Ripple has announced a new initiative to support entrepreneur’s development projects in return entrepreneurs will use Ripples XRP currency as well it’s XRP Ledger.
Ripple Launches Initiative to support Entrepreneurs
The San Francisco based blockchain firm launched its Xpring program as a new investment initiative to help fund proven entrepreneurs to “invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs” in exchange for their input into the XRP Ledger and utilization of the XRP digital coin.
The company made the announcement on their website where they also gave details of new hires brought in to successfully launch the Xpring addition to the Ripple ecosystem. Key among the new additions is Ethan Beard, formerly Director of the Facebook Developer Network who will act as senior vice president for both Ripple and Xpring’s developer program.
Beard was quoted in Ripple’s announcement as saying;
“I love helping startups leverage new technologies and developments to grow. At Facebook, we saw companies in areas like gaming, music, and news use our platform to become big businesses, blockchain and digital assets have the ability to solve important problems and XRP – with it’s speed, scalability and demonstrated real-world use case – is a great tool for startups and entrepreneurs to build businesses around.”
An Impressive Group Already Assembled
Ripple has already put together an impressive group of entrepreneurs who will take part in the program according to their official announcement; those who participating include:
- Scooter Braun, entertainment talent manager, entrepreneur and founder of SB Projects, who is pursuing several endeavors that will use XRP to improve artists’ ability to monetize and manage their content.
- Stefan Thomas, inventor of the Interledger Protocol (ILP), creator of BitcoinJS, co-founder of TxtBear, who just launched a new venture Coil to use XRP and the Interledger Protocol (ILP) for various micropayments applications, such as facilitating “bite-sized” purchases of media. You can learn more about Coil here.
- Thomas McLeod, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Omni, who will soon integrate XRP as a currency into Omni’s marketplace.
- Bart and Brad Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, who have the first fund to accept capital calls in digital assets with a focus on driving innovation in the blockchain sector.
Scooter Braun founder of SB Projects said of the initiative “Blockchain technology and digital assets like XRP will provide artists with new distribution channels and revenue streams,”
The Xpring team finished their announcement by writing that they are vetting hundreds of candidates but are still open to new projects and business applications and invite serious entrepreneurs to visit the Xpring website. At the time of writing Ripple’s XRP was trading 4% higher on the day at $0.74.
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