On Thursday (September 24), independent and non-profit entity XRP Ledger Foundation announced that it had just launched and that its mission is “to accelerate the development and adoption of the decentralized XRP Ledger.”
Here is a brief explanation of the XRP Ledger:
“The XRP Ledger is “an online system for payments, powered by a community without a central leader. Anyone can connect their computer to the peer-to-peer network that manages the ledger. The XRP Ledger is the home of XRP, a digital asset designed to bridge the world’s many currencies. The XRP Ledger is one part of the developing Internet of Value: a world in which money moves the way information does today.”
XRP Ledger Foundation aims to focus its work in the following four areas:
- “Driving research and development and contributing to the code that is the core of the XRP Ledger”
- “Ensuring reliable transaction submissions and data querying to so everyone has reliable access to the XRP Ledger”
- “Social Impact & Engagement”
- “Connecting diverse stakeholders to cultivate a thriving, vibrant XRP Ledger ecosystem”
According to its press release, the XRP Ledger Foundation “received an initial donation of over $6.5M from Coil,Ripple and Gatehub to help expand the Foundation’s work and serve the growing number of developers
and other community members building on the XRP Ledger.”
The Foundation will also “work with the broader community, including academic institutions and nonprofits, to meet the ever-changing challenges of fast and low-cost transfer of value in the years ahead.”
Bharath Chari, an advisor to the XRP Ledger Foundation, had this to say:
“This is a very exciting time for the ecosystem.
“The Foundation is extremely happy to be working with stakeholders in the ecosystem to further innovation and use of the XRP Ledger.
“The decentralized XRP Ledger provides an opportunity for developers to leverage the low cost and fast transfer of value for a multitude of use cases.
“We are fully committed to providing support to growing the developer ecosystem.”
Although parts of the roadmap “are already being implemented, thanks to grants from Coil, Ripple and Gatehub,” the Foundation is “seeking additional funding from other participants in the ecosystem.”
David Schwartz, CTO at Ripple, stated:
“The people behind the XRP Ledger Foundation are long-time contributors to the XRP Ledger’s
development and success. Through the Foundation, they will support and provide resources to others
building applications and infrastructure for the community.
“We and the community have worked over the past 8 years to dramatically increase the decentralization,
performance and feature set of the XRP Ledger and remain committed to its future growth and innovation
led by the Foundation.”
And XRP Ledger developer and Foundation board member Wietse Wind said:
“We look forward to having a Foundation that has representation from industry leaders, academics and
social visionaries.
“We will also engage with schools that are part of the University Blockchain Research
Initiative ecosystem in order to further research on improvements to the XRP Ledger.”
Cryptographer and software engineer Nik Bougalis works at Ripple where he is Xpring‘s Director of Engineering. He is also the leader of lead the C++ team, which “has been developing and refining the open source reference server implementation behind the the XRP Ledger. “
When asked on Twitter if he and his C++ team are “moving to the foundation or remaining at Ripple”, Bougalis replied that this team will continue to stay at Ripple:
Featured Image by “qimono” via Pixabay.com
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
