In a new joint whitepaper, Ripple and Accenture have emphasized that distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are mature enough as a technology to begin commercial use.

Titled, “The Journey to Real-Time Cross Border Commercial Payments using Distributed Ledger Technology”, the white paper says that although the technology has a long way to go before it is adopted for widespread use, the time has now come for new networks to develop from it, in particular for cross-border and interbank commercial payments.

Currently, most cross-border payments take a day or more to reach their destination, and only during business hours coupled with several other uncertainties. There are thousands of banks worldwide reachable through correspondent banking and engaged in cross-border payments. However, it is not practical to link all these banks immediately into a new network using DLT.

The paper says that a viable approach is to start building such a network bottom-up, initially with a small number of banks and a small number of transactions.

“Starting small, implementing DLT technology iteratively allows learning by doing and a gradual rollout that can be scaled steadily in a contained and controlled way. It gives the network freedom to evolve to the best possible end state model”, it added.

The report further states that Ripple is a DLT solution for cross-border payments. It integrates the messaging required to clear payments between sending and beneficiary bank with the settlement process required to settle the fiat funds between those banks. By enabling banks to send and settle money instantly, the Ripple solution lowers the total cost of settlement and creates new revenue opportunities through enabling access to new markets and new products such as micropayments.

“The Ripple enterprise solution is mature enough to launch and scale a cross-border payments network, and a consortium of banks is forming to use this Ripple technology to keep ahead of the competition”, it said.