Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: People, Culture and Tech
Ripple announced Thursday that it is giving its former CTO more than $260 million to change the way content is paid for on the Web. Ripple’s Xpring initiative to invest in companies building the XRP cryptocurrency ecosystem gave a 1 billion XRP grant to Coil, a micropayments company founded by former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas.
Unfolding in the markets right now is a battle that has taken place several times over the past year: who will be listed at No. 2 in total market capitalization on the digital asset listing websites? Throughout most of 2018, the digital asset markets have been in a bear market tailspin. After hitting an all-time high of $1,538.13 for Ethereum’s ether and $3.92 for Ripple’s XRP (as reported by Live Coin Watch), the markets began falling just as fast as they went up. Looking back at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, it is easy to see where investors were acting out of “fear of missing out”…
Ripple announced a couple of additions to its leadership team on Wednesday. First, it went in-house to replace former CTO Stefan Thomas. In a blog post today, CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that David Schwartz, the crypto-financial company’s chief cryptographer, will take on the C-suite role. Schwartz is an influential member of the crypto community for some time. His Twitter account, @JoelKatz, has 103,000 followers. In May, Thomas left the company after half a decade to start a Coil, a micropayments platform for content. At Ripple, he created its first client application and its platform for smart contracts. Coil is built on the XRP Ledger. Notably, Garlinghouse’s statement said: “Schwartz’s team…
