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Is the Ethereum killer the Ethereum copycat? This is why Tron is different

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There are a handful of blockchain projects of the second and the third generation that are constantly compared amongst them. We’re talking about Ethereum, Tron, EOS, and Cardano. In this article, we’ll focus on Tron and Ethereum because both of those blockchains have developed something of a rivalry, and it’s a good idea to understand both the similarities and the differences between them.

Tron vs. Ethereum

Tron began as a project running on Ethereum, and that’s one of the reasons for which a lot of people believe that Tron is nothing more than a new version of Ethereum on steroids. Things are not that simple.

Both Tron and Ethereum are projects which include a token (TRX and ETH, respectively) but, unlike Bitcoin, or Litecoin, or most other blockchain projects the point is not in the token. These are programmable platforms that allow for the development and deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications.

Ethereum was the first network that featured those capabilities, which is the main reason why it has so much prestige and influence. And that’s also the reason why Tron and EOS started based on Ethereum.

Tron on its own

As Tron became independent of Ethereum, on last May, we saw a lot of talk in the cryptosphere about the “Ethereum killer.” That was because the technical specifications promised by Justin Sun (Tron’s CEO and founder) gave you as a user or developer every capability to do anything you could do in Ethereum.

Except that it would be much faster, much cheaper, and much easier because Tron adopted standard programming languages instead of Ethereum’s languages which are all native and not the kind of thing every programmer knows out of the box.

As Mr. Sun announced Tron’s new specifications, a few weeks before it was launched, Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum’s founder and leader) used his Twitter account to express his skepticism about those specifications. Some would have even called it a bit of a mockery.

But the Tron network was released, and it turned it to be every bit as good as promised. How is this possible? The main reason is: contrary to some popular opinions, Tron is not a rehash of Ethereum. It’s a whole new technology developed using different, more powerful tools and platforms, and that’s why there’s a difference.

It’s all under the hood

Not to get too technical, but Tron is a whole new blockchain built on top of GRPC and DPos. We could explain to you what that means, but it suffices to say that these are the same tools Google uses to come up with all its magic.

Ethereum, on the other hand, is based on JSON-RPC and Pow. Again, not to get too technical, but you surely know Google, and you know how well it works (too well, in many opinions, as a matter of fact).

So, here’s the thing to take away from this post: Tron has nothing to do with Ethereum anymore. It’s considerably more powerful, reliable, and in only a few months it’s managed to have more dApps in the world’s top ten than Ethereum.

It’s innovative, well designed, and well developed. Ethereum was terrific when it first appeared, but Mr. Buterin, able as he is, has not been able to keep his network competitive in the current times.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

News from the Ripple and XRP world

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As usual, lots of things are happening around Ripple, and it’s native currency. That’s how it’s been almost every week for more than a year now, so keeping up with all the news is almost a full-time job (which is our job) and, in this article, we’ll give you a quick digest about what’s been going on lately.

Sendfriend joins Ripple and others

Sendfriend is a blockchain-based remittance company that works mainly for transfers between the US and the Philippines. It currently offers the cheapest, safest and quickest way to process payments between those two countries and it’s raised 1.7Million in new capital to help Overseas Filipino Workers to improve the service’s quality and the customer’s experience.

Among the company’s new collaborators are 8 Decimal Capital, 2020 Ventures, Mahindra Finance, TechStars, the Mastercard Foundation, Barclay’s, MIT Media Lab, and, of course, Ripple.

The Ripple collaboration includes using xRapid to eliminate friction from transfers, and XRP (the coin) as a means of liquidity, so that payments can be settled in seconds.
Ripple has been securing at least a new strategic partnership every week for months now, so this isn’t very surprising, but it shows that Ripple’s leadership is not losing any momentum.

The Ripple community takes the PR war seriously

Ripple’s technology and Ripple’s digital asset (XRP) have not been the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, even if it’s been one of the most profitable coins ever to hit crypto.

