A vibrant community has always been one of the differentiators for XRP. We have seen an amazing evolution of the XRP community over the past several years, growing from a small community of enthusiasts to a diverse ecosystem that has expanded to include not only crypto enthusiasts but also builders, businesses, and academics.
Japan has always been home to one of the largest and most active XRP local communities in the world, which was again evidenced in a recent XRP meetup in Japan.
The XRP Meetup Japan took place at the largest blockchain incubation center in Tokyo on November 10th, which auspiciously coincided with the day of the parade to celebrate Japan’s enthronement of a new emperor. The event had been entirely planned by community volunteers, who each contributed their unique skill sets and creativity to the event.
The venue was packed with over 300 community members who brought energy and joy throughout the event. About a dozen of attendees from Ripple participated and were able to witness the excitement firsthand.
The event started off with a networking session, where community members enjoyed getting to know each other in person, followed by lively talk sessions by diverse speakers, including Ripple employees (David, Warren, Nik, Rome, Hana and Emi), Professor Nakajima of Reitaku University (a leading academic in the payments and blockchain space) and XRP centric exchanges (SBIVC Trade and Bitrue).
One of the highlights of the day was the Xpring launch for Japan. Back in October, Xpring announced its developer platform as the “open platform for money”. Xpring builds on open source, open protocols and open networks, making easy for the 23 million developers worldwide to integrating any form of money into their programs and services. Xpring gives developers tools, services and programs to easily build with XRP and Interledger Protocol (ILP). To better help Japanese developers access Xpring contents, some of the contents have already been translated to Japanese. We also expect to host a series of events including educational seminars and hackathons in 2020.
The other highlights at the meetup included experiencing the creativity of the talented Japanese XRP community.
xBeer, which you could buy using XRP at the event
XRP cookies that the organizers made for the guests. Very sweet of them!
The JoelKatz character that is modeled after Bikkuriman, a classic Japanese snack that comes with a character sticker.
Thank you, the Japan community! We will be back soon!
Ripplers at XRP Meetup Japan
