RippleNet has over 200 partners (barely any of them use XRP though) as Ripple eyes Middle East expansion
This morning we decided to take a rest from the scams and negative crypto related stuff. The newsflash will focus on partnerships and collabs that are bound to drive the crypto world forward towards a brighter future. Check out what we singled out for you below:
- RippleNet has over 200 partners as Ripple eyes Middle East expansion
Ripple’s global head of infrastructure innovation Dilip Rao confirmed that RippleNet, Ripple’s incubator for startups that are using/testing out Ripple technology and products (including XRP) currently houses nearly 200 banks and financial institutions.
Ever since RippleNet was established, Ripple managed to onboard a new partner every 6th day on average. In lieu with their desires to further expand this network, the company announced its intention to open a Dubai office by the end of 2018, thus facilitating further expansion into Middle East.
All of this was revealed by the mentioned Mr. Rao during a speech given at a conference in Dubai. Rao added that Ripple technology could greatly help this region which is currently full of migrant workers that often transfer smaller amounts of money over the order:
“If you want to send this money, particularly you’re not clear about what the fees are going to be that the bank is going to charge on the other end. And therefore, what you’ll receive might be substantially less than what you sent out. And if you’re sending money for blue collar workers, this often can be a small amount of money, $200, and the fees for these kinds of small payments can be as high as 5 to 10%. So this is actually hurting the people who can afford it the least.”
There has been clear interest for Ripple’s technology shown by the financial institutions in the region, as Saudi Arabia’s largest Islamic bank Al-Rajhi and Kuwait Finance House are already members of RippleNet. Rao confirmed his company’s intention to keep focusing on the region:
“We have to date signed up close to 200 financial institutions around the world, many of them from this part of the world… We now have three banks in Saudi Arabia, two in Kuwait, one in Bahrain, one in Oman, a couple in the UAE here. And it really is our fastest growing marketplace.”
However, XRP token holders are not too stoked about Ripple partnerships as most of them are unrelated to the XRP token and price shows no reaction.
- Morpheus Labs announces a collaboration with VeChain
Morpheus Labs ecosystem has confirmed that they’ll be engaging in a technical collaboration with VeChain, popular supply chain management blockchain platform. The partnership was signed after a trial period which was observed by the VeChain’s CTO Gu Jianliang.
Morpheus Labs is a Singaporean startup focused on developing a comprehensive full-stack blockchain platform and marketplace, as it looks to offer an infrastructure which will enable developers and enterprises in their quest to build and test out their own decentralized applications.
Morpheus Labs and VeChain will cooperate on creating a full set of building blocks required for dApp development: node deployment, smart contracts, back-end SDKs and front-end applications will all be covered by the partnership.
CTO of Morpheus Labs, Mr Bruce Lu commented on the partnership: “By onboarding the VeChainThor Blockchain we will add value and further boost confidence to the ecosystem as the platform provides the global community a competitive advantage enabling rapid prototyping and deployment of VeChainThor-powered projects and applications.”
- MetaMask releases a mobile client
Most popular Ethereum/ERC20 token compliant wallet MetaMask recently saw a release of its mobile client.
The software was released during this year’s DevCon, a Ethereum-focused conference held in Prague.
The product was presented by Joseph Lubin, the CEO of ConsenSys (the company which developed the original MetaMask browser extension as well).
The @metamask_io mobile app was just announced at #Devcon4! Everyone's favorite #Ethereum browser extension is coming to your phone. The team is focusing on not being 'just a wallet', but a portal to the world of all things #blockchain. https://t.co/3bvQXuF8gV pic.twitter.com/vcaIkkzcVS
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) October 31, 2018
In Lubin’s words, this latest release is a part of the team’s efforts to expand into being more than just a wallet and becoming a portal to the world of all things blockchain.
MetaMask has been known as the most popular wallet for ETH and ERC20 standard mostly due to its stability and ability to integrate with Ethereum dApps.
MetaMask Mobile will allow users to run these dApps, alongside letting the users control their funds.
- CryptoKitties creator collects $15 million in funding
Dapper Labs, the company behind the blockchain based game CryptoKitties, secured $15 million in funding which will be used for further expansion.
The round was led by Venrock and the rest of the VC capital was provided by such funds as Google Ventures, SamsungNEXT and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), alongside talent agency William Morris Endeavor and e-sports firm aXiomatic.
The latest round of funding comes after the company previously secured $12 million in a round led by a16z and Union Square Ventures. With a total of $27 million collected so far this year, Dapper Labs might be gearing up for a new release in the near future.
