We’ve had an eventful last month, here are the updates from our Community Call:
The Interledger Foundation is a global nonprofit foundation and steward of the Interledger Protocol (ILP) and Open Standards. Our role is to advocate for the adoption of open, interoperable payment solutions while supporting organizations that want to build on Interledger, and maintain a robust open-source community.
The call started off with Fynbos updates:
@adrianhopebailie shared that they will soon finish onboarding with Chimoney so that they can support Canadian users with the Fynbos wallet. They also have a separate project with Chimoney to enable transactions between Chimoney users (Canada) and the US. Lastly, Fynbos and Gatehub are working together with a consultant to get peer to peer crossborder payments between the US and EU. Adrian finishes off by saying they may have payments working between US and Europe by the next call (maybe :D).
Key updates from the Hackathon at the University of Cape Town:
Sarah Jones @joblerstune, an ILF Developer, gave us some great insight into the hackathon events that took place at the end of June. The weekend started with a bootcamp on digital Financial inclusion and open payments.
Dr. Allen David's, a Senior Lecturer in Economics, covered topics such as the traditional banking system, the alternative payment systems available today, financial exclusion, and the complexities of cross border and cross currency payments. Our very own Sarah Jones, Lawil Karma @lwlkarama and Sabine Schaeller @sabineschaller also presented to the students.
The weekend culminated in a 24-hour Hackathon that allowed students to develop their own projects surrounding open payments. Sarah explained that almost 40 students were in attendance throughout the weekend, and there was a great turnout of projects. The hands-on experience and brainstorming sessions helped students think critically about the standards and the possibilities that Interledger could provide.
Dr. Davids then gives some comments on his experience at the hackathon.
“it's always really been a dream of mine to sort of see what a cohort of intelligent, bright, ambitious and driven students do with this open payments framework and see how they are able to apply that framework to potentially use cases”
We wrap up the call with presentations from the winners:
1. SecureLifeCover - 1st Place
Winners: Darryl Nyamayaro, Siphiwe Bogatsu, Donel Chihoma, and Jason Joannou
This project was developed to be a dynamic fintech solution that helps underserved South African communities manage funeral cover payments, ensuring no payment is missed and relieving families of financial stress during difficult times.
Darryl Nyamayaro says “it's about the 61% of Africans who rely solely on the informal funeral cover. And miss payments can result in funeral costs ranging from 3000 rands to 50,000 rands and this is a financial and emotional burden that No family should face during a time of loss.”
2. Spend Secure - 2nd Place
Winners: Marc Levin, Ben Cleveland
This platform allows senders to send funds for specific purposes, preventing misuse by receivers, leveraging the granularity that can be achieved with the Grant Negotiation Authorization Protocol. For example, parents might pay into a “community” like a grocery store, convenience store, or even an organization. Their child/dependent can then go to that store and securely spend the money and the transactions can also be tracked by the families.
One of the runners up were, Naartjie, presented by Shaun Brick & Johan Brits
Naartjie reimagined the capabilities of the protocol - to demonstrate how friends can directly pay retailers, suppliers, and manufacturers, bypassing complex authorization screens.
Feel free to read more thoughts on the Hackathon in Sabine’s blog
Don't forget:
The Call for Speakers for the ILP Summit 2024 is open until August 6th, 2024. Apply here.
ILP Digital Financial Services Grant is open to apply until August 30, 2024. Read the application guidelines before applying.
The Ambassador Program Grant is open to apply until August, 30th, 2024. Read the application guidelines
The NextGen Higher Education Grant will be open until further notice.
Join our next call on August 14th, 2024 at 11 AM EST.
Thank you for reading!
Chiara
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