Brooks Entwistle, Senior Vice President at Ripple, in a recent interview revealed some interesting details about the company’s efforts and goals related to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Ripple in talks with over 20 central banks
In 2023, CBDCs will be a major focus point for Ripple, and Entwistle confirmed this by presenting its company as a solution provider for central banks and authorities. Entwistle noted that there are over 200 countries with many different central banks with diverse needs and stages in the journey to CBDC adoption.
While some countries, such as China with the digital yuan, are well advanced, there are many emerging countries that are smaller, have fewer resources and are facing challenges in developing CBDCs. Ripple can play an important role in this. It is therefore not surprising that Ripple Labs is already in talks with more than 20 central banks about such solutions. Brooks Entwistle said:
So we are in dialogue with not ten, not twenty, but many more central banks around the world on these discussions.
As an example, Ripple’s manager mentioned the well-known projects with the countries of Bhutan and Palau.
Ripple is focusing less and less on the US
Entwistle revealed that the regulatory headwinds in the US are why Ripple is primarily targeting the international market. This is also the reason that Ripple mainly hires staff outside America.
“Most of our business is currently outside the US,” said Entwistle, explaining that Ripple is making rapid strides in legal environments that are crypto-friendly. He emphasized that real-time interaction with regulators is therefore very important.
Ripple could solve the world’s biggest financial problem
Ripple’s senior vice president explained that cross-border value transfer is one of the last major unsolved financial problems in the world when asked about the fierce competition in this field. Solving this requires a global network, and this can be provided by RippleNet. Entwistle revealed that the technology is now available in more than 70 countries.