- IBM to develop a new international money transfer service
- Will be able to process thousands of transactions per second
- Exodus will be supporting Stellar’s digital token XLM
US-based multinational tech giant IBM has just announced that it will develop a new international money transfers service called “World Wire” which uses the Stellar Lumens protocol.
The service will be worldwide and will be capable of processing thousands of transactions in moments and at low cost. The announcement comes at a time when cryptocurrency cross border payments rival Ripple has been working persistently to revolutionise money transfer services with its own software solutions, xRapid and xCurrent. The IBM move comes as a major notification that it now faces very serious competition in the cross border payments space.
IBM has been working with the Stellar Foundation for some time and, with 97% of the world’s largest banks being among the computing leviathan’s clients, the joint project with Stellar has the potential to become a positively cyclonic disruptor in the crypto-market.
According to the computing colossus, or “Big Blue” as it’s come to be known, 90% of worldwide credit card transactions are processed by IBM systems. The company website states:
“Using blockchain technology and the Stellar protocol, IBM Blockchain World Wire enables financial institutions to settle and settle cross-border payments in seconds.”
The aim is to develop the World Wire system in such a way that there will be no capacity limitations. Money will also be deliverable to any destination irrespective of asset type. World Wire’s official website describes the benefits of the new system as enabling “faster payment processing (simultaneous clearing and settlement), lower costs, increased efficiency and simplified payment and asset type form of transaction.”
The statement continues by emphasising that 97% of the world’s largest banks are clients of IBM, a fact which leaves little room for doubt that they’ll be “heavily advertising” their new flagship payments system to their existing client and customer base.
In other words, this thing is on course to be huge. The scope of the application will include fintech firms, banks, central banks and cryptocurrencies issued in the form of digital assets. The project hinges on the ability of the Stellar Blockchain to transfer digital assets in the form of IOUs, a capability that will significantly curtail if not eliminate entirely any counterparty risk.
The news coincides with another significant development for Stellar: on the same day as the IBM announcement, the popular electronic wallet network Exodus announced that its platform will be officially supporting Stellar’s official digital token, XLM.
Declaring its excitement at Stellar’s official partnership with Exodus, the wallet provider told customers on its website that they will be able to “send, store, receive and exchange Stellar Lumens” straight from their Exodus wallets. Users were also notified that they’ll be asked to update their existing wallets in order to enable access to XLM on the platform.
Exodus is effectively a secure, one-stop-shop online platform that allows its users to manage and exchange blockchain-based assets. It’s one of those rare beasts in this market in that it not only offers a portfolio but an exchange platform and a digital wallet for a range of digital assets.
Stellar, it seems, is heading for the stars at warp speed.
If you’d like to read more about Stellar Lumens, you might like our article here.
