Alphabet recently unveiled a new blockchain called the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), some features of which appear to put it in direct competition with Ripple Labs’ XRP Ledger (XRPL).
The $2.5 trillion internet giant stamped its own brand on it and name-dropped other heavyweights on its debut, including the world’s largest options and futures exchange, CME.
Like XRPL, GCUL will be a distributed base layer blockchain, allow API access, operate 24/7 with low latency, support programmable tokenization of assets, provide financial applications like payment automations, charge fees for transactions, support institutional infrastructure, facilitate global payments, and integrate with third-party wallets.
This feature list, not to mention GCUL’s banking and payments focus, mirrors years of XRPL messaging.
Indeed, a reader of Google’s documentation might become confused about whether certain paragraphs are describing GCUL or XRPL.
For example, GCUL will power “the management of commercial bank money accounts and facilitate transfers via a distributed ledger, empowering financial institutions and intermediaries.”
An enterprise blockchain focused on financial institutions
Although XRP is the third most valuable digital asset, GCUL is created by and named after a top five company globally.
And while the XRP Ledger and its backer Ripple are worth a few hundred billion dollars combined, Alphabet dwarfs that at $2.5 trillion. Moreover, not only does GCUL have the backing of a larger conglomerate, GCUL is already in a pilot program with the world’s largest options and futures exchange, CME.
CME is already testing the tokenization of assets — perhaps commodities, options, or futures contracts — on the GCUL blockchain. CME has never tokenized anything on the XRPL.
Read more: Ripple’s XRPL EVM mainnet is live — top exchange did $26 volume in a day
Plenty of differences between Google and XRP Ledger
Unlike the XRPL which has its own proprietary token, XRP, GCUL has not announced any plans for an initial coin offering (ICO).
In addition, XRPL is a distributed network that achieves consensus through global validation protocols, whereas Alphabet plans to keep GCUL as a private, permissioned blockchain.
The two blockchains also have separate programming languages — python for GCUL versus C++ for XRPL.
Finally, GCUL is currently in beta testing, whereas XRPL has been in public operation for over a decade.
Last month, Ripple co-creator David Schwartz explained why his blockchain, despite more than 300 bank partnerships amassed over more than a decade, doesn’t process billions of dollars worth of on-chain banking transactions.
Ripple has also consistently sold XRP to fund various projects, including its stablecoin initiatives.