Re: Roll call / intro - expand the scope of Interledger Protocol to beyond payment

I’d like to give a big +1 to discussing this.

Payments don’t really happen in a vacuum. If Alice send money to Bob, then she did so for a reason. 
Bob clearly benefited from receiving the payment. Alice clearly incurred cost by sending the payment.
What generally goes unmentioned is that Alice likely received a benefit out-of-band from the traditional payment system.
Likewise, Bob likely incurred some cost/expense (maybe it was goods sold) out-of-band as well.

In many types of transactions, it is possible to include these formerly out-of-band transactions into a single ILP “circular” payment. Stock transfer and digital goods sales spring immediately to mind.

So as example, Alice has USD and wants to own a share of AAPL stock. A clever bit of pathfinding could create a circular ILP payment that 1) debited Alice’s USD on her bank’s ledger, and as part of the same transaction, 2) credited Alice’s account on the AAPL stock custodian’s ledger. To make this possible some third party (Bob) is essentially swapping with Alice. Bob’s bank account gets credited, and his stock accounted debited.

Nothing really changes from an ILP perspective. Both the core banking systems and stock custodian’s systems are ILP “ledgers”. Both Alice and Bob in effect serve as ILP “connectors”.

Bob Way
Software Engineer | Ripple
bob@ripple.com <mailto:ben@ripple.com> | ripple.com <http://ripple.com/>






> On Dec 2, 2015, at 8:27 PM, Nitin Gaur <ngaur@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Folks
>  My name is Nitin Gaur, I serve as a Director of Blockchain Labs  @IBM.
> 
> I wanted to float an idea prior to our first cal, where we expand the scope of Interledger Protocol to beyond payments.  The idea is to ensure that we are aware and linking payment activity to other business functions.  Such as Mortgage initialization, Mortgage securitzation, Car loan payment etc. The idea being to explore how blockchain  can be employed in conjunction with other business activity in  Financial services sector. 
> 
> This will also broader the horizon and applicability..linking payment to broader blockchain ecosystem.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> N
> 
> :)
> Nitin Gaur
> IBM Blockchain Labs
> 512-789-5300
> 
> -----Forwarded by Nitin Gaur/Austin/IBM on 12/02/2015 10:21PM -----
> 
> From: Bob Way <bob@ripple.com <mailto:bob@ripple.com>>
> Date: 29 October 2015 at 20:52
> Subject: Re: Roll call / intro
> To: "public-interledger@w3.org <mailto:public-interledger@w3.org>" <public-interledger@w3.org <mailto:public-interledger@w3.org>>
> 
> 
> Hi all. I’m Bob Way. I work with Stefan, Evan and Adrian on the interledger team at Ripple.
> 
> I ran across Bitcoin pretty early and became a fanboy of the cryptocurrency concept. A couple years later I discovered OpenCoin’s Ripple announcement and became intrigued with the possibilities of transacting in fiat currencies within the framework of a cryptocurrency system.
> 
> It was during my pre-employment research into OpenCoin’s Ripple system that I discovered Ryan Fugger’s “classic" Ripple Pay system. In fact, I credit my grasp of the “rippling” concept to some patient tutoring from members of Ryan’s community. (Great to meet you Ryan!)
> 
> Now after two and a half years at Ripple, I’m ecstatic about establishing ILP as a global open standard supporting all types of transactions. I believe ILP can optimize the benefits of social credit, cryptocurrency, and traditional finance by connecting them all into an interoperable web of value.
> 
> Bob Way
> Software Engineer | Ripple
> bob@ripple.com <mailto:ben@ripple.com> | ripple.com <http://ripple.com/>
> 
> 
>