MIT Adopts Ripple Validator To Advance the 'Internet of Value'
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Connection Science,
a research initiative that applies data and analytics with the goal of
building better societies, has adopted a validator for the Ripple Consensus Ledger to advance research into the internet of value (IoV)
— technology that enables money to move over the Internet as fast as
information does today.
Ripple's distributed financial technology
enables banks around the world to conduct transactions with each other
directly and in real time, without the need for for a central
counterparty or correspondent, according to information from the
company. A Ripple validator is a server that confirms transactions on
the network, and MIT Connection Science is now running one of these
validators with the goal of "developing novel blockchain [public
ledger], financial services and enterprise data projects and
initiatives, including open-source code projects under the [MIT] Internet Trust Consortium," according to the news release.
Alex
"Sandy" Pentland, founding faculty director of MIT Connection Science,
and David L. Shrier, managing director of MIT Connection Science, are
leading the project. "In this new experiment with Ripple, we are taking
MIT's experiential research approach to the blockchain, and we
anticipate this collaboration will provide us new opportunities to test
and deploy data applications and research," said Pentland in a prepared
statement. "We're pleased that the Ripple team has fostered a
substantive dialog with us about the future of finance through the
decentralization of digital currencies and value."
The Ripple
network has been in operation for three years, and the company claims
it has never lost or reversed a single transaction in that time. Thirty
banks around the world have participated in real-money pilots using
Ripple.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].