“O Canada,” indeed! Ripple is continuing to showcase its ongoing commitment to fostering talent and innovation in the Canadian region, especially in the growing crypto hub of Toronto.
Strengthening its already strong ties to Canada, Ripple’s University Blockchain Initiative (UBRI) is now partnering with the University of Toronto. The university plans to launch an independent XRP Ledger validator and will play a key role in recruiting XRPL campus ambassadors for future cohorts.
The University of Toronto’s Professor Andreas Veneris, who has made a number of impressive research contributions to the field of computer science over the past decade, said, “I have been following Ripple for a decade, as they have been an early leader in blockchain technology. Hosting an XRP Ledger validator matches our goals in both promoting education around the XRP Ledger being a decentralized blockchain, but also the public’s trust in scholars for their long-standing ethos to advance social wellbeing.”
This new UBRI partnership helps to grow a program that is already supporting important blockchain and crypto technology research in Canada while providing students with opportunities to acquire technical skills for a crypto-native career. Since its launch five years ago, UBRI has invested more than $2 million in top-tier Canadian universities and colleges to foster innovation and growth in blockchain-based research and education.
The University of Toronto joins current Canadian UBRI partners, University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University. As part of its work, UBRI aims to financially support research journeys like that of Professor Veneris and help build an interconnected, global academic consortium for future innovators.
“With Ripple’s support, we aim to understand challenges and opportunities of organizations adopting cryptocurrency as a method of payment including inter/intra jurisdictional transactions. This is novel and multidisciplinary research at the intersection of technology and Information System Management research,” commented Professor Atefeh Mashatan, Director of the Cybersecurity Research Lab, Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. “We are also very proud to host this year’s UBRI Connect conference and welcome over hundreds of blockchain academics from more than 50 universities from 24 countries.”
Discovering Diverse Crypto Talent in Toronto
Beyond the growth of UBRI, Ripple is also rapidly expanding its footprint in Canada. Less than one year after opening an engineering hub in Toronto, it continues to recruit top local technical talent to add to the region’s exceptional office as part of a broader global growth strategy.
Ripple has already nearly doubled its initial hiring goals, having grown the Toronto team to 30+ full-time team members since last July, and is mapping out even more aggressive targets for the latter half of this year and into 2024.
Over the next two years, Ripple plans to grow the office to more than 70 employees—around half of which will be engineers, with additional support for business operations. Team members in the area will support RippleX in addition to overall product design, technical services and delivery.
The Toronto office also boasts a healthy pipeline of future talent, having already surpassed its goal of hiring 10 summer interns. Historically, Ripple’s internship program has seen many interns move into full-time roles. Last year, two interns from the University of Waterloo accepted offers for full-time positions with Ripple, demonstrating the growing interest from today’s students to dive deep into crypto and blockchain as a career.
All of this is due to the wealth of diverse crypto and technology talent, and positive progressive movements providing strategic business opportunities for Web3 businesses to thrive in Canada. Ripple is thrilled to be part of such an influential city for innovation and is fortunate to have tapped into some of the city’s brightest minds in engineering.
The Ripple team looks forward to welcoming even more exceptional talent from across Canada as it continues to expand community-powered utility on the XRP Ledger and to champion further blockchain research and development in academia.
Learn more about UBRI or check out open positions and apply to join a growing, global team.
