Ripple still has to deal with the SEC in court. Despite the ongoing fight over the question of whether the company was selling a security with XRP or not, Ripple continues to strengthen its efforts to advocate for crypto. A few days ago, Ripple published the results of a survey that was conducted together with the US Faster Payments Council.

What are the most important findings of this short study and which role will crypto play in terms of payments in the future?

Crypto payments are advantageous

One of the major findings was that most participants believe that crypto payments have a bright future. A total of 300 executives and analysts of different companies in 45 different countries were asked 25 questions to grasp their views on crypto payments.

The majority of them believes that crypto and blockchain is a key element to overcoming sluggish payment networks. They also understand that costs are significantly reduced and that cross-border payments are benefiting in the same way as domestic transactions. The survey also tells us that the overall volume of crypto transactions is still very low when compared to all other payment options available.

This isn’t exactly a surprise since overall adoption is not only dependent on merchants and payment providers but also on customers who are asking for it. What is even more interesting are the hurdles that still stand in the way of a broader crypto payment adoption.

Regulation and “green” cryptos are important

It appears that two things were especially important to the participants of the survey. They are aware that environmental concerns need to be addressed when using crypto for payments. There has been a discussion going on for quite some time about this point. Critics are blaming proof-of-work cryptos for their high energy consumption. This problem can be addressed by using green energy sources or by switching to proof-of-stake cryptos that need less energy.

The second most important point is not so easy to address, because it takes more time and effort. Participants voiced that regulatory clarity is still missing in many cases. This is a fair point when looking at the fact that the SEC is still suing companies in the US that were active for many years over their crypto assets or business models.

The European Union, on the other hand, is advancing crypto regulation with MiCA which addresses most of the problems and brings much-needed clarity. It might take some time until other governments advance regulatory approaches but once this is done the most important hurdles are moved out of the way.