XRP Utility Called Into Question by SWIFT Veteran

Tom Zschach, the former chief innovation officer at the SWIFT payment network, took to social media on Thursday to pour cold water on the utility of the XRP token within the new institutional framework.

As reported by U.Today, Ripple, alongside J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Ondo Finance, has executed the near-real-time redemption of a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

However, the community questioned whether it is actually beneficial for XRP.

A major caveat 

Ripple has lauded the pilot as a “meaningful step toward 24/7 global financial markets”, but Zschach was quick to point to a potential caveat regarding the network’s native token.

“Is XRP used as a settlement asset or just for gas on the ledger?”

There is a long-standing debate in the digital asset space about the distinction between using a blockchain network and using its native cryptocurrency.

However, the actual fiat settlement was centralized. J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys unit was the one delivering the U.S. dollars to Ripple’s bank account in Singapore. 

Ripple has historically pitched for the XRP token (cross-border settlements) as its core value proposition, and the SWIFT veteran is scrutinizing this. 

A powerful XRP naysayer 

Prior to his resignation in March, he spent six years steering innovation at SWIFT, Ripple’s primary competitor in the global cross-border payments arena. 

The former executive has previously drawn parallels between XRP and a “fax machine.” 

Moreover, he has downplayed the significance of Ripple’s survival of its grueling SEC lawsuit. Merely surviving lawsuits does not equate to institutional adoption, according to the executive. 

“Neutral, shared governance is [resilience],” Zschach previously stated, championing SWIFT’s consortium model over Ripple’s structure. “Institutions don’t want to live on a competitor’s rails.”

Zschach’s departure from SWIFT earlier this year was driven by his belief that the global financial system is fundamentally unprepared for the impending convergence of AI and tokenization.