IBM Blockchain World Wire And Ripple’s $100 Million Developer Fund
March 20, 2019 Weekly Crypto Round Up
The World Wire Web
IBM is launching the IBM Blockchain World Wire, a real-time, global network for international payments across over 70 countries. The system uses Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Stronghold’s US dollar stable coin to settle transactions. It will support almost 50 fiat currencies and IBM has already discussed the potential of introducing bitcoin or ether in the future. In today’s global economy, migrants are remitting over $600 million per year to their home countries and the market continues to grow rapidly.
World Wire promises to marry the benefits of blockchain technology with the ease of adoption associated with current offerings like SWIFT. The current system involves multiple intermediaries, but the new program will improve transparency, reduce costs, and speed up transactions. Perhaps more importantly, almost every major bank is already an IBM client and 90% of credit card payments are processed on IBM mainframes.
Forte Shades Of Grey
Ripple’s Xpring (pronounced “spring”) developer initiative has teamed up with San Francisco-based Forte to launch a $100 million fund to promote blockchain game development. Forte was founded by several gaming industry executives in February and has received backing from Andreesen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures among other notable firms. Forte will oversee the new fund and could revolutionize the marketplace for digital items.
In the current ecosystem, gray markets are used to buy and sell accounts, in-game currency, and digital characters or items. Blockchain technology presents an opportunity to bring these secondary markets into the game as digital assets can be more easily verified and tracked. Forte will rely on Ripple’s cross-blockchain Interledger Protocol and smart contract service Codius. Grants will be distributed to game developers and the fund will initially target both large and small companies with at least 50,000 daily active users. For Ripple, the partnership demonstrates a significant attempt to diversify the company beyond financial services.
The Other News We’re Following
- CBOE Global Markets, the first US exchange company to offer bitcoin futures, will stop listing the product
- Coinbase Pro adjusts its fee structure and eliminates 0% maker fees
- Despite drop in value, Venezuelans continue to flock to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies amid Bolivar hyperinflation
87percent of crypto trading volume is “suspicious” and potentially fake, according to a new report by tie.io
“I do think if we hope to smell the crypto spring in the air, it will take people walking with the regulators, but I do think the spring is going to come.”
— Valerie Szczepanik, US Securities and Exchange Commission
