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A blockchain-based payment network is granting $50 million to 17 universities around the world as an investment in shaping the workforce of the future.

Ripple, a network that bills itself as using blockchain technology to enable individuals, banks, and payment providers to exchange payments globally and instantly, announced Monday the launch of the University Blockchain Research Initiative. Through UBRI, Ripple will donate more than $50 million to 17 initial university partners around the world to 鈥渟upport academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments,鈥� the company said in a statement.

Ripple owns the cryptocurrency XRP. A cryptocurrency is a virtual currency used as a medium for exchange, securing and verifying transactions through blockchain technology 鈥� a decentralized system that stores data across many computers rather than in a single storage facility like the cloud or a server. This decentralization of records and transactions makes the blockchain and cryptocurrency more secure than traditional technology and transactions. While leading economists have called cryptocurrency the 鈥�,鈥� the blockchain technology behind it has largely been heralded as having the聽 and lead the 鈥�.鈥�

Ripple鈥檚 donation comes amid an economy that鈥檚 racing toward artificial intelligence and automation. Recognizing academia as a traditionally 鈥渃ritical driver of technical innovation,鈥� Ripple is hoping that institutes of higher education can prepare students for rapidly changing workforce needs while also helping the world gain a deeper understanding of how cryptography and blockchain technology will reshape the marketplace.

鈥淥ver the last several years, there鈥檚 been a clear and recurring theme that the demand among students to get more information, for a deeper understanding of blockchain and learning technologies, has grown dramatically,鈥� Eric van Miltenburg, Ripple鈥檚 senior vice president of global operations, said in an interview. 鈥淥ur engagement with universities was encouraging to us because the schools we鈥檙e working with are not looking at blockchain from a theoretical point of view, but how it can be applied, how it can be focused in ways that benefit the overall ecosystem of players. Academia could help shine a brighter light on the issues that matter most and remove the mysteries that exist around launching technology.鈥�

American university partners include the University of Pennsylvania; Princeton University; the University of Oregon; the Haas School of Business at the University of California,聽Berkeley; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each institution will have full autonomy in determining its areas of research and focus. Ripple will be available to provide subject matter expertise and technical resources.

The company聽, including Salesforce, Netflix, and Facebook, that are investing heavily in education. In March, Ripple donated $29 million to fulfill every request 鈥斅爉ore than 35,000 in all 鈥斅爉ade on DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding website for school and classroom projects, mostly in disadvantaged schools.

鈥淚t鈥檚 in the private sector鈥檚 best interest to help where it can,鈥� van Miltenburg said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a fine line, and we鈥檙e being sensitive to that to not be prescriptive in telling what they need to do.鈥�

Preliminarily, the University of Texas at Austin will use its UBRI grant to build a center for analytics and transformational technology to support research into blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments. The University of Oregon is funding a new blockchain and cryptocurrency security program.

Global investment in financial technology companies聽. Ripple notes that 4,500 job openings with the terms 鈥渂lockchain,鈥� 鈥渂itcoin,鈥� or 鈥渃ryptocurrency鈥� in the title were posted on LinkedIn this year 鈥� marking a 151 percent increase over the total LinkedIn job listings with those terms in 2017.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 just the tip of the iceberg,鈥� van Miltenburg said. 鈥淲e obviously need great people to do what we do, but the need is only going to grow. There isn鈥檛 a degree to date for students pursuing a blockchain or cryptography major. Just like years ago, there weren鈥檛 degrees in artificial intelligence or machine learning, and those are now becoming the norm.鈥�

A 2017 report by Dell Technologies declared that聽. A 2013 Oxford study estimated that developed countries will see the extinction of聽 over the next quarter-century. 鈥�,鈥� The Economist reported.

With UBRI, Ripple is looking to change that. And among Ripple鈥檚 goals for the program are to ensure that the workforce of the future is prepared to apply what they learn about blockchain technology to their future careers, whatever they may be, and to clarify and identify the ways in which blockchain technology can have a material impact on addressing problems in business.

鈥淟et鈥檚 make sure the folks coming out of universities are armed with what they need to be successful,鈥� van Miltenburg said. 鈥淔intech and blockchain is a relatively nascent field, and people claim now they know what it is and what it can do. But if you went back 20, 25 years and asked universities what the impact of the internet would be 鈥� they might have a little bit of an idea but wouldn鈥檛 have known that it would become what it is today. There鈥檚 an opportunity for universities to get us further down that learning curve and really identify and impress on folks how the blockchain will impact the world.鈥�

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