Distributed ledgers are often referred to as a new database technology, but could they come to replace existing payments rails? The subject was the center of discussion among Julio Faura of Spanish megabank Santander; Marwan Forzley of blockchain payments startup Align Commerce; Gys Gyman of global consultancy Deloitte; Chris Larsen of distributed ledger leader Ripple; and Elizabeth Rossiello of bitcoin payments startup BitPesa today, the group representing a mix of financial incumbents and startups.
Chief among the discussion points was defining current challenges in existing payment rails and how technologies like blockchain, and specifically the bitcoin blockchain, could benefit such services.
Rossiello offered the strongest opinion as to why problems in the system could benefit from public blockchain technology, drawing from her experience as a startup leader working in Africa.
She explained: "If you think about a transfer from the US to Senegal, you want to know what the transfer rate will be. They’ll let you know in 14 days." Bitcoin as a rail
There were, clearly, differing opinions on the stage about how bitcoin fits into this role, however, given that only one participant works actively with the protocol, BitPesa.
"Without bitcoin and the bitcoin community, I would not be able to pay my employees or run my business," she explained.
On the other hand, Faura at Santander didn’t buy into the idea that bitcoin could become more than an experiment.
"By itself, it is a great self-contained experiment. But when you try to work with existing rails and gateways and in people’s lives, my opinion of bitcoin gets a little small. It’s better to go with something like Ripple because with bitcoin, you have different people and different levels of legality," he said. Distributed ledger alternatives But the ultimate discussion when it comes to using a cryptocurrency is the ability to transfer in […]
