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Companies building on XRP exemplify effective leadership that is sometimes difficult for new crypto researchers to understand. In today's blog, I describe these leadership characteristics with some specific examples, and cover the latest XRP news as well. In the past few days, Ripple has released a new video about liquidity provisioning, a scientist from Coil mentions the schedule for the XRP Cobalt release, a survey reveals XRP Community's massive presence on Twitter, and a new crypto debit card adds support for XRP. I hope you enjoy today's blog! Feel free to share my blog with anybody else - or on any other media platform - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

***THIS IS ALL SPECULATION*** First of all, if you haven't read my India & Gates Foundation post please do as it will be taking some elements to describe the environment in India. (SUMMARY: A FUTURE PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT COULD INVOLVE THE GATES FOUNDATION DISTRIBUTING CELLULAR DEVICES PRE-INSTALLED WITH AN APP CONNECTED TO THE ILP) India As a quick recap, there are two nation wide movements occurring in India. First, the development and deployment of a centralized biometric database called Aadhaar. Aadhar's purpose is to register and create a digital identity of every citizen in India, especially those that are living in both poverty and rural areas. And second, a governmental initiative on the financial inclusion of the very same people into the Indian finical system. How are these both related? These movements are converging with one another in the utilization of cellular devices. The Indian government, thru the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), issues an Aadhaar number to every resident in India that serves residents with a portable identity which can be authenticated anytime anywhere. The Aadhar number is a unique, 12-digit identification number that aids in creating a digital identity for the registree. Individuals that register to Aadhaar automatically gain the capability to purchase a cellular phone and open a bank account. https://uidai.gov.in/enrolment-update/aadhaar-enrolment/aadhaar-services.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/asia/02india.html With Aadhaar being utilized and broaden presently, payment systems have begun to be built on top of it. The NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) have recently launched the UPI (Unified Payment Interface) which allows banks to transfer money directly to one another based on a single identifier, such as the Aadhaar number. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/01/23/what-the-u-s-can-learn-from-indias-move-toward-a-cashless-society/?utm_term=.53085c17ae64 Another Source: http://www.npci.org.in/documents/UPI-Linking-Specs-ver-1.1_draft.pdf So where does Ripple fit in all this? Both Indian banks and the NPCI are in discussions with Ripple to facilitate account-to-account transfers globally, without having to be part of any payment network. http://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/enterprise-services-and-applications/ripple-in-talks-with-npci-banks-for-a/c-transfers-globally/58393068 https://www.indianweb2.com/2017/07/15/makers-indias-upi-app-bringing-ripple-technology-india/ There also seems to be mutual interest between Ripple and Indian banks as Yes Bank and Axis banks have officially joined the Ripple network. Dilip Rao has also said in multiple occasions that there is increasing interest by other Indian banks. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Overseas-remittances-costs-to-reduce-with-new-system/articleshow/53767362.cms On top of this, there has been talks about a payment system being built on top of Aadhaar by the NPCI........ http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2017/02/20/microsofts-india-cloud-plans-get-booster-shot-as-flipkart-signs-up/ So who is Satya Nadella from the previous quote? Satya Nadella is the current CEO of Microsoft, another interesting connection. For those who don't follow the Microsoft and Ripple connection, please refer to my previous post "Ripple/Gates Foundation/India". On top of that Microsoft Azure BaaS has been running a Ripple validating node for quite sometime now. https://azure.microsoft.com/ru-ru/blog/azure-blockchain-as-a-service-update/ And just this past June a cloud provider had just been selected for a number of Indian banks. https://www.coindesk.com/indian-banks-select-microsoft-exclusive-cloud-blockchain-provider/ It's beginning to sound like another bank consortium that has been well publicized around here...... So Ripple has the interest and cooperation of two key parties in India. The NPCI and Microsoft, both who are developing and working on a payment infrastructure built on top of Aadhaar using Azure. We also know that rippled will have a Windows build available in the future. Is there any other connections to Ripple in India worth mentioning? Financial Software & Systems (FSS) in India has been working and cooperating with Ripple as well. FSS works on payments technology and transaction processing, offering business value in the areas of electronic payments and financial transaction processing solutions & services. http://www.fss.co.in/ How are we are of FSS and Ripple's partnership? Thru Dilip Rao's presentation during a FSS "Simple Payments" conference. And what is the significance of this company? FSS in the past had reached an agreement with 6 banks to provide UPI (NPCI) solutions. http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/fss-to-provide-upi-solution-for-6-banks/article8480485.ece While more recently FSS has launched "FSS Aadhaar Pay", a comprehensive biometric enabled merchant payment acceptance system that allows merchants to accept customer payments through their Aadhaar linked bank accounts without the need for a physical payment instrument. "FSS Aadhaar Pay", http://www.fsstech.com/news-events/fss-launches-fss-aadhaar-pay-to-augment-government-of-indias-digital-payment-initiative/ https://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/fss-supports-indias-cashless-payment-initiative-with-card-free-solution/ Which coincides with this development, (roughly same time frame) So three key parties in India with some shape of form of cooperation and interest with Ripple, all working on building a payment system on top of Aadhaar..... Towards the end of Rao's linked presentation in the FSS conference, he mentioned globalizing the Indian stack. He's been a busy man (this is one of two post I'll be sharing this week, I ended up complying too much information for one post) EDIT https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/npci-plans-international-remittance-on-upi-platform/articleshow/63540688.cms