On Wednesday (5 December 2018), enterprise blockchain software firm R3 announced the launch of its new Corda Settler app, which allows payment obligations arising on the Corda blockchain platform “to be made through any of the world’s payment systems, both traditional and blockchain-based,” and XRP is the first (and currently only) cryptocurrency that is supported as a settlement mechanism.

R3 is “an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 200 members and partners across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop on Corda.”

Corda, which was built in 2016 “specifically for business”, is an open source blockchain platform. It “removes costly friction in business transactions by enabling institutions to transact directly using smart contracts, while ensuring the highest levels of privacy and security.” Corda Enterprise is “a commercial version for enterprise usage.” The Corda platform is “already being used in industries from financial services to healthcare, shipping, insurance and more. It records, manages, executes institutions’ financial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce.”

The Corda Settler “is an open source CorDapp that allows payment obligations arising on the Corda Network to be settled via any parallel rail supporting cryptocurrencies or other crypto assets, and any traditional rail capable of providing cryptographic proof of settlement.” It verifies “that the beneficiary’s account was credited with the expected payment, automatically updating the Corda ledger.” The next stage of its development will see the Corda Settler “support domestic deferred net settlement and real-time gross settlement payments.”

Here is how XRP wil be used:

“When a payment obligation arises on Corda during the course of business, one party now has the option to request settlement using XRP. The other party can be notified that settlement in XRP has been requested and that they must instruct a payment to the required address before the specified deadline. Once an oracle service validates the payment has been made then both parties can treat the obligation as settled.”

Richard Gendal Brown, the Chief Technology Officer at R3, said:

“The deployment of the Corda Settler and its support for XRP as the first settlement mechanism is an important step in showing how the powerful ecosystems cultivated by two of the world’s most influential crypto and blockchain communities can work together. “

He also added:

“While the Settler will be open to all forms of crypto and traditional assets, this demonstration with XRP is the next logical step in showing how widespread acceptance and use of digital assets to transfer value and make payments can be achieved.”

Todd McDonald, one of R3’s co-founders and Head of Ecosystem Development, who published a blog post (that has a more detailed explanation of how the Corda Settler app works with the XRP Ledger) earlier today, had this to say:

“The first payment rail enabled for Corda Settler is the XRP Ledger. Since both Corda and the XRP Ledger are open source, it was easy for our dev team (and by ‘team’ I mean Roger Willis!) to make it happen. We also think that by using XRP, we can show one of the core value props of cryptocurrency: its utility as a peer-to-peer and near-instant settlement asset.”

The R3 website offers a very useful animated demo of Corda Settler:

Featured Image Courtesy of R3