Ripple has been known for using celebrities when it comes to promoting XRP. Ripple teamed up with Ashton Kutcher to donated $4 million-worth of XRP to Ellen DeGeneres’ Wildlife Fund during her birthday. As this was being done on TV, it goes to show just how Ripple is looking to make use of celebrities in an attempt to make Ripple a household name.
This time around, Ripple partnered up with Madonna in an attempt to raise funds for orphans of Malawi. Madonna announced that the fundraiser is a way to celebrate her 60th birthday. All the donations will be going to Raising Malawi which is a non-profit organization that she co-founded together with Michael Berg in 2006. Ripple is said to be matching the donations to be raised.
Malawi is currently one of the poorest nations in the world. It has more than half of the population living below the poverty line according to the International Monetary Fund.
Eric Van Miltenburg who is Ripple’s senior vice president of business operations mentioned that: “We’re honored to be a part of Raising Malawi’s amazing work with some of the world’s most underserved children and are grateful to our investors at Sound Ventures for making the introduction to us and this important cause”.
The campaign began on July 30. It is going to run until August 31. So far, it has raised more than $26,000. Around 540 people donated in two days and is already halfway to the $60,000 target. According to Madonna, the fundraising event is a gift “connecting my global family with this beautiful country and the children who need our help most”.
Ripple and Celebrities
Aside from Madonna, Ripple also announced that former US President Bill Clinton is going to appear at its annual Swell conference. However, it is apparent that the crypto community isn’t actually happy with these kinds of antics being used by Ripple.
For one, there is no immediate connection between Clinton and cryptocurrencies. In fact, after the news broke, many made use of this opportunity to make the former president the subject of different memes.
Ripple explained why Clinton is their choice for keynote speaker saying that Clinton “helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today”.
They also added that “He also established programs that bridged the ‘digital divide’ and brought new technology to underserved communities around the world”.
Is Ripple a Security?
Though Ripple is making use of celebrities to promote XRP, it is still in a limbo. Though Bitcoin and Ethereum were both considered by the US SEC not as security, this isn’t the case when it comes to Ripple.
In fact, chief cryptographer David Schwartz even mentioned on mainstream media that Ripple’s XRP is not a cryptocurrency and banks aren’t going to use it. And also, you have the likes of Western Union saying that Ripple’s product never lessened the cost of cross-border transactions.
This only means that Ripple would need more than PR using celebrities and politicians in order to be considered as a reliable cryptocurrency.
