Ripple, a San Francisco based company has continued to prove its commitment to growing its horizon despite the fraudulent allegation levied against it by the US regulator.
Ripple Announces Partnership With the Republic of Palau
According to an announcement on November 23, Ripple Labs announced its latest partnership with the Republic of Palau. The partnership with the island nation will establish a climate-friendly, dollar-backed national digital currency that will target cross-border payments. Palau will also try to use the XRP ledger for other use cases, including as a company register.
Palau is an island nation in the Western Pacific, made up of more than 300 islands. It shares maritime borders with Indonesia and the Philippines and has free contact with the United States. According to the latest United Nations estimates, it has only 18,200 people.
The partnership between Ripple and Palau will “realize the world’s first government-backed stable national currency in the first half of 2022. Ripple will provide technical, business, creative and political support to Palau.”
Ripple did not address the differences between the new US dollar-backed stablecoin and the existing central bank digital currencies that have already been introduced in countries like Nigeria and the Bahamas. However, it is claimed that Palau will go beyond the financial use cases of national stablecoins and investigate related use cases like company registration on the XRP ledger.
Ripple Supports Climate-friendly Issues
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. expressed his delight in working with Ripple, which he identified as part of the government’s commitment to financial innovation and technology.
He commented that the first phase of the collaboration will focus on cross-border payment strategies and explore options for creating a national digital currency to provide more financial channels to the citizens of Palau.
James Wallis, vice president of central banking affairs at Ripple commented that they are also excited about the partnership with Palau, marking the transition from a business-oriented application to supporting national projects.
We are very excited to be working with Palau to achieve its financial and climate goals. We have a great opportunity to combine our technology and experience with the unique properties of Palaus to have a real economic and social impact on the country.
For Palau, climate considerations are at the heart of its development agenda. The country consists of small islands and is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. In recent years, the country has seen stronger typhoons, hotter weather, coral reef loss, and coastal flooding. Climate change has also adversely affected two major industries, tourism and fishing.
Therefore, cooperation with Ripple is of strategic importance for Palau. Ripple’s XRP ledger is said to be climate neutral and 120,000 times more energy-efficient than Bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchains.
