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Community Magazine #08

Real-World Utility

Community Magazine #08

FO R E WO R D

From Proving the Technology to Putting it to Work 2

Community Magazine #08

By David Bchiri, President of XRPL Commons For more than a decade, the blockchain industry was busy proving that our technology works: that a decentralized ledger could be secure, reliable, scalable, and capable of carrying real economic activity. Increasingly, the question is becoming more practical: what are we building with it? This is an important shift. It does not necessarily come with a market boom or a new wave of hype, because utility is rarely spectacular. It grows through steady progress: a new payment rail, an asset brought on-chain, a financial institution integrating blockchain infrastructure, a developer solving a problem that had no solution before. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is the clearest example. Fourteen years of continuous operation. Around $5 billion of real-world assets are issued and represented on it to date, which puts the XRPL in the top ten networks for tokenized assets, and its stablecoin market has passed $1.1 billion. We are seeing tokenized gold, real estate, and lending protocols, alongside applications using the protocol to move value for individuals and businesses. In Europe, the ECB is building Pontes to connect DLT platforms with existing payment systems, and Appia to explore the longer-term infrastructure and legal frameworks for tokenized financial markets. Blockchain is increasingly being considered a financial market infrastructure. This is where we see some of the most interesting developments happening. Dubai’s Land Registry has been tokenizing real estate on the XRPL since 2025. Fractional ownership lowers the barriers to accessing real estate, while clearer and more transparent records raise trust in the public institution that keeps them. In the same spirit, Aviva and Ripple recently partnered to tokenize a money market fund where XRPL functions as the issuance and record-keeping infrastructure. Stablecoins are another example. In Latam, people are using them to access dollar-denominated value in response to local economic conditions. In Europe, we work with stablecoin issuers, including Schuman Financial and Société Générale, whose MiCA-compliant stablecoins EURØP and EURCV are widening what a regulated euro instrument can do on a public ledger.

These are very different use cases, but they share an important characteristic: the technology is blending in the background while real problems are being solved. The most important measure of adoption is not how many people know they are using a blockchain; it is how many people benefit from one without ever having to think about it. That has been the principle behind XRPL Commons from the start: technology in the service of people. It means teaching people to build, then connecting what they can build to problems worth solving. The XRPL has entered a new stage of its own. Some of the people who shaped its early years have stepped back - I salute you, Captain Schwartz - and a new generation of bright developers has joined our ecosystem to build XRPL’s new features, expand its applications, and maintain its infrastructure. We welcome them and look forward to their future contributions. The opportunity now is to ask better questions: What are the projects we want to build at scale? What problems are worth solving? For me, this is what the current moment represents: A trove of opportunities for the capable and willing! That is the perspective behind this edition of the XRPL Community Magazine. We wanted to look at utility in practice, from tokenized gold with PhiWallet in EMEA and stablecoins in Argentina, to lending through VS1 Finance, reforming agricultural supply chains with Weia, and other emerging applications. We showcase the variety of ways the XRPL can be used by individuals, companies, and society more broadly. We also look at the broader technological changes around us, including the emergence of Agentic Payments, and how these developments intersect with blockchain infrastructure. The examples in this edition are only a selection of what is being developed. Together, they reflect a broader transition: if you know Gartner’s hype cycle, I think blockchain has entered the Plateau of Productivity. It’s up to you how you’ll contribute. If you want to enter the space, we are here to help.●

Community Magazine #08

02 04

Foreword Table of Contents

05 06 07 08 11

In the World of Commons

12 13 16 17 18 20

XRPL Insider

22 23 25 25 27 28 30 31 32 34 35 36 38 40 42 42 44 46 47 48 50 52 54 56

XRPL, Practically

57 58 60

The Latest Opportunities in the XRPL Ecosystem

61 62 64 66 67

Closing Notes

Meet the Team: Crafting Human Connection with Elisa Bailly Blockchain Education, Everywhere A Brief Guide to Organizing Your XRPL Meetup Three online tools you should know about as an XRPL dev

Credit Comes On-Chain: Introducing XRPL Lending Making Waves: A Builder’s Diary Make Waves: Meet The Winners Policy Corner: How Regulatory Clarity Is Reshaping Compliant Crypto Infrastructure Where Tech Goes Next: The Trends Shaping 2027

Where is Blockchain’s Real Value? #1: Tokenization

Why XRPL Is Becoming the Future Home of RWAs Weia: financing Colombian farmers against the harvest, on the XRP Ledger Your Gold Chain On-Chain Gold @ Phi Wallet: Tokenizing Bullion on the XRPL Justoken’s Blockchain-Based Operating Systems for the Argentine Energy Market Dropchan - When Art Becomes the Utility #2: Payments LOBSTR joins the XRP Ledger: Connecting Ecosystems From Experiment to Infrastructure: The Brief History of Crypto Payments The Rails for Inclusivity The XRP Wallet Landscape in 2026: How to Choose Which Wallet is Right for You #3: The Agentic Web How AI Agents Pay on the XRP Ledger AI That Can Act: Building the Rails for Agentic Payments #4: Reforming Societies What If Blockchain Could Help Rebuild Trust? Incubated Utility: Social Projects You Should Know About Hydro-Economics: The Global Impact of Water.Org Why Your Vote Should Be Nobody’s Business, Including the Counters’ Scaling Real-World Impact Through Blockchain Events and Opportunities

The XRPL Commons Grants Program: How We Support Builders Inside the Four APAC Programs Building on XRPL

The Geek List

XRPL Glossary Get Involved! Thank you

In The World Of Commons

Community Magazine #08

MEET THE TEAM

Crafting Human Connection with Elisa Bailly Elisa joined XRPL Commons from the art world. After working as a set designer and art director, she discovered blockchain through NFTs, became a self-taught Web3 enthusiast, and eventually joined the team as Head of Events. Today, she leads the events that bring the XRPL community together—from XRPL Dinner Clubs, to meetups and hackathons.