Why?

Because Satoshi’s original vision for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies was to disrupt and finish off the traditional financial system and fiat currencies, Ripple has worked to enhance that traditional system by means of blockchain technology, so many purists consider that to be a betrayal of crypto’s original values and aims. As a consequence, the project and the coin have been at the center of many attacks.

But the Ripple community is steadfast. They like the project and the coin because they understand that the fundamentals are sound.

Recently, the attacks have escalated because many scammers have been using false accounts to promulgate points of view that are, at the very least, very hostile to Ripple.

The community is fed up with this, so they are creating self-governed mechanisms to counteract this. One of those is xrparcade.com. In this website, you can find a list of scammers that are trying to divulge doubtful information about Ripple and XRP. But there are other initiatives.

So how can you protect yourself from disinformation about XRP or any other blockchain project? Well, just make sure you keep reading honest articles. Like ours!

New members in the University Blockchain Research Initiative

UBRI was started last June 2018 by Ripple. It’s a research fund meant to create and support educational programs in blockchain technology all over the world. Last February 7th, Ripple announced that eleven new universities would join the program.

Those include Tsinghua University, the University of Sao Paulo, Northeastern University, the National University of Singapore, the Morgan State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Kansas, Georgetown University, Duke University, Cornell University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Plenty of names with huge prestige in the list, so the new UBRI members don’t lack academic credibility at all.

Investing in education has done wonders in the past for tech giants such as IBM, Apple, and Microsoft. This is, of course, a long-term effort so we’ll have to wait a few years before we can see this tree grow some fruits.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Ric Edelman: A Bitcoin ETF is on the way

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Creating a Bitcoin ETF has been a priority for many influential crypto players for months already (maybe more). But the road to an ETF has been almost as hard as Frodo’s road to Mordor.

Ric Edelman’s opinion

But Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines, appeared earlier today at CNBC’s ETF Edge at the Inside ETFs Conference in Hollywood, Florida. He had this to say on the subject:

“It’s virtually certain. The only question is when” then he continued: “The SEC has several legitimate thoughtful concerns that the industry has to overcome but I’m confident they will. Eventually, we will see a bitcoin ETF and it’s at that stage that I will be much more comfortable recommending that ordinary investors participate.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been walking with led shoes on the subject of cryptocurrencies. Are some of them securities? Are some of them actual money? And how can you tell the difference? Should these assets be available for the market at large?

And how should they be regulated? SEC has provided us with some answers to those questions, but some questions still remain, and they are getting on the way of mainstream adoption.

SEC’s decisions will be important because Bitcoin still lacks a secure chain of custody (in traditional terms, in practical terms, Bitcoin’s blockchain is most likely much safer than the traditional mechanisms).

On the other hand, SEC’s decisions will apply to the US only, which is not that important in crypto compared with Japan, China or Korea, so it will have no way of affecting international price flows or to governate trading platforms based overseas.

The big boys are interested

Mr. Edelman also explained that major financial institutions are interested in finding a solution that enables them to get a piece of the crypto action, and that could be enough for an ETF to go online eventually. The market is already there.

“We’ve got some serious players. Fidelity has made a major announcement in the custody issue. We’ve got Kingdom Trust and a number of other very serious players on the custody side. I’m confident that in very short order VanEck or Bitwise will satisfy the custody concern to the SEC,” according to Mr. Edelman.

Tom Lyndon has an opinion too

Tom Lydon, who is ETFTrends.com editor-in-chief joined the conversation to add that he already sees a huge demand for something like a Bitcoin ETF.

“There is pent-up demand. We interview advisors all the time. Seventy-four percent say they’ve talked to clients about their interests in bitcoin, so they need to step up when this happens because that money is going to go elsewhere,” Lydon contributed.

VanEck and SolidX are trying to get an SEC authorization to come up with the world’s first Bitcoin ETF. But they withdrew their application because Trump’s government shutdown could complicate things too much to get a resolution in time.

