Chris Larsen- co-founder of Ripple announced to those in attendance at a function at the San Francisco state university that the company would be donating $25 million worth of Ripple to the university. After the announcement, the university went on to state that the Ripple donation was the largest ever crypto-currency donation to any U.S university.
Ripple like most other cryptos is on the rise in the charts, with the crypto-currency rising by a solid 13 percent ahead of the European market open on Friday. The donation made by ripple to the San Francisco State University (SFSU) is a continuation of ripple’s University Blockchain research initiative (UBRI) announced in June of 2018.
The UBRI committed $50 million in resources which included funding subject matter expertise as well as technical resources to 17 institutions from across the world. According to ripple the goals of this initiative are;
- Collaborate on research and technical development that will stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in the blockchain.
- Create a new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, crypto-currency, and other Fin-Tech topics.
- Stimulate ideas and dialog among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest.
Crypto donations are becoming a thing
According to fidelity’s 2018 charitable Giving report, Crypto giving in 2017 topped $69 million. According to the report, Donations to Fidelity Charitable of non-publicly traded assets, such as restricted stock, limited partnership interests, and real estate, totaled $916 million of all 2017 donations.
A wetrust survey unearthed the fact that 77 percent of crypto holders having an interest in making crypto donations to worthy causes. This was evidenced by the great support given to the victims of the 2018 Japanese flooding crisis. During the crisis global crypto exchange Binance gave a $1 million cash donation to japan, while also setting up a donation address for others to donate as well.
In this crypto giving zeitgeist, charities must proceed with caution before accepting crypto donations. According to the journal of accountancy, some steps that charities can take to safeguard themselves include;
- Review and update the organization’s gift acceptance policy;
- Set up systems, accounts, policies, and procedures to accept and secure this class of asset;
- Adopt accounting policies and adjust the chart of accounts as necessary to properly account for this class of asset if it cannot be readily converted to cash (this article does not address accounting practices, as accounting guidance for cryptocurrency is being evaluated by an AICPA working group); and
- Understand and implement systems for gathering information needed to comply with all reporting requirements associated with accepting this class of asset.
Former head of CME ventures, Rumi Morales cautioned against charities rushing to accept crypto donations. Morales said;
“If you simply want to jump in because you’ve heard the buzz about it, I would caution anyone against accepting buzz over real money.”
He went on to add;
“Bitcoin and digital currencies can be accepted at some type of value, but as we’ve seen, it can be very volatile.”
Despite these words of caution the likes of Morales, ripple’s donation to SFSU should be seen as a sign of progress; progress towards the broader understanding of crypto and its underlying technology, the blockchain.
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