Ripple Suffers A Setback By The Japanese Resona Bank

The blockchain-based payment network Ripple faces another obstacle after the Japanese Resona Bank decided not to use the MoneyTap payments app based on Ripple’s blockchain technology. In the coming altcoin news, we find out more about the bank’s decision.

Resona is the fifth largest financial institution in Japan and decided to stop using the consumer-centric retail payment app MoneyTap for no real reason. The Bank didn’t provide an answer about the cancellation and now it’s likely that other institutions will follow.

The cancellation is supposed to take effect on May 13 according to the official announcement from two days ago on its official website:

 “Resona Bank will cancel the cooperation with the money transfer application MoneyTap (which started on October 4, 2018) on May 13, 2019.”

As previously reported in our latest cryptocurrency news, about 60 Japanese banks are using the MoneyTap app. As of March, 13 banks have already invested in the project. After the step back from Resona Bank, the number decreased to 12. Resona was one of the first three banks to join the project.

MoneyTap was created by SBI Ripple Asia which is basically a banking alliance launched back in 2016 in November. The alliance aimed to leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology in order to boost domestic bank transfers in Japan. The blockchain-based app enables real-time domestic money transfers in just a day, all year around.

Ripple hasn’t given any comment on the decision of the bank. It is unclear what this decision means for the rest of the Japanese banks who are still using MoneyTap. In the meantime, Ripple‘s co-founder Chris Larsen announced that the company is donating $25 million in XRP to the San Francisco State University. This was one of the largest donations ever made to a US university. The funds are supposed to help promote the development of blockchain technology and to provide education for students of this technology.

This is also not the first time Ripple donates money to promote blockchain. The company previously donated about $50 million to 17 universities worldwide.