XRPL new developer introduction

Fast, Low-cost Transactions with XRPL

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a decade-old blockchain which is incredibly fast and cheap.

• It costs less than a hundredth of a penny to send a payment
• Payments settle within 4 seconds

It does this with a minuscule amount of power – in fact the XRPL is carbon neutral!

The XRPL achieves this speed by using a consensus algorithm instead of Proof of Work/Proof of Stake.

• Validators are machines that check whether transactions make sense (that is, they conform to established rules), then propose a list of valid transactions in a ledger.
• Validators share proposed ledgers amongst each other, then update their proposed ledgers with any new transactions they hear about.
• Once 80% of trusted validators agree on a ledger, it is validated and becomes part of the blockchain’s history.
• Trust is determined by each validator. They each have a list of other validators they trust that they can update at any time. That way, if a validator you trust starts feeding you false information, you can just decide to stop trusting them.

This entire consensus process takes about 4-5 seconds.

The speed of settlement and cheap transaction costs are useful for several reasons:

1. International payments – RippleNet allows nearly instantaneous settlement across a wide range of currencies for banks.
2. Consumer wallets – Xumm provides a self-custodied wallet that allows you to sign and submit transactions to manage your money.
3. Frequent payments – Coil streams payments to the creators of content you read/watch as a new way to monetize that doesn’t involve ads.

Additionally, you can create your own tokens on the XRPL, which means you can leverage the speed and cost of the ledger for any other ideas you have which benefit from blockchain settlement.

Now that we’ve covered a few reasons why the XRPL is useful, let’s dive in and try it out.