Ripple and Coil Join Hands With Gates Foundation To Improve the Financial Access for the Unbanked

San Francisco-based blockchain startups - Ripple and Coil have joined hands with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with an aim to improve financial access for the underprivileged and unbanked communities across the globe.

According to the statistics obtained by the Gates Foundation from the WorldBank, it is found that nearly 2 billion in developing countries lack access to basic banking facilities. Hence, they are deprived of the security and benefits that traditional banking institutions have to offer.

Miller Aber, Gates Foundation Deputy Director and Principal Technologist, tweeted on Wednesday saying: “We are partnering w/ @ripple and @coil to implement the #Interledger Protocol & explore ways #Mojaloop can support pro-poor payment systems.” An official announcement from the foundation is still awaited. However, blockchain startup Coil confirmed this collaboration later.

As a part of the partnership, the Gates foundation will be using Ripple’s Interledger Protocol to connect different payment ledgers and enable faster cross-border transfers and payment processing. In addition, the Foundation will also explore Coil’s Mojaloop solution to support “pro-poor payment systems”.

The persisting issues with interoperability of digital payments is considered as a major roadblock to spread financial services to the underprivileged regions. However, during its launch last year, the open source software MojaLoop was touted as an answer to it.

Coil says: “Interoperability of digital payments has been the toughest hurdle for the financial services industry to overcome. With Mojaloop, our technology partners have finally achieved a solution that can apply to any service, and we invite banks and the payments industry to explore and test this tool.”

Apart from this collaboration with the Gates Foundation, Ripple has boost its credibility as a company that is willing to introduce a major technological shift in the global financial economy. The company has been working with several banks and financial institutions to bridge the gap between traditional banking and the crypto industry.

In addition to the recent collaboration, Ripple has got its own social impact program called ‘Ripple for Good’ launched with the focus to improve financial inclusion across the globe. Chris Larsen, Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman has repeatedly stressed on developing solutions with real-life use cases.

Larsen said: “We have to stop being self-righteous disruptors and instead focus on building things that solve real-world problems. If we focus the blockchain movement on that, over two billion underbanked people can become full economic citizens.”