And why does any of that matters to you or me? Because many experts agree on something: the next bull run in crypto will be driven, at least partially, by institutional investors. So far, crypto’s players are small investors for the most part, and an ETF would be one of the ingredients that could change the market for good.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Biopspace.com, Tron and the ALS Association launch the VoiceYourLove campaign for ALS awareness

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Tron is going to join forces with Biospace.com and the ALS Association to create awareness for ALS. They are going to take advantage of the good wishes that are common during Valentine’s in many of the world’s countries to work together and make a difference.

In this article, we’ll tell you quickly who these three players are, and a little about the initiative as well so you can be aware and join it if you consider it a worthy cause.

Biospace.com

Biospace is an online platform that champions the industry of the life sciences by providing a hub for news and careers. While it’s now a fully digital resource, it’s been around since 1985, providing insights, opportunities, and connection tools for organizations and talented professionals who work on improving health and quality of life in the planet.

The website is the most comprehensive source for news and information in the life sciences. It breaks the news daily and helps investors and scientist to be up to date with the essential information on the medical device, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. As such, it’s quite an influential website that can generate traffic, relevance, and awareness for all the subjects it deals with.

Tron

Tron is a third generation blockchain-based programmable platform that allows for the development and deployment of decentralized applications and smart contracts. The platform includes a native cryptocurrency called Tronix (also known as TRX).

The Tron project was founded by Justin Sun, who already had fame and credibility as a technology investor and creator, and it has a very definite objective. It wants to decentralize the world wide web using its blockchain.

It’s become one of the most famous blockchain projects in the cryptosphere in a concise time (about a year and a half), and it’s managed to grow in a time in which most of the other projects in crypto are either shrinking or losing value.

The ALS Association

ALS is an illness better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The association is committed to create awareness about it and fight it. In order to achieve those objectives, they look for all kinds of help. They’re especially adept at PR since that facilitates getting donations that can be used for the scientific research that could help eradicate ALS.

The campaign for ALS awareness

The new campaign is called “VoiceYourLove,” and it includes the help of several blockchain technology players (the Binance Charity Foundation will also help), several celebrities and some Silicon Valley giants.

Former “Friends” star Courtney Cox kind of launched the campaign by issuing a video in her Twitter account:

“@CourteneyCox
When was the last time you told someone you love them? Today we’re launching the Voice Your Love campaign to raise awareness about #ALS and bring a little more love into the world. @alsagoldenwest
#VoiceYourLove “

We wish the campaign great success. It will not only help the ALS community, but it will help crypto as well because it will show the world how the blockchain technology can be a force for good in the world (which remains a doubtful proposition for a lot of people on the earth).

You want to Join Tron in this kind endearue and donate? Excellent. Here is the official donattion page where you can donate TRX to support the cause.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Editor’s Note: The article was updated to include the official donation page link.

Tron CEO Justin Sun gets even with Ethereum’s Co-Founder on Twitter

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The unending saga between Sun and Buterin has surfaced again as Mr. Sun made a tweet today that compares their number of followers on Twitter.

Nevertheless, it seems the bromance between both crypto-giants will forever surface. Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, made some clarifications concerning BitTorrent lately; Tron’s CEO, Justin Sun, has also come up with his own comments that directly point to Buterin.

Sun had a caption of his and Buterin’s Twitter page that showcased and compared both Twitter followers. He also added this to the caption:

“Now we are both 832k.”

That is not all; Sun also emphasized that he started six years after Buterin and that he has caught up with the Ethereum creator in the crypto-space. In Tron CEO’s words,

“We started six years after you but we always know it is never too late.”

As expected, Sun’s tweet has sparked lots of comments not only in the Tron community but in the crypto-space generally.

