Ripple expands Canadian engineering activities with U of Toronto XRP validator

The University of Toronto plans to launch an independent XRP Ledger (XRPL) validator, Ripple announced June 12, as the university will become part of Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). The partnership will support blockchain and crypto technology research at the university.

The partnership will also advance Ripple’s XRPL Campus Ambassador program, which “aims to elevate the impact of college students” by helping “educate other students about crypto and how to start building on the XRPL.” University of Toronto professor Andreas Veneris commented:

“Hosting an XRP Ledger validator matches our goals in both promoting education around the XRP Ledger […] but also the public’s trust in scholars for their long-standing ethos to advance social wellbeing.”

The University of Toronto, Canada’s largest university by enrollment, joins the University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University as Canadian UBRI participants. Ripple has invested $2 million in research in Canada in the past five years. In total, the UBRI has supported more than 45 universities in 20 countries, according to its website.

Ripple opened an office in Toronto in July 2022 to serve as an engineering hub. That office has a staff of over 30 and employs summer interns.

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Ripple is in a highly publicized legal conflict with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, but Canada has provided challenges as well. The country introduced new crypto trading rules in February that have shaken up the domestic crypto market, with dYdX, Paxos, Binance and Bybit among the companies choosing to close down their Canadian operations as a result. On the other hand, Canadian regulators have approved several crypto exchange-traded funds recently.

Ripple is closely associated with XRP Ledger, the issuer of the XRP (XRP) token.

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