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Chris Larsen is CEO of Ripple, a hot startup in the digital payments space. In a video interview with Bloomberg, Larsen gave an update on his team’s progress.

Ripple Labs – the company – raised funding from Andreessen Horowitz to build a world-class team, now 28 people. Ripple – the currency – is an open-source network for digital payments. Larsen compares this relationship to Redhat’s with operating system Linux.

When asked about Bitcoin, Larsen says that Bitcoin set out to create a new currency with no central bank, while Ripple is an exchange for any currency.

Related: Is the Ripple Network Bitcoin 2.0?

Watch the full video interview from Bloomberg.

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Boost Bitcoin Fund and Accelerator

There are lots of startups getting into Bitcoin, from networks like Ripple to exchanges like BitInstant. Now there’s a new fund designed to support Bitcoin startups, called Boost Bitcoin Fund.

Adam Draper, Founder & CEO of Boost VC, announced the Boost Bitcoin Fund on his blog.

Bitcoin, the decentralized, ungoverned currency has become an obsession of mine. Almost all of my blog posts have been about it, and almost all of my meetings in the last 3 months have been in reference to it. Bitcoin is the most exciting innovation that is happening in the world today. That is why we here at Boost VC are excited to announce the Boost Bitcoin Fund.

The Boost Bitcoin Fund is a follow-on, or “start” fund for Bitcoin companies that graduate from the Boost accelerator program. The fund will provide each Bitcoin company in the summer cohort with a $50k investment after completing the program in September, in addition to the $15k invested by Boost VC. The fund is anchored by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rothenberg Ventures, The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and Ben Davenport. This impressive set of investors have already established themselves as true “thought leaders” in the alternative currency space, and I’m incredibly excited to have them onboard.

The idea for the fund came together 3 months ago when we decided to accept 5-7 Bitcoin companies into our summer session. We received incredibly positive responses from the investment community following our announcement, and as a result, decided to put together this follow on fund for this cohort of companies. Interest was so strong that the capital came together in a week! These awesome investors have partnered with Boost in the hope of producing the next generation of Bitcoin entrepreneurs and innovators. We’re committed to pushing Bitcoin toward becoming the next digital frontier.

As an added bonus one fourth of this fund will be invested as Bitcoin into the startup companies.

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Is the Ripple Network Bitcoin 2.0?

Fastco.exist provides an in-depth look at Ripple, a company that calls itself the “world’s first open payment network,” and may be the next big thing for Bitcoin.

Ripple, a platform that just received funding from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others, has created both an alternative to Bitcoin and a distributed currency exchange for Bitcoiners (and others) who aren’t comfortable using only Ripple’s currency, known as XRP.

More on the mechanics of Ripple:

The Ripple platform serves two purposes: it’s a distributed open-source payment network, and it’s the home of the newly minted XRP currency. As a payment network, Ripple provides free global payments without chargebacks (minus a $0.0001 per transaction network charge, implemented as a security precaution against hackers), the ability to pay in any currency using a distributed currency exchange, and an open protocol that any developer can use. “The Ripple network is a protocol. It’s like HTTP for money. Users, merchants, anyone can use it for free without a license,” explains OpenCoin co-founder Chris Larsen.

So is it complementary or competitive with Bitcoin?

Ripple isn’t trying to convert all Bitcoin users to dedicated XRP advocates (though that would certainly be nice for OpenCoin). Instead, Larsen sees Ripple as a companion to Bitcoin. “It’s complementary. You can hold your Bitcoin in Ripple. We want to be agnostic to any currency, whether that be a virtual currency, political currencies, or peer to peer currencies,” he says.

Read the full article at Fastco.exist.

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