Ripple’s CTO reveals challenges hampering widespread XRP adoptions

CTO David Schwartz recently addressed the community about adoption rates that remain anemic. Banks have not embraced XRP for cross-border settlements, and Schwartz explained the reasons.

A community member using the handle DatdurXRPfeller pressed Schwartz on predictions he had made in 2017. "Just to clear this up, I wasn't saying anything monumental in that tweet," Schwartz wrote. "I was just saying we were going to sit around to wait for banks to adopt digital assets on their own initiative."

He outlined the obstacles. "I think there are a combination of obstacles. Regulatory uncertainty, last mile problems, fear of reprisals from existing partners, and so on. Another big thing is that the very best customers are ones that are going to use bridge assets to build new products. They're heavily motivated to see projects to completion and will push the benefits all the way down to customers. But in that case […] they still have 0 customers because the product is new. So it's slow to get momentum."

XRP has endured a rough 2020. The token trades 93.75% below its all-time peak. PayPal did not include it in its supported cryptocurrencies. Ripple also faces an intellectual property lawsuit in Australia over the PayID payment standard.