A Twitter user who goes by the name SM Airdrops (also a crypto-enthusiasts) said this:

“@justinsuntron I watch the market, I see how the manipulations are made. And with the fact that your network is growing rapidly, I can say with confidence that TRX is the future leader in terms of percentage growth in the coming years. @vitalikButerin and ETH will be number 2.”

Vitalik Buterin has been in the crypto-space for quite some time now as the founder and creator of Ethereum blockchain, which is one of the top-cryptocurrencies without any doubts. Buterin has acknowledged BitTorrent’s work as an app as a “mega time success.”

Coming back to our story, in just a few hours after Justin Sun’s tweet, Misha Lederman, the co-founder of IAmDecentralized.org and known Tron supporter, posted this on his Twitter page:

“That didn’t take too long…The founder of #TRON @justinsun has, after starting his twitter page 6 years after @VitalikButerin, now surpassed #Etherum’s co-founder in followers. It’s a testimony of new vs. old & the hunger in the #crypto space for progress #IAmDecentralized”

Misha Lederman’s tweet showed that Sun now has more followers than Buterin.

At the moment, the top three decentralized apps on DappRadar.com are all powered by Tron. Other apps that follow are based on EOS. Misha Lederman posted this on the 8th of February,

“To think #TRX has been able to dominate the DApp world so quickly, in under 4 months since activation of Tron Virtual Machine on Oct 12, is nothing short of remarkable.”

More interestingly, Buterin has made no comment or reply concerning Sun’s tweet, but it’s certain he will as he is known for his out-of-the-box sense of humor.

It is essential to know that no feud or war is going on between Tron and Ethereum. In fact, both Sun and Buterin have a cordial relationship. Additionally, regardless of whatever is going on, both digital assets are doing well these days, despite the bear market.

Ethereum managed to take back the second spot from Ripple’s XRP a few hours ago, while BitTorrent token campaign is having a success that’s been hardly witnessed before.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Bithumb crypto exchange launches digital assets OTC trading desk

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Bithumb, the largest Hong Kong exchange in terms of trading volume which majorly supports Bitcoin trading has recently launched Ortus’ backed over-the-counter exchanging desk. The platform is created on the idea of facilitating deep-pocketed investors to trade crypto off the books.

According to the press release made public on Feb. 7, Ortus’ backed OTC trading is regarded as the “service specifically for the institutional clients” by the exchange because of its assistance binding to the wealthy investors to perform large-volume trades, as it facilitates them to carry out direct trades that is opposite to the process done on the crypto exchange itself.

“Ortus will operate to allow institutions to buy and sell digital assets through a network of global liquidity providers and benefit from a competitive and best price execution service,” said by Rahul Khanna, the director of Bithumb.

Rahul Khanna further went on saying:

”Institutions trading digital assets need to open accounts at exchanges and OTC desks around the world; however, there is no real solution for an aggregated liquidity provider or a trusted interdealer where Institutions can trade these assets. To fill this market gap, Ortus will operate to allow institutions to buy and sell digital assets through a network of global liquidity providers and benefit from a competitive and best price execution service.”

To use the service; institutions first need to go through a strict on-boarding process which will be comprised of KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) documentation provided by the applicants, the firm noted.

Although the firm has not announced about which crypto will be offered for OTC trading yet, but once all the required criteria for joining is met, customers will have the right to enjoy the exciting features provided by Ortus.

The ensured custody wallet, competitive pricing from the world’s largest OTC desks and liquidity providers, and a US-Based bank account are few of them.

More about OTC Desks

Ever since late 2017, when the reports about OTC market being noticeably larger than the cryptocurrency exchange market started to take place on the news realm, we have seen a significant number of exchanges having launched OTC desks over time.

Even Last year, TABB Group, international research and consulting firm focused primarily on capital markets, estimated the worth of OTC market of BTC to be 2-3 times higher than the exchange market.

To capitalize on the growing interests of institutions, many cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide have made moves into the over-the-counter (OTC) market ever since the report went public.

