What is the XRP Ledger?

In 2012, the XRP Ledger developers pioneered the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA), a consensus protocol that is inspired by the Classical Consensus but with some modifications, and based on the Byzantine fault tolerance mechanism. And with XRP as the native currency and digital asset of this network, the primary goal was to build a faster, cheaper, and more sustainable Bitcoin to move value peer-to-peer.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is an open-source, public, and decentralized Layer 1 blockchain led by a global developer community that pioneered DeFi by introducing the first DEX, tokenization of assets, smart contract features, and more. It is fast, low-cost, energy-efficient, and reliable. For more than ten years, it has been the blockchain best suited for payments and tokenization. With ease of development, low transaction costs, and a knowledgeable community, it provides developers with a strong open-source foundation for executing on the most demanding projects – without impacting the XRPL’s lean and efficient feature set. XRPL enables a wide variety of services and use cases including payments, DeFi, NFTs, and tokenization.

By introducing a decentralized exchange, the creation of tokens and IOUs, escrows and other features, the XRPL started the DeFi movement without most people realizing it. Individuals and businesses could and can trade and transact in a global marketplace without any banks or intermediaries involved.

All these years, the XRP Ledger has been constantly evolving, but in 2024, the XRP Ledger is going through transformation changes transitioning from a blockchain focused mainly on payments to a future-proof blockchain and ecosystem with features and developments such as NFTs, Hooks, AMM, EVM sidechain, DIDs, and more.