Does Ryver Protocol really need Blockchain?
Or the question in everyone’s hearts “Are you just a shameless cashgrab?”
To start with, if I were I won’t be trying to pull off an ICO in an increasingly tough bear market. I’m pretty sure there’re easier scams that I could try (Ponzis come to mind). :D
A more sober critique we received recently was, “Aren’t you just a remittance player then? Wouldn’t partnerships be all you need? I don’t see why you need Blockchain.” It was a very fair observation and one that we heard often.
So we are taking this opportunity to answer in detail.
- Aren’t you just a remittance player? We are a remittance player as much as banks are remittance players when they transfer money between each other via SWIFT. In the existing SWIFT system, remittance players are the select few with access to SWIFT and charge users as a gateway. We are building the entire network that enables anyone to transmit money to anyone else in the network, and opening it to everyone.
- Wouldn’t partnerships be all you need? In the beginning we will need to actively seek partners to join the Ryver and handhold them as they are onboarded. But as we continue building, we hope that others will begin seeking out the Ryver on their own accord to join the larger community.
- I don’t see why you need blockchain. The previous two questions actually help to outline the problems that can only be solved by blockchain. Firstly, we need to begin building a cheaper, more accessible alternative that is open to all comers. Secondly, it needs to be a permissionless system that allows decentralisation across the protocol, so that no single entity has control over the entire network. Not only does Blockchain allow us to code the necessary governance into the system itself and do away with the need for permissioned access, but by preventing the double-spending problem we avoid chargebacks and wire fraud.
Another crucial advantage that blockchain gives over the existing systems is its scalability. By making the protocol permissionless in the future, as each node joins, the protocol’s coverage extend to the where node is live and its users. No banking system today can do this.
To summarise why we need blockchain, we need it’s immutability, governance and scalability. It’s no longer about a single team, but a network larger than the sum of its parts.
