The University of Pennsylvania is one of 17 universities around the world to join a $50 million, multi-year research and development initiative backed by San Francisco, Calif.-based cryptocurrency payment network Ripple.

Funding from Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative will let Penn’s Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science work jointly on “The Ripple Project,” an avenue for academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology.

Ripple’s head of corporate communications, Tom Channick, told Technical.ly in an email that the company won’t be disclosing the specific amounts allocated to each institution, but said Ripple will enter “multi-year, multi-million dollar commitments” with all of the universities.

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