Ripple can become the official payment instrument of the Olympic Games 2020

We talk a lot about the blockchain , talk about how the technology of the distributed registry can change the world, make society more comfortable and fair. But cryptocurrencies (although thanks to the most popular of them all learned about the blockchain) are associated even by crypto enthusiasts primarily with the ambiguous attitude of governments, vulnerabilities, hacker attacks and the prospects for losing savings.

Investors in cryptocurrency appear to be such risky players of an incomprehensible and semi-legal market. No one dared to expand the narrow scope of digital money, to bring to a new global level. Early? And no.

At least that's what Japanese baseball player Ken Takahashi thinks so. A few months ago, his online petition to the International Olympic Committee appeared on change.org. The purpose of the petition was to collect 7,500 signatures on a petition to make the Ripple cryptocurrency (XRP) official means of payment for the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo.

Ken Takahashi gives quite reasonable reasons :

• Japan is a country with a local, albeit respected, but not globally applicable currency (yen), which fans will have to mine in exchange offices, banks and ATMs;
• The experience of Beijing-2008 and Rio-2016 was remembered by hundreds of thousands of visitors not only by brilliant sports victories, but also by crazy queues at exchange offices;
• The language barrier does not interfere with rooting for your favorite team, but complicates communication with financial organizations, and you will have to communicate with them – dollars and euros do not have official circulation in the country.

“We believe that fast transactions and the security of XRP cryptocurrency will be a great contribution to solving this problem ,” said Takahashi.

It is difficult to imagine a more reasonable use of cryptocurrency. It has no boundaries, and its involvement in an international event with the participation of teams from all over the world seems natural.

In addition, if Ripple (or any other digital asset) became the main currency accepted at the Olympic Games, it would be a turning point in the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

It would be truly enchanting if it happened. But it probably will not happen.

The International Olympic Committee controls the licensing of the official logo of the Olympic Games and everything connected with it: branded clothing, souvenirs, coins, stamps – everything sponsors are so interested in. But Ripple Labs has not yet made any statements about its desire to become an Olympic sponsor.

And although there is absolutely no clarity in the designation of the term “official OI cryptocurrency,” it is obvious that the intentions of the creator of the petition go far beyond the scope of the license agreement.

Based on the wording of the petition, the intention is that tickets to the events of the Summer Games 2020 can be paid for using Ripple cryptocurrency. And in this case, there is even no certainty that the petition is addressed to the right authority.

The author of the petition appeals to the IOC, but several organizations are involved in the planning and conduct of the Olympic Games. The IOC has a responsible unit, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games , which coordinates work with the national Olympic committees and the host capital of the Olympics. Some instructions regarding payment and ticket sales are included in the contracts of the host city, but only with full approval by the Organizing Committee.

Less than two years are left before the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The city won the right to hold in 2013 and, according to The Washington Post, has already far exceeded the planned budget. The main agenda of the event was approved by the IOC in 2014.

And whatever the authority ready to agree on the “official cryptocurrency” and having the right to do so, it is unlikely that it will be used before the start of the Olympic Games, regardless of how many people sign the petition.

At the moment, the petition was signed by 13,270 crypto-enthusiast.