The Interledger Hackathon invites innovators to build solutions using Open Payments that expand financial access and interoperability, with a 24-hour event in Mexico City (Nov 8–9, 2025) featuring mentoring, prizes, and community collaboration.
The Interledger Foundation has announced the first awardees of its Nextgen Higher Education Grant Program, supporting universities in advancing digital financial inclusion through education, research, and innovation. Selected institutions in the Netherlands, Kenya, and the U.S. will develop interdisciplinary programs focused on open payments, the Interledger Protocol, and inclusive fintech solutions.
Hackathons are emerging as powerful catalysts for academic innovation, bridging theoretical learning with real-world problem-solving. These short, intensive events create opportunities for students to collaborate across disciplines, experiment with cutting-edge technologies, and design impactful solutions to global challenges.
August marked a turning point in digital finance. Many factors are accelerating the irreversible shift towards a more inclusive and digitally native financial ecosystem. One of the biggest leaders continues to be AI. Month by month AI continues to become a bigger part of our digital finance world. As summer comes to a close, there has been a significant push and growing momentum in the real-time payments movement.
The article highlights how friction in design can harm users when misused but also enhance safety, consent, and reflection when applied thoughtfully. Used well, it becomes a valuable tool for protecting user agency and trust, especially in financial and sensitive digital products.
July was a month marked by rapid technological advancements in a market continuing to change and to support instant payments. We can also see that AI continues to drive innovation in all that we do.
At the 2025 UN Internet Governance Forum, the Interledger Foundation helped launch a Policy Blueprint advocating for open, interoperable, and inclusive digital payment systems.
Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)—community-based financial groups rooted in trust and mutual support—are evolving through digital innovation, particularly with Open Payments technology. Once hyper-local and informal, ROSCAs are now being modernized with tools like blockchain, agentic AI, and the Interledger Protocol to facilitate secure, transparent, and low-cost cross-border transactions.
The Interledger Foundation joined global leaders at UN Open Source Week 2025 in New York to explore how open-source ecosystems can power inclusive digital public infrastructure.
We're back with our Summer quarterly roundup, featuring grant reports and updates from our Ambassadors, Grantees, and Partners shared over the past few months.
As we begin summer, several key trends defined this month. Digital payments continue to gain popularity worldwide. More and more people are using their phones, online apps, and cards over cash everyday. Trends like this continue to reflect a dynamic and evolving landscape because of the constant innovation in this area.
The UCT Financial Innovation Hub and Interledger Foundation Hackathon on 28 June 2025 brought together students from four South African universities to build real-world fintech solutions using the Interledger Protocol. After a week of training, 12 teams tackled challenges like financial inclusion and payment accessibility.
