A new project named “Xpring” has been declared by San Francisco based Ripple, the makers of XRP cryptocurrency. The aim of this project is to give financial support to those companies that develop products and services for XRP, which is the third largest cryptocurrency having a market cap above $29 billion.
At present, Ripple is going through verification and testing and is being used by many banks, but with Xpring, it wishes to change that. Ripple aims to invest, raise, obtain and give grants to those companies that are using their digital asset XRP and XRP ledger.
An official announcement was made by the Ripple team that as a chief donor to the XRP ledger codebase and big holder of XRP, they frequently hear that businesspersons and developers wish to help them in their projects related to XRP. And they feel that because they are among those blockchain companies having traction for a non-speculative use case, they are placed exceptionally so as to help businesspersons significantly.
In order to lead Xpring and Ripple’s developer program, Ripple has brought in Ethan Beard as a Senior Vice President. From 2009 to 2012, Ethan served as the Director of the Facebook Developer Network, where he administered global developer relations, tasks and product marketing for the Facebook API. He also served as the Director of Social Media and Director of New Business Development at Google before Facebook.
Ethan Beard said that he loved helping startups leverage new technologies and developments to grow, and while serving Facebook he came across companies using their platform to become big businesses in areas like gaming, music, and news. He added that blockchain and digital assets are capable to solve important problems and for startups and businesspersons, XRP is a big tool to develop businesses, using its speed and scalability and demonstrated actual use case.
A few projects that are already funded have been announced by Ripple. They invested $25 million in XRP the previous month to Blockchain Capital’s $150 million VC Fund. At present Blockchain Capital manages more than $350 million in assets along with investments in companies like Coinbase, Circle, and Kraken.
Previously, executives of Ripple Stefan Thomas (CTO) and Chris Larsen (executive chairman and co-founder) invested in Omni. However, this was not Ripple’s investment; the company will incorporate XRP in the market as a currency.
The new initiative may boost its large market cap, as XRP tokens have very limited use-cases at present. It may even aid new projects to secure funding in order to develop products and to get Ripple’s help.
