Upcoming ICO: Ripio ICO Makes Inroads in Latin American Banking

Latin America’s unbanked consumers, which represent some 65% of the population in the region, have been the target of more than one upcoming ICO. The bitcoin-blockchain startup Ripio ICO is appealing to the same population with the aim of democratizing the digital economy with digital payment alternatives in the region via what's been dubbed the Ripple Credit Network. 

A staple of an upcoming ICO’s success is the startup’s performance in a pre-sale, of the Ethereum-based RCN token and Ripio collected an impressive USD 31 million in recent days comprised of both blockchain veterans and mainstream investors. At the start of the year they closed a Seed A venture capital round worth USD 1.9 million, as per Tech Crunch.  

Among the investors in the Ripio ICO pre-sale were FBG Capital, Maple Ventures and Blacktower Capital, according to reports. Perhaps they were drawn to the fact that Ripio, which is translated as gravel in Spanish, already has sales. They boast 100,000 customers in the Latin American region.

Ripio ICO on the Open Road 

Ripio CEO Sebastian Serrano told TechCrunch at the start of the year,

The current Ripio credit product, Ripio Credit, lets borrowers finance their online payments in installments using bitcoin, which they sell in local currency. Borrowers don't need a bank account or debit card, just a Ripio digital wallet. 

It appears the Ripio Credit Network components are borrower, wallet, scoring agent, which is equiavalent to a credit score, co-signers, lenders and more. There is also an Oracle that sets the price feed of the token based on the borrower's local currency to set an exchange rate for the local currency and the RCN token, as per the company's white paper. 

P2P Model

Argentina-based Ripio wants to transform banking on the blockchain, including internet-based and peer-to-peer business models, which in their current form it says "present a structural problem" for lenders and funders to maintain a diversified portfolio and still battle default rates.

Ripio builds on the P2P model, however, with the Ethereum blockchain's ERC 20 protocol credit network using smart contracts for borrowers, lenders and underwriters. Credit products are extended with local currencies but the RCN tokens are needed for fees, obligations and other expenses.   

The Ripio ICO main sale is scheduled for Oct. 24.