Matt Hamilton Explains Why XRP was not as Popular as Bitcoin

Matt Hamilton, Ripple’s former director of developer relations, recently reacted to one of his followers’ tweets about why XRP never took off like Bitcoin. Hamilton replied that at that time, XRP didn’t gain the same popularity as the leading crypto asset, Bitcoin.

Currently, Hamilton is working as Principal Developer Advocate at Protocol Labs. He shared his thoughts on why Bitcoin is more popular than XRP. Hamilton explained that XRP was introduced in 2012, three years after Bitcoin secured its standards in the crypto market.

Bitcoin had first mover advantage. The XRP Ledger was ahead of it’s time. No-one understood what a DEX was or tokenisation back in 2012. Plus the early paid FUD campaign from Bitcoiners against XRP and the FinCEN case against Ripple slowed a lot of things.
— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) January 26, 2023

He further explained that in 2012, crypto users were unaware of asset tokenization which was only available on the XRP ledger. He added that information attacks on the platform also affected its growth.

“The early paid FUD campaign from Bitcoiners against XRP and the FinCEN case against Ripple slowed a lot of things,” Hamilton tweeted.

Last weekend, Bitcoin price gained 38.21% to reach the $23,000 mark after plunging to $16,547, according to CoinMarketCap. Based on market capitalization, Bitcoin is in first place, and XRP is in sixth place (at press time).

XRP Ledger smart contracts are in development-

The former director of Ripple revealed the upcoming developments on XRP Ledger. Hamilton revealed that the blockchain will soon introduce smart contracts. Smart contracts are currently in the “development process.” But it is unclear whether Hamilton referred to smart contracts on the $XRP Ledger.

Since the lawsuit was filed in December 2020, XRP price went through a sharp spike through 2021 before falling consistently till now. However, the present price and Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) remain higher than the pre-lawsuit price.

Ripple believes it came up with a creative concept to build a breakthrough crypto solution for a world without economic borders. In this highly globalized world, the demand for cross-border payments is very high, with nearly $156 trillion worth of cross-border payments recorded in 2022 alone.

Difference between Ripple and XRP

Ripple Labs Inc. is a crypto payment firm that issues and manages XRP distribution. Ripple was the firm that founded the Ripple Protocol, an open-source protocol that includes Ripple Consensus Ledger (RCL) and RippleNet. It doesn’t have any control over the RCL, the blockchain upon which XRP relies.

Ripple’s official website states that “The XRP Ledger is based on an inherently decentralized, democratic, consensus mechanism which no one party can control.”

Recently Hamilton reacted to a tweet that said, “$XRP has no utility and is heavily centralized.” Hamilton replied: “literally being used daily for cross border payments, NFTs, web monetization,etc.”

Well, most functionality needed (fungible tokens, NFTs, escrows, multisig, DEX) are all built in.
But yes, smart contracts are in development
— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) December 22, 2022

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing