Ripple’s CBDC Innovate Awards $140,000 to 3 Grand Prize Winners for CBDC Applications
Tags: cbdc, hackathon, ripple, cryptocurrency
Published: 2023-11-09 17:31:36

Ripple’s [CBDC Platform](https://ripple.com/solutions/central-bank-digital-currency/) offers a clear approach to Central Banks seeking to implement central bank digital currency (CBDC). It provides a comprehensive platform for minting, managing, transacting, and destroying CBDCs and stablecoins leveraging a private ledger based on the XRP Ledger. Ripple emphasizes the importance of driving further innovation in the CBDC ecosystem, enabling increased adoption and usage of CBDCs around the world. 

Ripple’s second annual [CBDC Innovate](https://ripplecbdc.devpost.com/), a two-phased challenge offering enterprises, enterprise, and individual developers a chance to create central bank digital currency (CBDC) applications, has just concluded, generating excitement throughout the global CBDC community. Ripple believes CBDCs to be a game-changer for Central Banks, enabling all things from better payments interoperability, increased transfer speeds and retail transactions, as well as better financial inclusion for all. 

In CBDC Innovate: Phase I, contestants submitted their ideas for novel CBDC applications, with over 1,200 registrants vying for the chance to win a prize pool for $60,000. CBDC innovate: Phase II saw a select few finalists continuing to build, develop, and complete their applications, with three grand prize winners competing for a prize pool of $140,000. These select finalists and subsequent grand prize winners were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges from the BIS Innovation Hub, DXC Technology, the Digital Euro Association, and much more. 

**Meet the CBDC Innovate Winners**

- In first place, we have ExtoPay, a disruptive innovative digital payment system that enables universal financial access for consumers and merchants through low-cost Bluetooth biometric smart card/wearable hardware wallets or mobile-based software wallets.
- In second place, Financial Ledger Applications Network, a unique platform that uses specialized radio-data protocols and the XRP Ledger to facilitate access to financial networks for people in developing nations.
- In third place, BlockBima, an automated form of climate insurance by leveraging satellite imagery, geospatial science, machine learning, data oracles, smart contracts, and CBDCs.

To see the full list of the winners and learn more about their winning CBDC apps, visit the [DevPost Announcement page](https://ripplecbdc2.devpost.com/).

We are also excited to highlight how each of Ripple’s CBDC Innovate 2023 grand-prize winners provided a novel and unique approach to CBDCs, specifically in relation to financial inclusion and sustainability. 

In the case of ExtoPay, a combination of both hardware and software wallets were used to enable payments using Bluetooth connectivity, among other technologies. This helps to enable better financial inclusion among individuals that may not have access to smartphones or other technologies, ensuring better interoperability for all. 

FLAN’s solution to build a peer-to-peer radio network to enable CBDC usage and distribution would help enable the rapid deployment of a financial data network that can leverage CBDCs to enable inter-village payments, P2P payments, and even international settlement.

BlockBima helps to enable insurance contracts to be deployed on the blockchain using CBDCs, while also using a data oracle driven by satellite data to report ecological states at the maturity of the insurance contract. BlockBima uses CBDCs to help with the payment and settlement of these automated climate-based insurance contracts.

As an industry leader in the CBDC ecosystem, Ripple’s goal continues to be to promote growth and participation in the overall CBDC ecosystem, reducing friction for things like cross-border adoption, interoperability, and much more. CBDC Innovate reflects the immense growth, interest, and increasing adoption of CBDCs around the world. 


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