Ripple-backed Coil’s CEO’s vision
Have you ever heard about Stefan Thomas? Probably not, as he’s not in the limelight as much as he probably should. Mr. Thomas is the founder and CEO of Coil, a Ripple-powered successful micropayments internet company.
His vision and wish are to have an Internet in which currency flows as quickly, cheaply, and easily as information, especially when it comes to creative content. In his mind, content creators shouldn’t have to rely on Youtube’s or Instagram’s ad money to get some income. Instead, it should be their fans who pay them directly.
And that’s precisely what Ripple tech-powered Coil is trying to achieve, along with non-profit organizations such as Creative Commons and Mozilla. They’re going to spread the joy to the tune of 100 million USD in grants to content creators and other individuals who are embracing the ad-free business model. The money will be allocated via a fund dubbed as ‘Grant for the Web’ over the next lustrum.
“The internet has gone from a place rewarding creativity, invention, and substance, to one dominated by a few advertising dependent platforms that promote and incentivize anything that grabs and holds the public’s attention,” explained the group in a statement. It also described that the new fund would have privacy as a core value in how it supports creators.
Coil’s $100m Fund for Creators
The fund is Mr. Thomas’ baby. Besides founding and leading Coil, he’s served as Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer for a long time. There, he developed a new technology known as “Interledger,” which brings together the functionality from several online payment systems. Coil makes it simple for web surfers to support their favorite creators by facilitating small payments via their browsers.
Coil’s leader told Fortune in an interview that the streaming payment tech is feasible as long as there is an environment that removes friction for users. That’s where the new fund comes in.
According to him, it will be available to anyone. Application developers, podcasters, journalist, you name it. Loup Design & Innovation, a consulting agency, is the chosen manager for the fund. At least half of the money will go to open-sourced based projects.
Coil’s partnership with Creative Commons and Mozilla is not a coincidence, according to Mr. Thomas himself. He explained to Forbes that both organizations were carefully chosen to be Coil’s first partners because they have a history of promoting an open Internet and coming up new monetization methods and licensing schemes.
Cable Green who is currently serving as Creative Commons’ interim CEO, added,
“We’re very interested in identifying new ways of rewarding open creativity and enabling people to show their gratitude to creators who share their work openly with the world.”
Ripple-backed Coil project’s future is not a foregone conclusion at all. It will challenge the industry’s giants such as Google and Facebook. It’s not even that clear that ordinary consumers are that interested in adopting payment systems that level the field for the creatives.
But Mr. Thomas remains optimistic, thinking that flywheel effects are on the cards if you can persuade a specific community already connected by geography, language, or some other factor to support the new business model. He also suggests that ‘Grant for the Web’ program could collaborate with some of the Youtube’s celebrities that could influence their followers to jump in the wagon.
And who’s paying for the grants, I hear you ask? Well, according to Ripple’s former officer, the grant comes from Ripple to Coil. In consequence, it will use XRP in some cases, as an essential part of the project’s financial operations.
This is a visionary, bold, idealistic, and innovative vision for the Web. We hope it fares well. And if it does, it will be an excellent thing not only for Ripple-backed project but for all.
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