Royal Bank of Scotland develops Emerald system based on Ethereum to complete cross-border payments in 25 seconds

Cross-border payments have always been a cumbersome business, but the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is looking to change that by using a new Ethereum-based system to eliminate the inefficiencies and errors that plague cross-border transactions.

Using the current banking system, overseas remittances can take a long time to complete and are costly, which is why some institutions have turned to Bitcoin and other digital currencies to do the job in recent years. As Bitcoin's use continues to expand, remittance fees using Bitcoin have fallen, making it easier for migrant workers to send money home to their families. As for Ethereum, the platform has experienced numerous problems, including DDoS attacks and repeated hard forks, but the underlying technology of this Bitcoin competitor is often touted as one of the most advanced technologies on the market.

One of the biggest issues facing remittances and cross-border payments in Europe is that they take a long time to process. Richard Crook, head of innovation engineering at RBS, explains:

"If you're making a cross-border payment within Europe - from France to Germany, or from the UK to France - in a worst-case scenario, it can take three days to complete the payment process."

The new system developed by RBS is called Emerald, which can significantly reduce the waiting time for transactions. About 100 transactions can enter the system every second, and most transactions will be completed within 25 seconds. This is a huge difference compared to the current three days.

The Emerald system has not yet announced an exact launch date, but the system has been confirmed to solve the problems existing in the remittance payment business. Senders can rest assured that their transferred funds will be received almost instantly. Crook further stated:

“Essentially, we’ve created a distributed clearing house… We’ve done a lot of hard work.”