Ripple to Partner with Royal Monetary Authority in Bhutan

Ripple has partnered with the central bank of Bhutan to create its a digital Ngultrum, that will explore CDBC use cases in retail, cross-border and wholesale payments, the latest step in the central bank’s innovative payment initiatives.

Ripple, the world’s leading provider of cryptocurrency cross-border solutions, has partnered with the central bank of Bhutan, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), to pilot a digital currency. In a move that leverages Ripple’s CDBC Private Ledger’s interoperability and functionality in cross-border payments on top of the Royal Monetary Authority’s already secure and robust payments system, the Bhutan government is looking to increase financial inclusion in Bhutan to 85% in 2023. The deputy governor of the RMA has expressed optimism regarding the potential in the collaboration.

The VP of Central Bank Engagements at Ripple has expressed his excitement at participating in a new CDBC project with the RMA, citing shared values surrounding sustainability, accessibility, and financial inclusivity.

Ripple’s CDBC Private Ledger will allow the central bank to maintain its financial stability and monetary policy objectives, while allowing it maximum control, flexibility and security needed in the deployment of a digital currency. The CDBC Private Ledger is a carbon-neutral product, making the partnership a sustainable one, since Bhutan is the world’s only carbon-neutral country. The private ledger’s consensus mechanism is 120000x more efficient than proof-of-work type blockchains. The private ledger provides central banks with the full life-cycle of CDBC requirements.

Ripple’s Latest XRP Ledger Conquest

Ripple launched a private version of the public, open-source XRP Ledger, announced in March 2021. Public ledgers are visible to all, making them unsuitable for central banks, who typically require more privacy for transactions and control over their digital currency policies, and they cannot handle the high volume of transactions that a digital currency will be subject to, highlighting the need for a private ledger. The capability of a private ledger to connect with existing financial infrastructure is also crucial, since the Bank for International Settlements identified in its 2021/22 innovation program, which is what Ripple specializes in. The private ledger allows the movement of money to take place in a cost-effective, reliable, and almost instantaneous manner, and has a throughput of tens of thousands of transactions per second. As an additional confidence-booster, the technology behind the Ripple private ledger has been incident-free for approximately 8 years.

Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan an Active Innovator

The RMA in Bhutan has been a leader in payments systems innovation. In 2019, they launched the Global Interchange for Financial Transactions system, enabling the electronic transfer of large value and bank payments, through its end-to-end straight-through processing of interbank payment messages.

What do you think about this subject? Write to us and tell us!