By
Bhushan Akolkar
May 10th, 2024
One of the main topics of the discussion was how Ripple is enabling customers to mint their own NFTs on the XRP Ledger.
David Schwartz, the CTO of Ripple, spoke about NFT assets, their future and why XRP Ledger is better when compared to Ethereum. NFT has become the buzzword this year in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With 2021’s first half boasting of sales amounting to over $2.5 billion, it has become all the more necessary for brands to adopt this technology for greater revenue generation. It is no surprise that the Ethereum blockchain dominates the NFT world and this fact is backed by research that proves 97% of every NFT market sector is represented by Ethereum.
However, serious competition is on the way as firms like Ripple, though being late to the party, are making significant strides. Its recent actions like investing in the NFT marketplace Mintable and creating a $250 million fund signify its increasing participation within the NFT space.
At the recent NFT NYC event, touted as the leading non-fungible token event, the Ripple CTO spoke about carbon-neutral NFTs. The grand event hosts several leading attendees, speakers and the best NFT projects. Post the event, David shared his views on NFTs, blockchain and several related topics in an interview given to Cointelegraph.
Ripple CTO on NFT Market: The Interview Essentials
One of the main topics of the discussion was how Ripple is enabling customers to mint their own NFTs on the XRP Ledger. David spoke about how Ripple was more concerned with developing the required tools companies needed in order to enter the NFT market. In addition, he also stressed the XRP Ledger being sustainable, a significant benefit compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum systems that devour massive energy. He used the interesting concept of artificial scarcity created by these systems for profit-making. When it comes to XP Ledger, due to the absence of transaction fees, there is no artificial scarcity being created.
The Ripple CTO also touched upon XRP Ledger’s scalability capabilities against that of Ethereum. Besides allowing customers to mint NFTs, Ripple also offers a decentralized exchange on which users can issue new tokens or carry out fast and economical transactions. Another attractive benefit of using XRP Ledger is the low costs to build the NFT. Although the market is now limited to collectables like artwork, music, digital work, etc. David is confident the market will soon get broader.
Among other topics, the CTO also shed light on Wrapped XRP, an asset that tracks the XRP price. With its launch planned in December, customers can use Wrapped XRP in DEX on Ethereum. When asked what’s next in store for Ripple, David pointed towards CBDCs and the role it plays in Ripple’s vision of an inclusive financial system around the globe. Federated Side Chains are something else that Ripple is currently working on. This technology would enable the movement of assets between multiple blockchains. Federated sidechains would make live blockchains a reality through which users would be able to innovate within the blockchain and at the lowest level.
About Ripple
The main goal of Ripple is to enable the movement of value across the globe in a similar way as information does. At its basic level, Ripple is an international digital payment network that works on blockchain and has its own cryptocurrency XRP. Established in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, Ripple uses an open-source decentralized platform and through the consensus mechanism, it confirms transactions thus being eco-friendly in the process. The transaction time is also less and cost-effective when compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP is on a mission to unlock the power of blockchain, create an inclusive financial system and accelerate the internet of value.