The typical pattern is that a new protocol is first invented in some fairly academic context. TCP/IP at DARPA, the World Wide Web at CERN.

But then, those technologies are adopted and promoted by some company which develops the additional layers that make the technology scalable and commercially viable.

For instance, TCP/IP wouldn’t be viable without a scalable routing protocol. Cisco and IBM developed BGP, often called the two-napkin protocol. Their selling of routers to enterprises during the Internet boom made Cisco briefly the most valuable company in the world and they are still a huge company with over 70000 employees today.

I’d say most of the enabling technologies for Interledger came out of the early blockchain space which was very academic. I’m thinking of things like payment channels and smart contracts. Ripple is the leading company commercializing a lot of these things, so working there definitely feels a little like working at an early Cisco or Netscape.

Time will tell.