Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your blockchain and artificial intelligence technology questions are answered! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question, was submitted by Hiram from Los Angeles, and he wants to know, what is the connection between Morgan State University and XRP Ripple (XRP)?
Hiram, you came to the right place. Not long ago, I too was wondering about the connection between universities who cater to people of color and blockchain technology. Your question prompted me to investigate the issue. I’ll share my discovery and the fascinating connection between Morgan State University (MSU) and XRP. Let’s commence with a short description of Morgan State University and XRP.
The MSU campus is in Baltimore, Maryland. MSU was founded in 1867 as a public university dedicated to higher education of African Americans during a time in American history when Black people could not enter “main-stream” universities due to the rampant and institutional racism of the USA. Today, MSU offers bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees across dozens of fields, including computer science. MSU of course fits into the category of Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The MSU campus was declared a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation! Holy precious jewel, Batman! What about XRP, you ask?
XRP is a San Francisco based blockchain and crypto currency company specializing in efficient and low-cost international money transfers. Unlike Bitcoin, XRP uses a proof of stake consensus and a network of validators, making transactions faster and more energy efficient. XRP established the University Research Blockchain Initiative (URBI) in 2018 with the intent of fostering innovation for the next generation of blockchain engineers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A blockchain with a heart, Batman!
Partnering with universities is not new to XRP. In fact, XRP has 50+ university partners spread across 26 different countries, has developed the curriculum for 600+ fintech courses, and sponsored over 1,500 research projects. Essentially, the foundation arm of XRP, known as URBI as noted above, deliberately focuses on developing international software engineering talent. This makes perfect sense given XRP is in the international money transfer business.
Let’s now discuss the nature of their partnership. Initiated in 2018, the original collaboration between MSU and XRP bolstered technological bandwidth, set new academic excellence standards, and cultivated a culture of innovation. The partnership gave rise to innovative programming such as the student-led “Morgan-Hack-A-Thon”, which drew about 150 students from 7 HBCUs and featured an XRP Ledger workshop and Finance Challenge Statement from XRP. Under the terms of the renewed three-year partnership, XRP will donate another $1.05M to MSU. The additional funding will lead to the creation of opportunities for new programming and research for students and faculty, says XRP. Holy renewal of vows, Batman!
From the perspective of MSU, they aim to boost on-going efforts, while also engaging other HBCUs, says, Ali Emdad, MSU Business School Dean. MSU also notes the importance of combining collaborative research with real-world applied learning opportunities, particularly in the fin-tech space. Ultimately, the goal is to nurture a pipeline of diverse, skilled, and highly trained professionals ready to excel in enterprise blockchain jobs. The partnership envisions activities that include cutting-edge research endeavors, faculty-led projects intersecting blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), XRPL development workshops, and an annual national blockchain and fintech conference. Holy practical partnership, Batman!
I end with this proverb from Belize, where they say: Monkey knows from which limb to swing!
Until next time,
Yogi Nelson
Blockchain & AI Forum 
Curious, you seem to have a lot of experience in these matters, I was wondering your opinion on how Smart Contracts comes into play in helping smaller or even medium sized businesses save time and money, and what are the risks? Do you have any good case studies you might could share?
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Thank you for your comment. Yes, Franklin Templeton is doing an experiment to tokenize assets on the blockchain.
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Super, I went out and took a look at their site. I have also seen a ton of tokenization possibilities, even stretching into the real estate sector. A friend and I have been having the discussion on how smart contracts might be useful for small businesses in particular, but the way it’s setup and explained it feels like you have to have a masters degree to implement it. Wondering if there is a very simple method that local small businesses could use to utilize smart contracts, rather than having to use an attorney etc. to draw up contracts, that would streamline the process and save money. If it is too complex, maybe a low cost service run by someone that handles the tech for a small fee would be a possibility, but the best case is the local landscaper could do this themselves.
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