By The countdown to the next Olympic Games has begun with thousands of people across the world shifting their attention to Tokyo, host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Although this global event will afford Japan with many cultural and economic opportunities, it will also provide numerous challenges for the host city. Hosting the Olympics comes with overwhelming costs which most cities spend years paying off. The most expensive Summer Games recorded was the London 2012 Olympics which was reported to have cost approximately US$15 billion. In addition to the extreme cost of holding the Olympics, there are logistical concerns that come with hosting thousands of people, namely an increased strain on infrastructure, transport, accommodation and payment systems.
Ripple’s XRP to Ease the Burden
In response to the foreseen burden the Olympic Games will place on the Japanese economy, Ken Takahashi has formulated a novel solution that proposes to relieve the strain on the local currency, exchanges and payment systems. According to Takahashi “as tourists stream into the country, demand for the local currency skyrockets, causing long lines at currency exchanges, as seen at past events like Beijing 2008 and Rio de Janeiro 2016”. These problems, Takahashi believes are also further complicated by confusing exchange rates and language barriers.
In an effort to relieve this logistical burden, Takahashi has launched a petition to get the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make XRP the official cryptocurrency of the Tokyo Olympics. Takahashi believes that the fast transaction times and security of Ripple Lab’s XRP cryptocurrency will greatly contribute to unburdening the pressure the Olympics will place on the Japanese yen.
XRP Petition Gaining in Popularity 
Although Takahashi’s petition was created more than 10 months again, the petition is seen to be gaining momentum with the number of signatures at almost 10 000. From Saturday 6 October 2018 to Sunday 7 October 2018, the petition reportedly rose in signatories by over 1000 and many believe that this number will continue to grow.
The sudden increase of the petition’s popularity may be linked to several announcements by Ripple. Most recently Ripple launched MoneyTap, the revolutionary smartphone app, powered by Ripple’s blockchain technology, which allows customers to instantaneously settle transactions. MoneyTap uses multiple banks throughout Japan including SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank, and Resona Bank to bring instant around the clock banking to the majority of the Japanese population.
Ripple has followed an aggressive strategy for rapid expansion by approaching institutions to adopt and partner with this technology in order to provide greater utility for real-world transactions. According to Takashi Okita, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia, the MoneyTap app and its partnership with the bank consortium of Japan “can remove friction from payments and create a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience”.
The MoneyTap app may, therefore, be the perfect platform for the use of XRP as the de facto currency of the Tokyo Olympics, replacing the yen by allowing people from around the world to use this cryptocurrency payment platform.
If this petition is approved by the IOC, it will undoubtedly bolster XRP and Ripple’s position within the international crypto market. The prolific use of XRP through MoneyTap and the substantial volume of transactions that will foreseeably take place during the Olympic Games may well result in XRP, the third-ranked cryptocurrency, reaching record levels of liquidity.
Will you be signing the petition? Is cryptocurrency the answer to the currency burden created by the Olympic Games? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
SIGN THE PETITION HERE – JOIN OVER 11600 PEOPLE (09/10/2018)
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