The head of Ripple’s fundraising arm Xpring says the company is shifting its focus to directly help developers build on blockchain, crypto and XRP.
Ethan Beard tells Forbes that Xpring’s new platform for developers is designed to give companies tools to easily integrate crypto-based payment solutions, similar to the way Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a myriad of ways to create scalable applications in the cloud.
“It’s designed to remove the pain and the messiness of integrating money into apps… kind of like an AWS for money.
It’s a platform for all developers, not just developers in the blockchain and crypto space, but all 23 million developers around the globe.”
Beard says Ripple is specifically pushing to grow use cases for XRP and the Interledger Protocol – a platform designed to provide a backbone for the efficient movement of payments across different ledgers.
“More specifically, what we’re aiming to do with the platform is provide developers with various tools, services and programs to make it easier for them to build on [the] XRP Ledger and to leverage Interledger Protocol.
Ultimately, we want the Xpring Platform to bring money to the Internet at the same core level as text, images and video do today.”
Until now, Xpring has primarily been used to invest in blockchain and crypto-related companies.
Since launching last summer, the initiative has poured more than $500 million into various projects.
The company’s most recent investments include the crypto custody startup Towo Labs, the decentralized derivatives platform Vega Protocol, and the mobile wallet provider BRD.
