Ripple Advances Towards Completing Key Components of Blockchain Ecosystem
If a thriving blockchain ecosystem were a recipe, the ingredients would include:
- One consensus mechanism
- Four DeFi apps*
- A driven founder/figurehead
- One native stablecoin (at least)
- Two legal entities (dev studio and foundation)
- One token bridge (minimum)
- Three terminally online reply guys
The secret ingredient would be one or more of the following: funding rounds, mid-cap memecoins, NFT collections, active VC funds, and third-party validator clients.
*Minimum required DeFi apps: DEX with token launchpads, lending/collateralized debt, liquid staking, oracle
Although many smart contract platforms exist, not all exhibit the same level of activity as major players like Ethereum, Solana, and BNB. For instance, XRPL has approximately $63 million TVL in its on-chain applications. Ripple Labs continues to develop its ecosystem over 12 years post-launch.
XRPL features a consensus mechanism that relies on trusted validators instead of traditional staking or mining. It also possesses several token bridges and two legal entities: Ripple Labs in San Francisco and the Estonian non-profit XRP Ledger Foundation, recently rebranded as the Inclusive Financial Technology Foundation.
Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse serves as the driven figurehead, while David Schwartz, the long-serving CTO, engages actively on social media, demonstrating strong community interaction.
The XRP Army amplifies community engagement through active participation on social media. Currently, XRPL hosts four DeFi apps with 100 unique active wallets daily. Three are DEXs, and one is an NFT marketplace. Additionally, XRPL introduced a native oracle, which may attract further development.
As XRPL does not utilize direct staking for consensus, it does not require a liquid staking app. The remaining components needed are a lending protocol and a native stablecoin.
Ripple USD (RLUSD) is in development, having received approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services. It will function similarly to Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT, backed by cash and equivalents, primarily short-dated US Treasuries.
With XRPL nearing completion of necessary components, DeFi veteran Robert Leshner is open to supporting projects within the Ripple ecosystem via his fund.
To further enhance XRPL's potential, a selection of mid-cap memecoins would be beneficial. Currently, the largest memecoin has a market cap of $45 million. Recent trading volume on XRPL was only $15 million, but should RLUSD gain traction, this figure could increase significantly.
Bellisimo!