CoinBase, the leading crypto exchange and wallet provider from the US, had launched its OTC desks last year in November, for institutional customers. Poloniex also launched its over-the-counter trading desks for the wealthy investors, with a minimum order set to be of $250,000, the following month of December.

Last month of Jan has seen two notable digital exchanges Bittrex and Binance penetrating into the OTC market by introducing their own OTC desks.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron and Play_Goc are taking over the world

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When Tron became an independent network from Ethereum last May, there was a lot of talk about “the Ethereum killer.” It was suspected that title would go to Tron, or EOS, or Cardano.

Some observers thought that Ethereum was just unbeatable, and some were very optimistic about Tron’s and EOS’s potential. It’s been almost eight months now, so what are the stats showing us?

The second most used dApp in the world

You can monitor the world’s decentralized applications as closely as you want. For that, you could use several resources. Among those, there is the dappradar.com website which tracks the number of users and token flow that is going through every dApp in the world every day.

By the site’s standards, the top ten dApps are running on Tron and EOS (noticeably, not on Ethreum). Five of those run on, Tron, and the rest on EOS.

Among those five apps running on Tron Play_Goc stands out.

It’s a gaming and gambling app that features traditional betting games such as Blackjack, but they have a plus: they are decentralized, and they offer fair odds to players, which is something you could never expect at a traditional gambling website in which the house must always have an edge. Which is not wrong, the house must be able to make a buck by letting you play.

The app is serving 6,600 users every day, and it supports a wide variety of digital currencies. TRX is the main among them because all the others are Tron-based tokens (BTT, PLAY, SEED, IGG, ANTE, LVH, and GOC).

Tron is taking over

And why is this so important? Because it means that Tron’s blockchain and community of developers are finding the way to develop and deploy exciting apps that attract users that are excited about the project and the project’s native token (Tronix, or TRX).

So Tron is managing to position itself as the Ethereum killer indeed. Why? Because Tron can boast a million more users (or at least confirmed accounts) than EOS.

It’s all about the use case

So this app is a use case for TRX but also for many other Tron-based tokens. And that’s quite important. The Tron community is very bullish about the Tronix coin, and they like buying it and using it to support the network’s apps. This is very important because this kind of interest from users is the thing that creates genuine demand for the digital asset and that demand will end up translating into market performance.

And that’s what we’ve seen recently. Tronix remains a relatively cheap cryptocurrency but over the last couple of months, it went from 11th place to market capitalization to 7th. And then it lost a spot, to stabilize at 8th. Keep in mind that Tron has been moving forward and growing in a year in which most other projects have been shrinking, losing people and value. So that growth is very impressive from any way you could see it.

Tron is here to stay because it’s giving us interesting apps. And Play_Goc is top on that list.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Bitcoin Futures Spiked 8% on February 8th: Is It A Start of A Long-Term Rally?

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Bitcoin Futures suddenly spiked on February 8th, reaching the highest level of the year after a nearly 8% increase.

Bitcoin Futures suddenly spiked on February 8th, reaching the highest level of the year after a nearly 8% large increase. The move came unexpectedly, and it allowed Bitcoin (BTC) itself to surge from $3,393 to $3,662.98. The new development has also sparked new speculations regarding Bitcoin ETFs as well, with the US SEC commissioner saying that ETFs might eventually happen. According to Brian Stutland of the Equity Armor Investments, this might be only a start and an indication that a bigger rally is about to happen. He believes that, if Bitcoin ETFs appear on the market, portfolio managers could allocate to Bitcoin in their models. If there is enough demand for the ETFs, and if investors do actually want to hold them, this might have a significant impact on Bitcoin itself. Stutland also believes that this could be what is currently driving the Bitcoin price, which surged right after the demand for Bitcoin Futures started growing. Stutland pointed out that nothing is certain at this point, and that a lot has yet to happen in order for an actually significant rally to arrive, but the current development could be the start of something new. Bitcoin might go above $4,000 In addition, Stutland seems to believe that Bitcoin may have found a bottom at around $3,500, which might allow it to push up and possibly breach the $4,000 resistance. TJM Institutional Services' Jim Iuorio also commented, stating that current charts show the "blend of positioning and technicals." He pointed out that the crypto market saw a lot of shorts since the price drop on November 14th. Iuorio also confirms that Stutland's prediction about BTC price breaching $4,000 might be correct, although he will not be convinced that it is a long-term increase unless the price breaches this barrier, and continues going up.

