Due to the ongoing corona pandemic, the Japanese Ministry of Interior and Communications has decided to introduce a cashless payment system. This should effectively reduce the circulation of cash and therefore the potential chances of transferring COVID19. The new application is a bridging system that makes QR Code cashless payment systems compatible with each other and will be called "JPQR".
Ripple offers the best conditions
On June 22, 2020, the department announced that requests to participate could be submitted. The already published list of May 05, 2020 shows that the MoneyTap payment application, provided by Ripple, is also listed under the options. To date, 18 additional companies have signed up for the new program. MoneyTap offers the best conditions with 1.5%, with Merpey and Yucho Pay.
However, the big but crucial difference between these payment providers and MoneyTap is that the payment solution provided by Ripple can be used tax free in Japan. MoneyTap is therefore the cheapest supplier of the new payment system, as shown in the following list.
Source: https://jpqr-start.jp/
JPQR will become the new national payment standard, bringing together several payment services (freely translated):
"JPQR" is a uniform standard for payments by QR code, which has been established by the Cashless Promotion Council. By combining (unifying) the QR codes of several companies into a single QR code, you can use a QR code (JPQR) to invoice several companies.
The introduction of a de facto standard for QR Code applications will facilitate and secure payments for people living in Japan, as all applications supported by JPQR can be pre-validated and therefore considered safe. According to the ministry, standardization will also further promote the adaptation of mobile payments.
As Crypto News Flash previously reported, Ripple's longtime partner, SBI Holdings, plans to use MoneyTap in Japanese ATMs:
Currently, each bank has an ATM with its own banking application, but with a shared web application, the same ATM can be used as its own jointly operated multi-bank ATM.
The application was initially launched in the fall of 2018 with 3 banks, but must be deployed step by step in more than 61 banks led by the SBI Ripple Asia consortium, which cover more than 80% of all banking assets in Japan. The question of whether the application will use XRP is not yet confirmed.
Ripple Update: partner network grows to 350 members
Ripple announced last year that more than 300 members belong to RippleNet and are actively using the payment solutions provided. In an online meeting with an international law firm, Navin Gupta, Ripple's general manager for the South Asia and MENA region, explained that Ripple currently has 350 financial institutions as cooperation partners. The meeting took place on May 22, 2020 and can be viewed in the following video:
