The upcoming Swell conference, hosted by Ripple, features President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker.
Conferences on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology happen on a weekly basis around the world. Bold ideas are discussed, relationships forged, and talks on how the latest innovative technology is being adopted and changing the world. However, few conferences boast the political, financial, and industrial star power of the Swell conferences hosted by Ripple. Case in point is that the upcoming conference in San Francisco features the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Meeting a President
Ripple, the global payment remittance company, hosts the next Swell conference in San Francisco on October 1st and 2nd. The goal of the conference is to connect “the world’s leading experts on policy, payments and technology for the most provocative dialog in global payments today.”
The program for the event features discussions on the use of blockchain technology by central banks in both the past and the future. There is also a panel examining the frameworks for regulating digital assets across major economic regions of the world, specifically the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Other talks feature bringing payments into the modern age and companies explaining how Ripple’s various systems have helped improve their business, not to mention their bottom line.
Of course, the highlight of the Swell conference is Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker. Known for his advocacy for innovation and technology, the former president will speak on Monday, October 1st, from 11 am to 12 pm. Clinton will engage in a Q&A with attendees that will be moderated by Gene Sperling, the National Economic Council Director and Advisor for both Clinton and Obama. Needless to say, this is the can’t-miss event at Swell.
A Busy Year
Ripple has been as busy as a bee in 2018. The company has been expanding by entering into agreements with banks and financial institutions across the globe, such as Kuwait Finance House, Beetech, and Santander UK. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse fully expects the number of partnerships to climb, saying:
I’ve publicly stated that by the end of this year, I have every confidence that major banks will use xRapid as a liquidity tool. You know, by the end of next year, I would certainly hope that we would see you know in the order of… dozens.
Garlinghouse is also not afraid to throw some shade at the number one cryptocurrency. At Recode’s Code Conference, he linked Bitcoin to obsolescence by saying:
We may come to find that Bitcoin is kind of the Napster of digital assets. This is transformative technology, but Spotify and iTunes and Pandora rule the day because they engaged with regulators to solve a real problem.
The Ripple CEO also believes the Bitcoin will not become a global cryptocurrency, but he does believe it will have a role in the global economy. He told CNBC:
I think it’s (bitcoin) not going to be the panacea that people once thought it would be, where it would solve all of these different kind of problems… Instead, you’re seeing specializations of different kind of ledgers, different kinds of blockchains.
XRP is currently the third-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, hitting over $17 billion. The coin is currently trading at $0.441845, a 2.79 percent increase over the last 24 hours.
Would you like to attend Swell to hear Bill Clinton speak? Let us know in the comments below.
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