From Interledger Summit to Our Classroom: Why We're Building This

Last November I had the privilege of speaking at the Interledger Summit 2025 on a panel about how universities are cultivating the next generation of open payments talent. Honestly? It was surreal. A year ago, this was just an idea I was sketching out. Now, thanks to the Interledger Foundation NextGen Higher Education Grant, we're actually building it.

The future of open payments won't be built by technologists alone, or lawyers alone, or finance professionals alone. It will be built by people who can speak all three languages.

The panel was called "From Classroom to Codebase: How Universities Cultivate the Next Generation of Open Payments Talent", and I was there representing The Hague University as the project lead of what we're calling the Open Payments Innovation Lab (some of us also call it the Future of Open Payments Project, depending on the day). I wanted to share what I said there and why I think this matters for anyone reading this, whether you're a student considering joining us, part of the Interledger community, or an educator curious about what we're trying.

The Gap I Keep Seeing

Here's what I've noticed working in this space: there's a real shortage of people who can actually translate between worlds.

Developers speak one language. Lawyers speak another. Finance people speak a third. And when you try to build something like open payment systems, which require all three to work together, there's this constant friction. Fintech startups struggle to explain their innovations to regulators. Banks hire compliance teams who don't fully understand the technology they're supposed to regulate. Policymakers write rules for payment systems without fully grasping how they work.

We need more translators. People who can sit in a room with a developer, a regulator, and a CFO and actually make them understand each other. That's not a common skill right now and it's desperately needed. So that's what we're trying to build: a program that trains students to become those translators.

What I'm Planning to Try

I'll be honest: I'm figuring this out as I go. But here's what I'm thinking will work, based on what I've seen resonate with students before.

Students Don't Care About Abstractions: You can't just say "open payments are important" and expect students to get excited. They need to see the friction. The real-world problem. The moment when someone can't send money home to their family because the fees eat up 20% of what they're sending. So we're starting every session with a provocation. A regulatory dilemma. A fintech company that failed. A payment system that broke. Then we ask: why did this happen? What would need to be different? That's where engagement starts. When it's real.

Gamification Might Actually Work: We're planning classroom simulations where students become nodes in a payment network. Then we'll introduce failures. One node refuses to interoperate. One connector charges exorbitant fees. The idea is for students to viscerally experience what happens when systems don't play nicely together. Once students understand the core concepts, they develop their own ideas and pitch solutions to real-world financial inclusion challenges. Authenticity Matters More Than Polish: We're inviting fintech practitioners to talk to students, and I'm telling them: don't polish your story. Tell them what actually went wrong. What regulatory challenge you didn't see coming. The compliance requirement that almost killed your startup. I think students will respond to this so much better than success theater. They want to see the human side of digital finance. They want to know it's messy and hard and worth doing anyway.

Let Them Struggle, Then Guide: Once students understand the basics, we won't hand them a template. We'll say: here's the problem space, here are the tools, now go design something. They'll struggle. They'll come back with half-baked ideas. And that's when the real learning should happen - in the coaching sessions where we help them refine, challenge their assumptions, push them to think harder about trade-offs. The best insights don't come from lectures. They come from wrestling with "wait, but how would this actually work legally?" or "okay, but who's going to pay for this?"

Why Financial Inclusion Needs This

Look, I could talk about the 1.4 billion unbanked people in the world. I could cite statistics about remittance costs. But here's what I actually think: financial inclusion won't happen through technology alone. Or regulation alone. Or business models alone. It requires all three working together. And right now, not enough people understand all three well enough to make them work together.

You need technologists who understand that legal frameworks aren't just obstacles, they're design constraints that can guide innovation. You need lawyers who understand that payment architecture isn't just "the tech team's problem", it shapes what's legally possible. You need finance professionals who realize that understanding how systems interoperate is now core to their job.

If we want inclusive financial systems, we need to train people who can think across all of these domains. People who can make compliance enable innovation instead of blocking it. That's the bet we're making with this project.

What Happened at the Summit

The panel at Interledger Summit was one of those moments where you realize you're not alone in trying to figure this out.

Other educators are wrestling with similar questions: How do you teach open payments when it doesn't fit neatly into finance OR law OR computer science? How do you make it accessible? How do you keep it real and not just theoretical?

What I loved was the honesty. Everyone acknowledged that we're experimenting. We don't have all the answers. But the Interledger Foundation is creating space for these experiments to happen, and that matters.

If you want to read more about what came out of that conversation, the Interledger community published a blog post summarizing key takeaways.

Our Vision (The Ambitious Part)

Here's what I'm hoping for: I want The Hague University to become known as a place where the future of open payments is being shaped. Not just in policy papers, but in the minds of students who will go on to build, regulate, and advocate for inclusive financial systems.

The Hague is already known for international law and justice. Why not also for open payment education? Big dreams? Sure. But we have to start somewhere.

If You're Reading This…

If you're a student: Applications are open now. If this sounds interesting, if you want to be part of building something real and learning skills that most university programs don't teach, check out the details and apply.

If you're part of the Interledger community: I'd love to hear from you. Your insights, your stories, your critiques.

If you're an educator or institution: Let's talk. I'm happy to share what we're learning as we go, what works,what doesn't. If you're thinking about building something similar, maybe we can help each other.

The future of open payments won't be built by technologists alone, or lawyers alone, or finance professionals alone. It will be built by people who can speak all three languages.

And that's exactly who we're trying to train.