The move came unexpectedly, and it allowed Bitcoin (BTC) to surge from $3,393 to $3,662.98. The new development has also sparked new speculations regarding Bitcoin ETFs as well, with the US SEC commissioner saying that ETFs might eventually happen.

According to Brian Stutland of the Equity Armor Investments, this might be only a start and an indication that a bigger rally is about to happen. He believes that, if Bitcoin ETFs appear on the market, portfolio managers could allocate to Bitcoin in their models. If there is enough demand for the ETFs, and if investors do actually want to hold them, this might have a significant impact on Bitcoin in the long-run.

Stutland also believes that this could be what is currently driving the Bitcoin price, which surged right after the demand for Bitcoin Futures started growing. Stutland pointed out that nothing is certain at this point, and that a lot has yet to happen in order for an actually significant rally to arrive, but the current development could be the start of something new.

Bitcoin might go above $4,000

Besides, Stutland seems to believe that Bitcoin may have found a bottom at around $3,500, which might allow it to push up and possibly breach the $4,000 resistance.

TJM Institutional Services’ Jim Iuorio also commented, stating that current charts show the “blend of positioning and technicals.” He pointed out that the crypto market saw a lot of shorts since the price drop on November 14th.

Iuorio also confirms that Stutland’s prediction about BTC price breaching $4,000 might be correct, although he was not convinced that it is a long-term increase unless the price breaches this barrier, and continues going up a little further at least.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Blockchain travel startup Travala accepts Tron (TRX) for payments now

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Tron has continued to record immerse success ever since it came to life. The Justin Sun-led cryptocurrency is gradually being accepted as a means of payment on various platforms, and a blockchain startup Travala.com also included TRX just a couple of days ago.

Notably, Travala users can now travel and book rooms in 550,000 properties across more than 80,000 places with TRX coins. Not only that, Travala now accepts other cryptocurrencies on its platform including Bitcoin, XRP, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

There is no doubt that settling your bills on Travala using TRX or other cryptocurrencies will help you save a lot. However, you will be saving more than 10% when paying through cryptocurrencies; it is also a convenient way since the network is blockchain-powered and it is decentralized with lots of incentives.

Travala.com is powered by NEO blockchain, which has often been regarded as the Airbnb of cryptocurrencies. With this blockchain network, Travala offers greater value for its users, while hoping to surpass competitions by offering discounts that will be invariably lower than other travel companies around the world.

There is also no doubts that when you take out middlemen and allow clients to have a one-on-one conversation with merchants, travel plans will become really fast and efficient. Even though Travala is relatively less than two years old, the company is hoping and projecting to be the number place for travel needs.

Travala has an ICO which was unveiled between 31st of March 2018 and 21st of April 2018, and this coin offering raised more than $2 million according to ICObench. The travel platform has its own token known as AVA. Taking the bear market into consideration, it is necessary to note that the startup travel company is doing remarkably well when it comes to value per token loss.

Nevertheless, the price of AVA might be 60% lower than its ICO – but the platform and its own token has great prospect to become better in the future as it begins to enhance and increase its travel business by offering discounts and offering the ability for users to pay travel bills through cryptocurrencies.

It is also necessary to note that KuCoin featured Travala’s token AVA last year with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading pairs. However, the team behind Travala stated that its token increases the transparency of the platform.

“As a Next-gen Online Travel Agency, fundamentally changes the relationship between the consumer of the future and their travel shopping.”

