Ripple Spreads The Word With $50m Research Donation

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Cryptocurrency start-up Ripple is encouraging students to take part in developing the blockchain and payments system with a $50 million donation to universities around the world.

Ripple is seeding more research into the blockchain by collaborating with universities to speed up academic research, innovation and advances in blockchain technology.

The universities are free to focus on their own research and development topics providing they:

  • Collaborate on research and technical development to stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in blockchain
  • Create new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency and other fintech topics.
  • Stimulate ideas and dialogue among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest.

The universities are in several countries, which allows blockchain research across different regulatory environments.

Backbone of innovation

The Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) at Princeton University is creating a program to study the policy impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the US and around the world.

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the University of Luxembourg are building a new blockchain research program.

“As the traditional backbone of innovation, universities uniquely offer an independence and rigour that the private sector cannot. They also are responsible for training the workforce of the future, helping to address the demand for technological solutions and talent to solve the world’s hardest financial problems,” said a spokesman for Ripple.

“Now is the perfect time to support research and study in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments at universities around the world.”

Where the cash is going

The complete list of Ripple partners is:

  • Australian National University College of the Law
  • CITP at Princeton
  • CSAIL at MIT
  • Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
  • Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil)
  • Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
  • IIT Bombay
  • International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H)
  • Korea University
  • McCombs School of Business, UT-Austin
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • The University of Pennsylvania
  • UCL (University College London)
  • University of Luxembourg
  • University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
  • University of Oregon
  • University of Waterloo

Ripple has also recently donated $29 million to schools and teachers to create inspirational classroom projects. The donation also funds 30,000 teachers in the US and provides books, technology and field trips to more than 1 million students.