Ripple CEO Says Sending Payment 'Should Be as Easy as Email' as His Company Announces PayID
In his new tweet, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says that making sending payments should be as easy as emails.
His comment was made in reference to the San Francisco-based blockchain giant's announcement about spearheading Open Payments Coalition.
A universal payment ID system
Ripple’s newly-formed alliance already boasts more than 40 partners, which include such big names as BitGo, Brave, Huobi, and Blockchain.com.
All of them will work on PayID, an open payment network that is supposed to make transferring money as easy as sending information on the internet.
By creating an ID that will look like a domain name, the users of the new service will be able to receive both fiat and crypto transactions.
Ripple has also integrated PayID into RippleNet, the global network of more than 300 institutions, to enhance cross-border payments that so far remain the company’s main focus.
It's PayID or Libra
However, despite attracting some major cryptocurrency companies, it remains to be seen whether mainstream payment providers in the likes of Square and Venmo will eventually get on board.
The open-source protocol could make it harder for them to retain their clients given that they could easily switch to better alternatives.
Ripple executive Ethan Beard told Fortune that the aforementioned companies could embrace PayID as a hedge against closed networks such as Libra and Alipay.
Facebook and [Chinese payment giant] AliPay want to create closed, proprietary networks. Even someone as big as PayPal should be wary.