Monica Long, president of Ripple, was recently featured in the New York Times Special Series, where she highlighted the potential of cryptocurrencies to transform finance and the global economy.
She mentioned the "cryptoization" of developing economies, where people have begun to prefer cryptocurrencies to local currencies due to macroeconomic instability and lax inflation controls.
The Ripple president mentioned that in Argentina, Zimbabwe and more recently, Nigeria, people are increasingly flocking to crypto or U.S. dollar-backed "stablecoins" for savings and purchases rather than their volatile home currencies.
Argentina, Zimbabwe and Nigeria are all dealing with the same issue: rising inflation is reducing consumers' purchasing power. Local currencies are rapidly losing value, resulting in increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies.
Long adds that this trend underlies the simple fact that the current financial infrastructure may be too "fractured, slow and expensive to serve growing global commerce."
However, this is poised to change with the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Long believes that financial rails may and will become internet-native, offering greater accessibility and affordability to financial services for everyone.
According to the Ripple president, the continuous shift from analog to digital-first in the realm of financial infrastructure has the potential to profoundly revolutionize how commerce is conducted.
Ripple has long stated its intention to revolutionize the future of finance. The first phase of the Ripple Palau Stablecoin Program, as reported, was a big success, as volunteers and retailers were optimistic about the value proposition presented by the Palau stablecoin (PSC) as a digital payment system.