Ripple has been hard at work building a global payment network and has signed a number of major deals in the Middle East and Asia over the past few months. In a bid to help the network grow in South America, Ripple has decided to open up an office in Brazil, headed up by Luiz Antonio Sacco – ex-CEO of the Brazilian subsidiary of The Warranty Group. This is a huge move for Ripple, as if it can gain a better foothold in the region it will have a truly global payment network.
Moving Vast Amounts of XRP Around
A handful of Ripple’s platforms utilize the XRP cryptocurrency to help make processing cross-border payments faster and cheaper. Over the past few months, Ripple has unlocked billions of XRP tokens from escrow and sent them to major partners. It’s unclear how many of these tokens have gone to South America, but Ripple has been adding fun memos to every transaction. While these huge unlocks of tokens is great news for the Ripple community and network, it’s also hampering the value of the XRP token. New deals and partnerships are being announced every week, sending the price rocketing, but then a release of tokens increases circulating supply and dilutes the value. As the final XRP tokens leave escrow and into the system, these partnerships will begin to have more impact on price.
Funding Education
While in Brazil, Ripple has pledged to continue its philanthropic work by teaming up with 15 professors from University of São Paulo (USP) and Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). Ripple has promised to work closely with these two universities to develop blockchain technology courses to help raise the next generation of blockchain developers and entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, Ripple donated $25 million to San Francisco state university – widely regarded as the largest single donation ever made to a university. The funds were sent in XRP and are to be used to help students learn more about blockchain technology and get hands on experience – a similar program they are running in Brazil with USP and FGV.
Ripple’s technology has been deployed all over the world – most recently with SABB using it for cross-border payments – and we’re now expecting to see more South American partners join the new trend. South America is highly regarded as a hotbed for blockchain and crypto activity, so Ripple is certainly making the right move if it’s hoping to scoop up a raft of new clients and partners.
