Republic of Palau partners with Ripple, a leading provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions for cross-border payments, to explore the country’s first national digital currency and its use cases with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) – in a press release
The partnership is said to initially focus on developing strategies for cross-border payments and a USD-backed digital currency for Palau. This may lead to the implementation of the world’s first government-backed national stablecoin in the first half of 2022 with which Ripple will provide Palau with technical, business, design and policy support.
“As part of our commitment to lead in financial innovation and technologies, we are delighted to partner with Ripple,” said President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. “The first phase of the partnership will focus on a cross-border payments strategy and exploring options to create a national digital currency, providing the citizens of Palau with greater financial access.”
“We are excited to be working with Palau to achieve its financial and climate-related goals,” said James Wallis, VP of Central Bank Engagements at Ripple. “We have a wonderful opportunity to bring together our technology and experience with the unique characteristics of Palau to make a real economic and social impact for the country.”
These technologies will also transform how the citizens access financial services and enable efficient cross-border remittances. The XRPL provides significant benefits such as scalability, speed and low cost and the ability to fully settle transactions for fractions of a penny and in just 3-5 seconds.
More than 5,400 currencies have been issued and traded on the XRP Ledger via its integrated decentralized exchange (DEX) and custom token functionality that makes it easy to create, issue and manage any asset—including stablecoins.