The Ripple company announced on July 31st that former US president Bill Clinton will be a keynote speaker for Swell, an annual conference where “the world’s leading experts on policy, payments and technology” discuss how financial technology can be improved.

Ripple’s official blog post noted that the 42nd US president had “helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the internet” during the 90’s, when “groundbreaking technology and regulation were often on a collision course.”

President Clinton also introduced new and progressive programs during his 8 years in the White House, which helped bridge the “digital divide” by making the latest technology more accessible to citizens of underdeveloped countries, Ripple’s blog stated.

“Creating More Financial Inclusion”

Now, perhaps more than ever before, there are ways of “creating more financial inclusion and economic opportunity” due to the emergence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, the blog noted. This new financial technology, according to Ripple, also presents various challenges such as the creation of “thoughtful policy to protect consumers from risk without hampering innovation.”

It is expected that the influential former president will address these issues during the Swell 2018 conference. Gene Sperling, a well-known American economist and former director of the US National Economic Council, will be moderating the Q&A session with president Clinton during his keynote address.

Expediting Global Payments

This year’s Swell conference will be held in San Francisco, California from October 1st to October 2nd. The main topics of discussion will include how blockchain technology can be used by financial firms to make business processes more efficient, the potential benefits of using Ripple’s XRP token to expedite remittance payments, the future of e-commerce, and the ongoing development of a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets.

Notably the Ripple company also announced recently that it has partnered with Madonna to launch a fundraising campaign to help support orphans in the southeast African country of Malawi, one of the world’s least-developed countries. The famous singer and businesswoman stated that all proceeds from the charitable initiative will be managed by Raising Malawi, a non-profit organization founded by Madonna in 2006.

 

 

Featured Image Credit: “Bill Clinton” by “Gage Skidmore” via Flickr; licensed under “CC BY 2.0”