Travala is becoming one of the best travel-booking places that combine the present generation Online Travel Agency functionalities with the prospects and gains of the next generation blockchain technologies. With this platform, users are now entitled to discounts up to 50% in 210 countries worldwide.

As Travala increases its payment options, a Point of Scale System powered by Tron, known as Poppy, is expected to cut visa and other payment processors. Poppy aims to do this by adding cryptocurrencies into the retail market. As a merchant, all you have to do is to update your Point Scale System and get the Poppy application installed.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

Ripple‘s UBRI partners with the world’s leading universities to foster blockchain growth

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Ripple’s UBRI (University Blockchain Research Initiative) was launched in June last year for fostering the development and growth of the blockchain industry by partnering with top-tier academic institutions. The initiative by Ripple has now collaborated with 29 universities to further increase academic research and various advances in the crypto-sphere.

Last year, Ripple’s UBRI only had 18 academic institutions on its radar, but it has expanded its reach by collaborating with 11 new schools to further increase the academic interest of post-doctoral and graduate students also.

Ripple invested more than $50 million on tech resources to the first set of top-tier academic schools in partnership with UBRI, which included 18 institutions from all over the world.

The new set of partnership by Ripple’s UBRI includes top-notch universities and colleges that represent different academic fields. The new partners include:

  • Duke University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Cornell University
  • University of Michigan
  • Georgetown University
  • University of Kansas
  • National University of Singapore
  • Northeastern University
  • Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University
  • University of Sao Paulo
  • Morgan State University

Ripple’s initiative through UBRI is poised to nurture future engineers, business professionals, and owners to apply blockchain technology to their field. The initiative has also been aimed to create awareness on the influence of blockchain on all sectors of the world.

However, Ripple’s SVP of Global Operations, Evin van Miltenburg stated:

“We created UBRI back in June 2018 to provide the best support for 17 different universities around the world to help progress their study of blockchain technology, cryptography, digital assets, and Fintech”

Evin added,

“The blockchain is an incredibly transformational technology and helping advance the best minds in the world, who are already showing interest in the field, sure to benefit the entire ecosystem. We’ve added 11 new universities this time around and now have 29 schools involved with the program. Expanding the ecosystem to a more global, diversified network of UBRI partners will only continue to enrich these projects.”

Ripple’s funding on UBRI is intended to boost the initiative in different ways and in various academic areas spanning from business, law, engineering, and so on. UBRI resources from Ripple looks to help these schools to launch new courses, award scholarships and incentives to students who have an interest in blockchain technology.

Evin van Miltenburg further said that Ripple aims to ignite the spark among students in these universities knowing that “they are the most capable individuals in the field.”

Ripple Boosting Innovations Through Academia

Even though Ripple’s UBRI program was launched just last year, all institutions in partnership with this initiative have expressed an immense sign of improvement, thus, indicating Ripple’s ambitions to boost innovations in the blockchain industry.

Ripple’s UBRI relationship with the University of California, Berkeley, has fostered departmental collaborations in the school. Additionally, it has enhanced the creation of research projects and funded activities that are led by students – including the forthcoming blockchain UI/UX hackathon.

Another institution benefiting from Ripple’s UBRI program is the University of Texas at Austin. UBRI lead in the school, Professor Cesare Fracassi, has emphasized that the program has helped U.T Austin in 3 different ways:

“Firstly, it has permitted the funding of faculties and Ph.D. students who are interested in blockchain technology. Secondly, it has increased the curriculum on the blockchain, thus, helping students to gain more knowledge on blockchain technology. Finally, the program has helped to fund important research for people who want to know more about blockchain technology.”

This year, however, the schools in partnership with UBRI initiative will conduct lots of programs on blockchain related matters. On the other hand, Ripple aims to sponsor lots of student-led activities this year to boost innovations in top-notch academic institutions around the world.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.