As fall begins, there continues to be significant developments in financial inclusion globally driven by digital finance, regulatory action, and ongoing global campaigns.
miPlata has been awarded the Interledger Foundation’s 2025 Digital Financial Services grant to develop an integrated platform connecting employers, workers, and families across borders, expanding affordable financial access for unbanked Latinos.
A global open-source event where Interledger invites contributors to build inclusive financial technologies through coding, collaboration, and community participation during Hacktoberfest.
ILF Ambassador Gavin Chait envisions a federated, community-led e-commerce model through Hop Sauna that empowers creators with autonomy, inclusivity, and interoperable payments—reimagining online commerce and social media as decentralized and equitable spaces.
Interledger Ambassador Caroline Sinders warns that harmful or manipulative design patterns in digital finance can exploit vulnerable users and undermine trust, calling for transparent, user-centered, and inclusive design standards to ensure ethical financial technology.
The Interledger Foundation’s call for papers highlights global research advancing digital financial inclusion and interoperable payments through diverse societal, technological, and policy perspectives.
Interledger is hosting student hackathons across Mexico to teach open payments technology and fintech skills, culminating in the 2025 Mexico City Hackathon, where participants develop innovative solutions for financial inclusion and cross-border payments.
The Interledger Foundation’s 2025 Work Weeks in Romania brought global collaborators together to advance Web Monetization and Rafiki, focusing on new publisher tools, scalable infrastructure, and real-world payment integrations. These gatherings accelerated progress toward building an open, inclusive, and interoperable financial network.
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.
