Ripple Is Going After Startups to Create an Ecosystem around Its Digital Currency XRP

Ripple is putting in so much effort to expand the use of its digital currency (XRP) it developed into new segments and verticals beyond the banking and payment space where the firm is focused. Ripple is the third largest digital currency in the world behind Ethereum (a platform that a lot of developers use), and Bitcoin (the world’s leading digital currency).

The Market Cap of Ripple

The current total market capitalization of Ripple is $28.7 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Yet the digital currency is barely used beyond the few pilot customer deployments that the company announced. Nevertheless, that might change very soon after the company announced a new initiative called Xpring – it is designed to bring businesses over to Ripple (XRP), both the smart ledger and the digital currency, to create an ecosystem.
The project will utilize a mixture of grants, incubation, and investment to lure firms and expand the utilization of XRP while giving Ripple space to focus on its financial services business.

Going Beyond Ripple

Ripple has hired the former director of the developer network of Facebook – Ethan Beard, to lead Xpring (pronounced spring) and also to lead the developer program of Ripple. The goal of the company is to provide support for businesses that they believe would greatly benefit from developing upon the XRP ledger.

The SVP of business operations of Ripple – Eric van Miltenburg, said that support will come in different ways: incubation, investment, and possibly grants or acquisitions. He said they are focusing on proven entrepreneurs that can use XRP and the smart ledger to actually address the issues of their customers.

Building an Ecosystem

The plan for how Xpring will function appears to be fluid for now. Beard said that the next innovation wave emanating from the blockchain, much like social graph and the Timeline of Facebook helped boost firms such as Spotify, BuzzFeed, and Zynga from mere startups to major tech companies. He believes that XRP and Xpring can help “develop new businesses and change how industries function.”

Princess Ogono is a writer, lawyer and fitness enthusiast. She believes cryptocurrencies are the future. When she's not writing, she spends time with her adorable cat, Ginger and works out often.