Ripple Acquires Google Messaging Leader Amir Sarhangi
Ripple Labs announced that it has hired Amir Sarhangi, who until now headed a major mobile project at Google. Ripple is already widely known as the blockchain-based payment network that is allowing financial institutions to easily make cross-border payments. Now, Ripple has hired one of Google’s key figures.
Sarhangi originally joined Google when it acquired his company, Jibe Mobile, in 2015. He was responsible for the development of Rich Communication Services (RCS), an enhanced messaging standard that may replace SMS. RCS has been adopted by a number of Google’s partners, although Apple has refused to implement the technology.
Sarhangi will now serve as Ripple’s vice president of products and the leader of RippleNet. RippleNet is the basis for Ripple’s three main products: xCurrent, xVia, and xRapid. These services are targeted at financial institutions and other organizations, allowing these groups to efficiently send money internationally.
RCS and Ripple are fairly different projects, and it is not clear whether RCS technology will be directly added to RippleNet. However, Ripple’s competitors have used RCS technology to transfer money internationally. Ripple has also claimed that Sarhangi’s “experience will come in handy.” This suggests that future developments may reveal Ripple’s interest in RCS and mobile technology.
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