All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders.
- The Mojaloop Foundation relies on the Interledger protocol to drive financial inclusion.
- Digital assets could be part of Mojaloop’s vision as a settlement and trading mechanism for cross-border transactions.
Last week, the “Mojaloop Community PI-13 Event” took place. One of the topics of the event was the use of the Interledger Protocol (ILP) for Mojaloop’s vision for digital payments. The Mojaloop Foundation’s mission is to promote financial inclusion by empowering organizations to create interoperable payment systems that enable digital financial services for all.
While the ILP is not tied to any single company, blockchain, or currency, it is closely aligned with Ripple and XRP by providing an interface to the XRP ledger. In addition, Mojaloop is also having a direct connection to Ripple Labs since last September, as the company joined the foundation’s board of directors.
In its role, Ripple is expected to help “provide the strategic vision, corporate governance and technical guidance to ensure the long-term health and growth of the Mojaloop open source software and development community,” according to the press release at the time.
Last but not least, Ripple-funded Coil, with CEO Stefan Thomas, is also a member of Mojaloop, whose other board members include Google, ModusBox, Omidyar Network, Coil, PhonePe and The Rockefeller Foundation. Coil’s mission is to drive monetization of web content for creators and consumers, as well as the adoption of XRP.
Mojaloop relies on the Interledger protocol
Accordingly, the remarks of Lesley-Ann Vaughan, who is responsible for product strategy at the Mojaloop Foundation, were exciting. Vaughan said in response to a community question about the connection between the ILP and Mojaloop:
Mojaloop is fundamentally built on top of the Interledger Protocol. So the non-mediation principles, the way we think about security, and the way money moves is fundamentally based on it. So the two are very interlinked, however, with financial inclusion in mind, [….] cash is king and Mojaloops vision is to move cash towards digital payments, and that’s in a regulated environment.
As for the extent if cryptocurrencies play a role in the Mojaloop Foundation’s strategy, Vaughan let slip that while they don’t play a role on the consumer side for now, they could be a part of the strategy as a settlement and trading mechanism for cross-border transactions.
Although she didn’t name XRP specifically, XRP community members might interpret it that way. At the very least, she described XRP’s use case without naming the bridge currency:
So we focus on the Interledger Protocol to help how fiat money can move. That’s doesn’t necessarily mean that crypto isn’t a part of the ecosystem in the world. [….] And our focus right now is not on cryptocurrencies. At a different level in the ecosystem, it is very possible that central bank digital currencies and cross-border settlement and trading mechanisms will become part of the story. […] But on the customer end, we are focused on fiat currencies.
