- Ripple backs KU art project blending blockchain and community storytelling.
- Brad Garlinghouse highlights UBRI’s impact in academic blockchain research.
- BNY Mellon to secure Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin reserve holdings.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has praised a new blockchain initiative at the University of Kansas, calling it a perfect example of why the company launched its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). The project, in collaboration with the Spencer Museum of Art, is using blockchain technology to explore how communities can reclaim ownership of memory, space, and digital expression.
Through UBRI funding, Ripple has supported interdisciplinary research that connects technology with creative storytelling and cultural engagement. At KU, this assistance has led to a special mixture of blockchain, artwork, and people-centered storytelling.
Spencer Museum project is a counter-mapping project that can be considered rather decentralized, where blockchain plays the role of preserving and securing community narratives and identities.
According to Garlinghouse, this partnership demonstrates how blockchain can have a real-world impact beyond finance. In one of his posts on X, he said that the KU-Spencer Museum partnership fulfills the essence of the UBRI.
He said that the aim of Ripple funding academic studies is to demonstrate the future significance of crypto and its new and developing uses.
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Ripple Expands Blockchain Reach Through Academic and Financial Partnerships
The KU project stands out for its interdisciplinary nature, involving fields such as law, engineering, finance, and the arts. UBRI’s financial support has enabled students and researchers to explore blockchain in new ways, including experimental tools that challenge traditional ideas of digital space and ownership.
Meanwhile, in the second announcement, Ripple also wrote that it had partnered with the Bank of New York Mellon, which will be the custodian of the reserves in which the new stablecoin by Ripple, RLUSD, will be held.
Such a collaboration should improve regulation compliance and increase institutional trust in Ripple’s stablecoin system. Ripple is very transparent, and BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, brings credibility to its increasing financial activities.
Ripple has also sought approval of a national banking license and a Federal Reserve master account. If these are approved, the company will directly gain access to the central bank of the U.S. payment rails, further fortifying its financial infrastructure.
These combined efforts underline Ripple’s strategy to build trust through innovation and institutional alignment.
