Mastercard has joined a working group that promotes blockchain education and research in universities across the globe.

Blockchain accelerator MouseBelt announced on Tuesday that it had embraced 11 founding members into its Blockchain Education Alliance. In extension to the card network, the new members comprise the innovation arms of crypto exchange Binance and payments startup Ripple; and representatives from KuCoin, Neo, and ethereum scaling solution Matic Network.

They will join the 13 companies, involving Stellar, TRON, and Wanchain, which became part of the collaboration when it was declared in October.

The Blockchain Education Alliance is a portion of MouseBelt’s university program, an initiative to educate the next generation of blockchain developers in about 80 student associations across the world. Members grant funding and educational resources that support students and professors form curriculums and stay updated with industry developments.

“The members all share our ethos: The best way to invest in the space is to make long-term investments in education,” stated Ashlie Meredith, director of MouseBelt University. “The better the education, the better developers, and projects we will see.”

The Alliance commenced as an association of more than 13 universities in North America but has extended to accommodate approximately 70 schools across the Americas, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Warren Paul Anderson, head of developer relations at Ripple’s Xpring incubator, stated joining the Alliance enabled it to develop prospective developers with the skills and resources they require.

“Mousebelt’s mission to promote blockchain technology at the curriculum level within universities is directly aligned with that of Xpring,” he said.

Mastercard is one of the world’s most significant payment providers, managing more than $14 trillion worth of payments annually. Since the past few years, the company has made various forays into blockchain technology, most prominently as one of the founding members of Facebook’s Libra Association.

Concurrently with its main competitor Visa, Mastercard dropped the association in October. CEO Ajay Banga told this month he had pulled the company out of Libra because of concerns encompassing the project’s regulatory state and long-term viability.

Mastercard has not mentioned why it entered the Blockchain Education Alliance.