Blockchain Problems Being Solved Today Were Resolved by XRP Ledger in 2011

A former Ripple Director calls attention to the fact that XRP Ledger (XRPL) already resolved some of the blockchain problems the crypto industry is looking to solve today.

In a recent tweet, Matt Hamilton, formerly a Principal Developer Advocate at Ripple, expressed his sentiments upon coming across a video of a presentation from an ETHGlobal Waterloo event’s hackathon.

Hamilton shared his thoughts on a team’s claim of having found a solution to the persistent issue of transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain.

This is the thing that frustrates me somewhat. It is 2023, and I’m watching a demo at a hackathon of a team that have “solved” the problem of making cryptocurrency payments with low txn fees. pic.twitter.com/tT2rPNpxHZ

— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) June 25, 2023

Hamilton’s tweet revealed his slight frustration, noting that it is already 2023, and he found it intriguing that he was witnessing a demonstration of a problem solved years ago by the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

He pointed out that the XRPL had addressed this specific concern back in 2011, long before the inception of Ethereum. Yet, here was a team attempting to tackle the same issue again.

Despite his position, the former Ripple director also recognized the value of the experience gained by the team through this endeavor. 

Hamilton carefully clarified that his comments were not intended to diminish the team’s effort. He expressed his satisfaction with their commitment to building new solutions. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but observe that the more challenges a system faces, the greater the opportunity for development and innovation.

Why Ethereum Houses More Projects than XRPL

Notably, the XRPL boasts some of the cheapest transaction fees in the industry. The network charges an average of $0.0002 per transaction, as The Crypto Basic previously disclosed. These fees aim to mitigate the risks of spam transactions.

However, despite the low transaction cost and the high transaction speed the XRPL boasts compared to Ethereum, the latter commands a more extensive base of developers and builders. 

Hamilton revealed that he often hears queries about the limited number of projects developed on the XRPL. He speculated that this scarcity might arise from the absence of problems to solve on the XRPL, which is a testament to its efficiency.

I often hear “why are so few people building on the XRPL”, but one of the reasons being is that they are not having to solve problems that don’t exist.

— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) June 25, 2023

An anonymous XRP community member suggested that legal concerns and the market price of XRP could contribute to the scarcity of developers building on XRPL. 

Agreeing with this viewpoint, Hamilton acknowledged the influence of legal issues and the market value of XRP on developers’ motivation to engage with XRPL. It bears mentioning that several key players have previously ascribed XRP’s stunted growth to legal pressure from the SEC lawsuit.