafted. A large part of the XRP is owned by a company called Ripple Labs. Ripple Labs concentrates on banks. It wants to offer them a solution to handle global cross-border transactions quickly and cheaply.
Ripple and Libra share the target group
The two projects are thus apparently in competition with each other. Probably, because Libra still has a long way to go and is facing strong hurdles from governments and authorities. However, if Libra passes these hurdles then, it will be difficult for Ripple XRP. Everything that is achievable with XRP will also be possible with Libra.
Unlike XRP, Libra has a large number of potential users (over 2 billion) who will be into the maeket via Facebook’s social media platforms. It is more than doubtful whether the speculative bank coin XRP can counter this. Against the enormous reach and influence of the Libra Association with a total market capitalization of well over a trillion euros and thus a multiple of that of all cryptocurrencies combined, Ripple looks quite small. Libra is also a smart contract capable, which offers users a high degree of automation.
It is actually very difficult to compare Libra and XRP because Libra only presents theories and it is not yet in the market, where XRP is in the market for quite some time.
Now, both cryptocurrencies are trying to bring micropayments to the system via the application of Blockchain. XRP may not be backed by any particular currency or company but it has huge support from worldwide banks. When it comes to scalability, XRP can accomplish nearly the equivalent transaction per second as mentioned in Libra’s whitepaper. The important thing one should remember is that Libra is still not in the market.
Also, the Libra in the year 2020 is extremely vague as regulations are too severe for Facebook to follow with every one of them for Libra’s authority within the real world. If Libra never starts its operations, then XRP will be the only one in the micropayment system.
Conclusion
Both projects don’t take much in terms of decentralization. If Libra can overcome the hurdles of the authorities, which is still extremely questionable at the moment, XRP is likely to be quite bleak. It is unlikely that one could still have a niche existence with such a superiority, but of course not entirely impossible.