A world where value moves as efficiently as information can not be achieved without investment in research and software that tries to bridge the gaps in current financial systems. An Internet of Value is already being developed as we speak, but this is not an isolated effort and there is no single software right now that enables it. Creating better solutions for money and connecting them among one another is the way to go.
Here we talk about just a few solutions that bring the Internet of Value a bit closer to reality.
Interledger Protocol (ILP)
The Interledger protocol is an open protocol for payments across payment networks. It was invented in 2015 by Stefan Thomas and Evan Schwartz. In October of that year the whitepaper was released and the Interledger W3C Community Group was formed.
It works by connecting senders and receivers through connectors to transfer value over different networks. Any one transaction can include multiple connections or multiple hops to reach its destination. Conditional transfers are used to prevent loss of funds on the way. All transactions are either executed in full or stopped at the source if all the conditions are not met.
The Interledger Protocol pulls inspiration from the packet and address format of the Internet Protocol. Read more about ILP here.
Web Monetization
Web Monetization is a JavaScript browser API that allows the creation of a payment stream from the user agent to the website. Web Monetization utilizes Interledger’s open, simple and ledger- and currency-agnostic protocol for transferring value. Our friends at Coil provide Web Monetization services by enabling payment streams for content creators.
Coil
A payment stream is active as long as a Coil subscriber is actively browsing a Web Monetized website or blog. This means that content creators can get paid in real time and proportionately to the amount of traffic they attract.
Xpring
Xpring
Xpring is an open platform for money launched by Ripple in 2019 after an internal initiative to facilitate the development of the Internet of Value. It aims to do so by providing developer tools, services, and programs to integrate money into apps.
It is primarily focused on building use cases for XRP, the native currency of the XRP Ledger. Since its inception it has invested or partnered with over 20 companies and deployed over $500M in investments.
Xpring wants to build and expand on the protocol layer (XRPL, ILP and PayID) to provide better tools and services and expand on eligible use cases.
PayID
PayID is a recent initiative by Xpring that focuses on the issue of hard to read and hard to remember addresses in legacy and blockchain networks. Cryptocurrency addresses and IBANs are hard to remember but PayID seeks to act as a unique, human readable identifier for payments. It borrows its format from the well established email address using the dollar sign “$” in place of the at sign “@” used in emails.
GateHub supports PayID since its launch on June 18, 2020. Read more about PayID in our press release, blog and one-pager.
Grant for the Web
Grant for the Web is a $100M fund to boost open, fair, and inclusive standards and innovation in Web Monetization. Its goal is to improve business models for the web on open standards and to enable easy access and fair monetization for content creators on the web. The founding members are Mozilla, Creative Commons, and Coil.
Their first public call for proposals was held from April to July 2020. Check out Grant for the Web’s blog for more information about how you too can participate in a better Web of tomorrow.
Wallets
In essence, most digital wallets are enabling the Internet of Value in some way or another. Transferring between networks should be seamless and cheap. At GateHub we aspire to offer these ideals with our wallets.
The public XRPL wallets are operated directly on the XRP Ledger by our users. Our Gateways allow you to transfer value in other currencies to the XRP Ledger and make payments and trades with assets other than XRP.
Our Hosted wallets enable you to receive Web Monetization streams over Interledger from any of your Web Monetized websites or blogs.
Finally you can set a PayID for your Primary wallet which can be either an XRPL or Hosted wallet. With PayID you can send and receive payments in XRP.
Recap
We covered the inception of the Internet of Value and it’s 9 principles in our previous blogs. In this entry we checked out a few key players in the facilitation of the Internet of Value.
There are so many efforts that fall in line with the principles or philosophy of the Internet of Value that it’s hard to keep track. From the ever more present Decentralized Finance to new efforts in security, KYC and AML, settlement and others. We are confident we’ll be seeing new and exciting developments in the months and years ahead.
