Specifically, Banco de la República will work with both Peersyst and Ripple on a blockchain pilot programme on the XRP ledger. The programme will run through 2023 and will demonstrate the utility of blockchain technology to the public. The end goal is to leverage Ripple’s CBDC platform to pilot use cases that will improve Colombia’s high-value payment system.
The XRP ledger CBDC platform was also leveraged for other similar pilot programmes in regions such as Montenegro, Palau, Bhutan, and Hong Kong.
Colombia previously partnered with Ripple Labs in August 2022 to put land titles on the blockchain to rectify unfair land distribution that has led to armed conflicts. The project was built by Ripple in collaboration with Peersyst Technology, and it was designed to permanently store and authenticate property titles on Ripple’s public blockchain. The main goal was to help eliminate bureaucracy and hopefully make land distribution more equal.
By leveraging the public blockchain, Ripple ensured that once a transaction is recorded, it remained untouchable. If the government’s system fails, the owner of the land will still be the proprietary of the land, given that the blockchain is decentralised.
Even as Ripple is forging new partnerships and spearheads new projects, it remains in an ongoing battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a lawsuit against the company in December 2020. At the time, the SEC sued Ripple for raising more than USD 1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering. The suit is based on whether XRP is a security or a currency. According to the SEC’s suit, it’s a security, and thus Ripple didn’t provide its investors with the proper information they needed to assess any potential risk.
In more recent developments, Ripple has taken an undisclosed minority stake in Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. The news was revealed via a recent transcript of Galaxy Digital’s shareholder conference call, which showed that Ripple acquired the stakes from Pantera Capital, which is a US-based digital asset investment firm, while Galaxy Digital took on the role of an advisor in the deal.
In May 2023, Ripple improved its CBDC platform to meet the requirements of central banks, governments, and financial institutions. Ripple launched its Central Bank Digital Currency solutions and private ledger for CBDCs in 2022, and since then, the company has positioned itself as an important player in international digital currency development.
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