The popular DLT protocol Parity Technologies has partnered with Berkeley’s Blockchain Xcelerator program to provide educational panels for students in the university’s blockchain curriculum.

As part of the collaboration, Polkadot’s co-founder Gavin Woods will be a guest lecturer in the A. Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series.

Parity to Educate Berkeley Students About Blockchain

Parity Technologies, a core DLT infrastructure company, announced its latest partnership in a press release shared with CryptoPotato.

According to the document, Parity will employ its substrate blockchain-building framework to educate and work together with the university to raise “the overall awareness of next-generation blockchain technologies in order to promote adoption among students and the community at UC Berkeley.”

For the ongoing 2020-2021 academic year, Parity’s developer education team will collaborate with the faculty, students, and the community studying blockchain technologies in their respective coursework. This includes involvement in curriculum preparation, project ideas, and resources to “enrich the educational experience.”

Furthermore, Parity and the university’s DLT-oriented program called the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator will advise students and entrepreneurs on how to develop and eventually launch blockchain startups on Polkadot and Web 3.0 ecosystem.

Jocelyn Weber, an executive at the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, said that the “work with parity and other Polkadot ecosystem startups had demonstrated the potential of this technology in educating our community.”

“We strive to expose our students to the tools and skills they will need to enter this space and immediately start making significant contributions – which is why improving their knowledge with tools such as Substrate and networks like Polkadot will be an important part of our curriculum development.” – Weber added.

Gavin Woods to Give a Lecture

The statement also outlined that Dr. Gavin Woods, the co-founder of Ethereum, Polkadot, and Parity, will give a lecture in the A. Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture series this month.

Wood commented that blockchain innovation is expanding at a rapid pace and has advanced “beyond legacy networks into next-generation, production-grade blockchains like Polkadot.” This makes it “critical” for the newer coders, engineers, and entrepreneurs to be able to take on the growing competition and develop ground-breaking projects.

Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen have recently appealed to Judge Analisa Torres, filing two separate motions to dismiss the US SEC’s amended complaint against Ripple and its executives.

Regulatory Overreach

In a letter dated March 3, 2021, the Attorneys representing Garlinghouse stated that the lawsuit filed by the SEC against Ripple was simply a “regulatory overreach.”

They argued that the SEC’s allegations of Garlinghouse aiding and abetting the sale of XRP, which they also alleged of being a security under the Securities Act, failed based on several reasons.

The letter reads:

“The SEC fails to recognize the economic realities of Defendants’ transactions in XRP, the XRP market, and Ripple’s business, each of which exhibits none of the traditional characteristics of an investment contract under SEC v. W.J. Howey Co.”

The Howey Test is often used by the SEC to determine whether an asset possesses the qualities of a security, and the regulatory body had argued that XRP had all the characteristics of a security. 

However, Ripple and its executives have maintained that XRP is a virtual currency, as confirmed by the Justice Department and FinCEN.

The filing also remarked on the recent amended complaint filed by the SEC before the pretrial hearing on February 22, which alleged that Garlinghouse violated securities laws by selling his XRP holdings through Ripple.

Baseless Claims

Garlinghouse had reportedly sold more than 60% of his XRP holdings worth around $159 million at that time, a move that had been frowned upon by several members of the crypto community.

However, the attorneys representing him have asserted that the SEC’s complaints against him are baseless since there are no tangible proofs to show that those transactions had indeed occurred within the US.

They said that “the truth is that the vast majority of Mr. Garlinghouse’s XRP sales were made on foreign exchanges, and those transactions do not and cannot violate the federal securities laws.”

Meanwhile, Chris Larsen’s lawyers said in their letter that the regulator has failed “to state a claim against Mr. Larsen,”  even in its amended complaint. Hence, the lawsuit against their client should be dismissed.

An Attack On Cryptocurrencies

The conclusion of this SEC lawsuit against Ripple will greatly affect the way cryptocurrencies are viewed and regulated. 

The CEO had earlier stated that this case is an “assault on crypto at large” and that Ripple “will not let SEC bully the entire industry.”

It is still uncertain who would be declared right or wrong, we just have to wait and watch with fingers crossed.