21st November Update: Ripple Swell, XRPL build, marketing and more!

Hi all and welcome to another GTS update. We have a lot to talk about!

Ripple Swell

This week our COO Jake was invited by Ripple to their Ripple Swell event on behalf of the GTS team! Ripple Swell is their flagship event that brings together the world's most influential voices across crypto, blockchain, payments, economic policy and more. The event is extremely exclusive with influential figures from across the globe flying in and we were very pleased to receive an invite.

‍

The event itself was great, Jake had the opportunity to hear from the CEO of Ripple Brad Garlinghouse, alongside their General Counsel Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Head of Public Policy Susan Friedman, the MD of Ripple Europe and the CEO of TrustWallet to name a few.

‍

There was a great deal mentioned on the various panels however there were a few common themes that stood out.

• Regulation
• Trust and Transparency
• Climate
• Blockchain For Good

‍

Regulation was identified as something that is inevitable for the industry and something that should be explored. “No one wants to be the first” was a quote from the stage. At GTS we already have our Lithuania crypto licences, we are well ahead of the game with regulation and will keep ourselves involved in the great work that Crypto UK and the APPG are doing to inform policymakers within the UK.

‍

Trust and transparency is something that is key to us at GTS. Our XRPL build is being created with security in mind right from the very foundations. We are extremely conscious of our due diligence and KYC processes and with our Certik Audit and regular updates, we are doing all we can to remain as transparent as possible.

‍

Climate effects within cryptocurrency were mentioned multiple times, including Ripple’s involvement with the Crypto Climate Accord. We have been a signatory alongside Ripple for a year and a half and are still active with the CCA community to come up with solutions for a greener crypto landscape. With XRPL being the first global blockchain to be carbon neutral we are pleased to be joining the quest with Ripple for crypto sustainability.

‍

Finally, blockchain for good was brought up separately to the climate topic. Crypto as a use-case for charitable giving was discussed by Eowyn Chen the CEO of TrustWallet.

‍

It is clear that the topics that are being discussed by speakers, regulators, financial institutions and Ripple themselves, are topics that align with Giving To Service’s mission, in which it is apparent that our efforts in all of these areas are strong within the current crypto landscape. ‍

‍

Marketing‍

‍

Our marketing efforts are increasing as we prepare for the XRPL switch to be finished and tested. Our full focus is currently on growing our community and reach while we are still in the build process so that we have new people to market to once the switch happens.

‍

We are using social media to our advantage and thinking on our feet such as live tweeting from the Ripple Swell event which saw us gain almost 200 new followers in 2 days and our efforts so far have seen us Retweeted by Ripple to their audience of 2.5 million followers.

‍

‍

‍

Our strengths on Twitter have seen us now ranked in the SustMeme ranking of Top 500 influencers and players active on Twitter in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable, Green and Ethical Business, Socially Responsible Investment and Governance. The list sees us above the likes of WWF, Patagonia, Fairtrade and the UN Global impact accounts. We are also the highest-ranking cryptocurrency.

‍

You can view the list here.

‍‍‍

Not only that but we have increased our reach to journalists to ensure we are involved in as many articles as we can, such as our recent articles in The Fintech Times, Tech Round, The Metaverse Times and Cryptonaire Weekly.

‍

Our CEO Leanne has also made the Wirex Rising Women In Crypto Power List! 13 women were chosen from across the globe for the list in which Leanne also picked up a specialist award ‘Newcomer Of The Year’. Out of 232 possible women across the globe we are over the moon that Leanne made the final 13!

‍

Leanne is also a finalist in the Women In IT Awards 2023 and will be representing GTS in the Social Impact Project of The Year category in February’s award ceremony.

‍

We will keep pushing our marketing efforts as we get closer towards the switch to XRPL in which after the switch we will concentrate our efforts on the wider XRP community. We are extremely pleased with our progress and reach in the last few months, SVS is getting noticed. ‍

‍

XRPL build update‍

‍

As you will know we are undergoing our ERC-20 to XRPL switch currently and the build is progressing well. We're currently building the fiat on ramp that will allow users to purchase SVS using their debit cards through the platform. We're working with a number of third parties to enable this, including Changelly and MoonPay. Our intention is to give SVS holders as many options as we can for them to purchase the token within our platform, both via fiat and by swapping their XRP for SVS if they prefer. We see this as a huge benefit, especially in the current climate, which we'll talk about a bit now for those who aren't keeping a close eye on things market wide.

‍

2022 has been difficult for our industry as a whole. We've seen bad actors within the space either by design, greed, incompetence or simple theft, cause unravelling of projects that have made what is a worldwide downturn, that effects both crypto and traditional finance, much worse. Projects of all sizes have been effected by this, with many failing as a result of these market pressures through no fault of their own.

‍

The FTX collapse continues to send reverberations through the industry as the scale of their actions come to light. At the time of writing it seems it isn't over yet. Worth making clear that what happened with FTX wasn't a problem with crypto as a technology, but the flaws of the humans involved. It's nothing we haven't seen multiple times already in traditional finance.

‍

The underlying theme of all of this is the interconnection of many projects within crypto, and users either being unaware of that or underestimating the extent of it. All of this works fine in a bull market, but combine a bear market with bad actors and you end up where we are now. The main learning point of 2022 will be something called 'counterparty risk'. This is a phrase we as a team have heard repeatedly this year at the institutionally focussed event we attended.

‍

"Counterparty risk is the likelihood or probability that one of those involved in a transaction might default on its contractual obligation. Counterparty risk can exist in credit, investment, and trading transactions."

‍

Simply put, you need to know exactly who you are dealing with and what the risks are. But really you must take it a step further to understand not only the entity you're dealing with, but also the risks of their connections. Who are their counterparties? Because they will indirectly become yours!

‍

With this in mind looking into 2023 we're exercising very deliberate patience in choosing our counterparties for listings and other business relationships. Our already very high level of corporate due diligence has been taken to another level. That combined with the constant work of our in house Threat Hunting Team means our users can be confident that we're doing everything we can to ensure the security and continued success of the project.

‍

The new platform allows us to effectively be self contained should we need to be during periods of uncertainty such as we are witnessing now, without the possibility of users tokens being lost on a Centralised Exchange (CEX). Users will be able to buy and sell the SVS/XRP pair through our 2 way swap function without leaving the platform, as well as on ramp to SVS with their debit cards.

‍

As ever, all that we do is to ensure GTS is here for the long term, to do as much good as we can.

‍

Thank you for your support.

‍

The GTS Team