ECB Unveils Instant #Payment #System, Claims It’s ‘Better’ than #Blockchain.

And from a #central #bank no less. The world is just recognizing the countless applications of blockchain #technology, not to mention the speed, #security and simplicity at which #transactions can be completed, and Yves Mersch of #Luxembourg has suggested he’s got something that can run circles around it. Mersch, an executive board member of the #European #CentralBank (ECB), told Bloomberg the organization is readying a new settlement system dubbed Target Instant Payment Settlement, or TIPS, for its November debut, which he suggests leaves blockchain in the dust.

TIPS (not to be confused with US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities) is a product of a knee-jerk reaction among policymakers and regulators to create something that competes with blockchain, with the purpose of offering real-time payment transactions to disrupt the disrupter, if you will, of distributed ledger technology and digital #coins.

Mersch, in a separate Bloomberg article, is quoted as acknowledging the connection between what he described as the virtual and physical worlds, saying a “collapse” of the former could trigger a liquidity event in the latter. As a result, cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain have captured their attention.

Crypto Culture
Mersch touted the features of the new blockchain rival. “TIPS is 10 seconds, 0.2 cents. DLT transactions are at best 30 euros and take at least one hour,” he said, adding that the ECB is more result-driven than technology focused, which he alleges gives it an edge. Policymakers were more engaged than usual in the new technology, no doubt for the unexpected competition that blockchain has introduced.

But there are other alternatives to bitcoin, such as Ripple’s XRP for payments, not to mention the bitcoin-accelerating Lightning Network’s famous pizza transaction.

The fact that the supposed next iteration of a decentralized blockchain is being unveiled by a centralized bank will no doubt raise some eyebrows among participants in the cryptocurrency community.

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