Ripple Blockchain Payments App ‘MoneyTap’ Goes Live in Japan

[Ozark]

A consortium of 61 Japanese banks, responsible for over 80% of Japan’s banking assets, has begun using a consumer-centric retail payments app using Ripple blockchain technology.

In a tweet by Ripple’s own official handle on Thursday, the San Francisco-based fintech confirmed the app went live on Thursday, nearly seven months after its initial announcement earlier this year. As CCN reported at the time, the app is the product of SBI Ripple Asia, a banking consortium that launched in November 2016 with a focused effort to leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology for domestic bank transfers in Japan.

Dubbed ‘MoneyTap’, the smartphone app will enable real-time, round-the-year domestic money transfers between bank accounts using xCurrent, Ripple’s enterprise blockchain network, details from the app’s website reveal.

Payments can be triggered with the use of a simple QR code or the recipient’s phone number through the application, made available on both iOS and Android platforms. With today’s launch, the MoneyTap app is supported by three specific banks – Suruga Bank, SBI Net Sumishin Bank and Resona Bank, for zero-cost transfers between them. In the scenario of a request for a return of funds, participants will be required to pay a small fee.

Designed to be a quick, small-amount remittance service between everyday residents, MoneyTap allows for a maximum transfer amount of ¥30,000 (approx. $262) per transaction and a ceiling of ¥100,000 ($875) per day.

Japan’s current decades-old national payments clearing platform ‘Zengin’ facilitates domestic money transfers between 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM in Japan, in addition to banking fees.

While the launch of the app is the first notable implementation of commercial blockchain technology on a consumer scale in Japan, Ripple’s tech is also live in Banco Santander’s One Pay FX. A similar application powered by Ripple’s xCurrent, Santander says its retail banking clients in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland can settle international payments in a matter of “3 clicks and 40 seconds”.

Source: https://www.ccn.com/ripple-blockchain-payments-app-moneytap-goes-live-in-japan/