Ripple Expands: Adds 11 Universities to Its Blockchain Research Initiative

TL: DR

• Ripple Expands University Blockchain Research Initiative to include 11 new partners
• The program already is already partnered with 29 top-tier universities, working to accelerate the knowledge of blockchain technology across multiple fields of study
• Ripples UBRI program is an investment that may give them a significant edge in the markets over the long term

Over the past six months, Ripple has been quietly spreading knowledge of blockchain technology through their University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), which launched in June 2018 and now includes 29 schools.

The schools include: Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Duke University, Georgetown University, University of Kansas, University of Michigan, Morgan State University, National University of Singapore, Northeastern University, University of Sao Paulo, Institute for Fintech Research, and Tsinghua University.

The program is focused on advancing academic research, technical development, and innovation in the blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments. Faculty, postdoctoral and graduate students are the most prominently featured recipients of UBRI.

The UBRI program is designed to offer courses that allow people in engineering, business, software development and a range of other disciplines to find career paths in the blockchain industry.

Like the Internet, Blockchains value proposition is multidimensional and therefore can be applied to almost any field of study where data transparency, security, and immutability are necessary.

In one example, UBRI’s partnership with the University of California (Berkeley) has allowed multiple departments within the school to collaborate on expanding course offerings, funding research projects and supporting student-led activities like a blockchain UI/UX Hackathon.

Very few initiatives can incite the same type of interdisciplinary collaboration, but because blockchain technology casts such a wide net in terms of its value proposition, the heads of these various school departments were able to see how knowledge of the technology would benefit their students in advancing their careers.

Rapid Growth

The fact that Ripple has managed to partner with 29 schools in a little over six months is a very positive sign for the future of blockchain technology in the academy.  While many technological breakthroughs will be made as a result of blockchain protocols competing in the free market, there may very well be more significant breakthroughs found as a result of well-funded research programs in top tier universities, while Ripple seems to be in a prime position to be the first private blockchain company to benefit from those breakthroughs.