Mastercard and Ripple’s Xpring Enter Blockchain Education

Alliance

Mastercard and Ripple have joined Blockchain Education Alliance, an industry group which promotes blockchain education and research in universities worldwide.

On January 11, blockchain accelerator MouseBelt announced that 11 founding members have entered its Blockchain Education Alliance. Besides the card network, the new members of Blockchain Education Alliance are the innovation arms of payments firm Ripple and crypto exchange Binance, as well as Neo, KuCoin and Ethereum scaling solution Matic Network.

They will join 13 companies, including Stellar, TRON and Wanchain, which entered the alliance when it was revealed in October.

The Blockchain Education Alliance is part of MouseBelt’s university program, aimed at training the next generation of blockchain developers in over 80 student associations worldwide. Members of the alliance give funding and educational resources which assist students and professors in developing curriculums and staying up-to-date with industry innovations.

Ashlie Meredith, director of MouseBelt University, explained:

“The members all share our ethos: The best way to invest in the space is to make long-term investments in education. The better the education, the better developers and projects we will see.”

Starting with over 13 universities in North America, the alliance expanded to incorporate about 70 schools in Americas, Asia and Europe.

Warren Paul Anderson, head of developer relations at Ripple’s Xpring incubator, said that alliance assisted them in training developers with the skills and resources they need, adding:

“Mousebelt’s mission to promote blockchain technology at the curriculum level within universities is directly aligned with that of Xpring.”

Mastercard is one of the world’s biggest payment services, processing more than $14 trillion in payments every year. Over the past few years the company has shown its interest in blockchain, most notably as one of the founding members of Facebook’s Libra Association.

In October, Mastercard left the association, as well as Visa. CEO Ajay Banga explained that he had withdrawn the company from Libra due to concerns about the projects’ regulatory status and long-term viability.