The next three days, beginning today, the 14th of May, will be a beehive of activities in New York during the Consensus 2018 Summit that has been organized by Coindesk. The event has been the subject of anticipation in the crypto-verse due to the increase in attendees in the form of regular folks like you and I and the speakers from different industries such as finance, banking, healthcare, computer hardware manufactures, just to name a few.

This year’s event has over 250 speakers and is expected to draw over 4,000 attendees. As it so happens, the Ripple (XRP) team is part of the event.

The Ripple team is currently located on the 2nd Floor in the Beekman Pavilion of the Hilton Midtown in New York. The team has encouraged everyone in attendance to visit them.

Dr. David Schwartz (second from the right) was earlier today involved in a discussion pertaining to the interoperability between all the public and private blockchains. The case for a means for all or some of these blockchains, to communicate and allow for the transfer of assets, have escrow schemes and other information flow, is gathering steam as it will allow for a seamless and frictionless avenue for inter-blockchain operations and innovations.

As the ongoing Consensus summit continues, the Ripple team have also announced a new initiative known as Xpring. This initiative will be one by Ripple to invest, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by entrepreneurs willing to use XRP and the XRP Ledger to solve real-life problems. This is much-needed support for all the budding entrepreneurs wishing to make an entry into blockchain technology and specifically planning on using XRP and Ripple software products to do so.

The Ripple team is bringing in Ethan Beard as a Senior Vice President to lead Xpring and Ripple’s developer program. Mr. Beard served as Director of the Facebook Developer Network from 2009 – 2012 and oversaw the worldwide developer relations, operations and product marketing for the Facebook API. He is the perfect fit when we remember that xVia is also API based.

Mr. Beard is quoted as saying that he loves the startup environment and loves helping them leverage new technologies and developments to grow.

Xpring has already offered support to four entrepreneurs as follows:

Scooter Braun, entertainment talent manager, entrepreneur and founder of SB Projects, who is pursuing several endeavors that will use XRP to improve artists’ ability to monetize and manage their content.

Stefan Thomas, inventor of the Interledger Protocol (ILP), creator of BitcoinJS, co-founder of TxtBear, who just launched a new venture Coil to use XRP and the Interledger Protocol (ILP) for various micropayments applications, such as facilitating “bite-sized” purchases of media. You can learn more about Coil here.

Thomas McLeod, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Omni, who will soon integrate XRP as a currency into Omni’s marketplace.

Bart and Brad Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, who have the first fund to accept capital calls in digital assets with a focus on driving innovation in the blockchain sector.

All the above is great news considering that the Consensus Summit will provide a good avenue for Ripple to showcase its technology and payment solution software such as xRapid, xVia and xCurrent. it will be a platform to market what the project has to offer.

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