Blockchain startup Coil, which was founded in 2018, announced on Thursday (August 15) that it had received a one billion XRP grant from Xpring, Ripple’s incubator arm.
Xpring (pronounced “spring”), which was announced by Ripple on 14 May 2018, is an “initiative that builds infrastructure and helps innovative blockchain projects grow through investments and partnerships; it is “strongly focused on projects that build on and utilize XRP and the XRP Ledger.” Xpring’s objective is “to build a robust community of developers, entrepreneurs and companies who believe that blockchains, and the XRP Ledger in particular, will transform industries.”
One of its main areas of interest is novel use cases for XRP as a payment mechanism, “such as micropayments, machine-to-machine payments, paid APIs and wallets.”
Coil was founded by Stefan Thomas (former CTO of Ripple), who is the firm’s CEO, Ben Sharafian, who is the CTO, Gary Morris, who is the COO, and Fabian Rühle, who is the CDO.
Coil’s mission is to change the way creators monetize their content across the web:
Coil exists because content monetization doesn’t work for everyone, and we think it should. Our model offers an alternative to the status quo of paid advertisements and selling the public’s attention to the highest bidders – A solution that will serve the people who aren’t being served well today.
As subscribers consume content, Coil “uses an open API called Web Monetization to stream micropayments to creators in real time.” Examples of creators supported by the Coil platform are “writers and journalists, video creators, podcasters, streamers, musicians, photographers, and artists.”
According to the press release shared with CryptoGlobe, the grant from Xpring will be used to drive adoption of the cryptocurrency XRP and the Interledger Protocol (ILP) by “growing Coil’s monetization platform through mainstream adoption of Web Monetization” (an API that supports streaming micropayments in any currency including XRP).
Stefan Thomas, who is also the co-creator of ILP, had this to say:
“Creators want more choice and control over how their content is monetized and distributed. Web Monetization provides a solution that is more fair, open and inclusive for creators and fans around the globe. This initiative will help us level the playing field for creators by providing a better way to support content across the web.
As for Ethan Beard, Senior Vice President of Xpring, he said:
“Advertising and site-by-site subscription models are ready for disruption. The low cost and fast transactions of XRP makes it an ideal tool for Coil to offer an alternative monetization method and have a positive impact on creators. At Xpring, we build infrastructure and support projects that enable the Internet of Value and increase the utilization of XRP — we're excited to support Coil and the team in their journey.
Coil says that it will “use the 1 billion XRP to build an ecosystem of creators, developers, companies and nonprofits that are using XRP through the Web Monetization open standard.” Part of this grant will also be used “to help build awareness of Coil among creators, consumers and strategic partners.”
Coil’s platform, which was launched in May 2019, “allows creators to post public and exclusive content on Coil, which is automatically enabled for streaming payments.” People who want to support creators using Coil “can join the community with a $5monthly subscription.”
