One of the issues I am finding with the blockchain business models is that fiat currencies (Euro, Dollar…) always have to be transformed into cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum…) and then at destination transformed back into the other fiat currency. Since these cryptocurrencies’ value is so volatile this creates fx risk. ( I change 1.000 Euros into Ethereum one day, and the next day I get back 985 Euros)

Ripple is able to transfer fiat currency in real time among banks. How do they do this?

For this they use a different technology than the blockchain. They have created  (and recently open sourced) the “Interledger protocol” which is a 2 way messaging middleware that connects banks point to point or through a third party (Liquidity provider). The trick is they need the connected banks to first deposit funds at the other bank, these funds act as pre-funded collateral which enables the speedy transaction, since the cash is already there from the start. Another cool part of the protocol is that if a direct connection between banks can’t be found, the protocol establishes a multi-hop link going through multiple banks until the link is established. In case no route can be found, there is always a link that can be established via Ripple’s blockchain by transfroming into XRP (this would provide big cost savings) since the transfer is done in almost real time, the fx risk would be very small. A thorough explanation of how ripple works can be found in the Ripple solutions guide

Here you can see Ripple in action doing an Fx spot transferring 1.000 Canadian dollars to Euro in 8 seconds instead of 4 days.

By following this super simple tutorial, I´ve understood the basics of how to create a smart contract, in this case a smart contract which creates a new cryptocurrency. The JamonCoin. Each JamonCoin is backed by assets of Jamon in my fridge, so I expect the value of this cryptocurrency to be recognised by the markets.

You can observe this new Cryptocurrency from your Test-Net Ethereum wallet by clicking on tab “Contracts>Watch token” and pasting the address: 0x8866181a0176480cdD1D5a1d7C58aA73a0f797E3 Let me know if you´d like to receive some JamonCoins to play with.

Compiling a new contract is very easy, in your Ethereum wallet, go to “Contracts>Deploy New Contract”, write the code under “Solidity contract Source Code” and you can deploy it by selecting the contract to deploy and initialising it´s values. Solidity is object oriented, so you can use concepts as constructors, classes, inheritance… to deploy it click “Deploy”.

Hello World! 😀