Tell us how you got interested in blockchain. With my background in design, I was always keeping an eye on what was happening in the art world. In 2021, Beeple’s record-breaking $69 million sale at Christie’s caught my attention. That’s what really sparked my curiosity about NFTs. I quickly realized blockchain could help artists reclaim the value of their digital work. It felt like a technology that opened up entirely new possibilities. I trained at Alyra, a French online blockchain school, and immersed myself in this emerging ecosystem — conferences, podcasts, meetups, and more. From there, I became Production Director for events at NFT Factory before joining the XRPL Commons adventure. What do you enjoy most about working at XRPL Commons? The level of work this team delivers is exceptional; it’s genuinely inspiring. We’re all very different, and that’s exactly what makes us complementary. David has built a team of people who combine ambition with kindness. He trusts us, and that trust gives us real autonomy. I have the freedom to express my creativity and try things you wouldn’t normally expect at a tech event, such as bringing a brass band to a hackathon or developing the visual identity of a new initiative. We work with the mindset of a creative agency.

In your view, what makes a great event? A great event is built around the guest experience. Our job is to make people feel welcome, give them access to meaningful content, and create opportunities for valuable connections. That’s the philosophy behind initiatives like the XRPL Zone Paris and the Blockchain Research Summit. Even though we produce 80+ events per year, our focus is on quality over quantity. Every format has its own purpose. Online Town Halls, Lounges, and developer trainings remove geographic barriers while keeping the focus on knowledge sharing. In-person events, whether it’s a 200-person XRPL Hackathon or an exclusive XRPL Dinner Club, we bring together the right people in an inspiring setting. We put as much care into the conversations as we do into the hospitality. Every little detail matters. What’s your biggest focus for the second half of the year? Following the success of the XRPL Paris Blockchain Week Hackathon in early 2026, we’re preparing the XRPL Swell Hackathon in New York this October, alongside the second edition of the Core Dev Bootcamp and a full program built around Ripple’s Swell conference. We just returned from two incredible international events: the XRPL Dinner Club in Madrid, and the XRPL Barcelona Meetup with almost 200 people in the room. These were the latest stops in a meetup series that’s been connecting XRPL communities across Europe for the past three years. Next, we will head to Bari in late November 2026 to coorganise the IXH26 Italian XRPL Hackathon.●

Elisa creates innovative experiences while paying attention to every detail, building authentic human connections that leave a lasting impression.

Community Magazine #08

Blockchain Education, Everywhere Blockchain education is moving beyond the basics. At Commons, we’re building an ecosystem that connects learning with research tools and hands-on building experiences–making it easier for anyone, anywhere, to explore what’s possible on the XRP Ledger.

The XRPL Academy: Learn. Build. Ship.

The XRPL Academy is a modular, non-linear learning platform designed for developers, entrepreneurs, educators, and blockchain enthusiasts. Learners can explore content at their own pace, follow guided journeys, take on practical projects, and unlock advanced modules as they progress. The focus is not simply on completing courses, but on building something real. But the learning doesn’t stop at the screen. “Live Rituals” bring the community together through AMAs, project “Hot Seats”, office hours, go-to-market workshops and a community forum, creating opportunities to ask questions, share ideas and learn from each other.

7 XRPL Research: From Ideas to Impact

On June 16–17, 2026, we hosted the first-ever XRPL Blockchain Research Summit, in partnership with the UBRI network and with support from RippleX. Forty researchers, protocol engineers, PhD candidates, educators, and EU institutional representatives came together to explore how academic blockchain research can move into real-world application. The resulting research anthology brings together contributions across five themes: Privacy & Security, Interoperability, DeFi, Compliance & Regulation, and Teaching & Ecosystem.

IXH 26’ Hackathon: Where Theory Meets Code

The 3rd Italian XRPL Hackathon (IXH 26’) is heading to Bari, following two successful editions in Rome. Led by XRPL Commons, De Componendis Cifris, University of Bari, and UBRI, the event brings together students, researchers and builders to tackle real-world challenges in cryptography and blockchain. Backed by a year-round network of academic workshops on post-quantum cryptography, zeroknowledge proofs, secure AI training and CBDC architecture, participants enter the arena equipped to turn hard cryptographic theory into functional code.

Blockchain education isn’t just about understanding the technology. It’s about giving more people the confidence, knowledge, and community to build what comes next.

Community Magazine #08

A Brief Guide to Organizing Your XRPL Meetup Or what it takes to set up a successful blockchain meetup, and how you can do it yourself with the help of XRPL Commons1. After three years of organizing XRPL Meetups across Europe, it’s time to share what we have learned with the community. The goal has always been to empower people to build their own local XRPL communities — whether you are a developer, founder, community

The

member, or simply someone who enjoys bringing people together. After dozens of events, we have established a playbook that makes the process simpler than ever. Here are some of the things worth thinking about before you get started.

thought organizer’s

process

First things first: why do you want to organize an official XRPL Meetup? Perhaps you have been working on a product with your startup and a meetup would be the perfect place to launch it. Maybe you want to build more connections in your local ecosystem, meet like-minded XRPL enthusiasts, or see yourself as a connector and community leader. There is no right answer, but the answer matters. Your motivation will help determine the format, audience, and overall feel of the event.

Then, think about your budget

How much are you willing to commit from your own or your organization’s budget? This will narrow down the kind of venue and experience you’re looking for. At XRPL Commons, we believe in the power of understated experiences. The best ideas do not necessarily come from the fanciest venues. More often, they emerge from genuine human connections — so focus on creating an environment where people can actually talk, exchange ideas, and meet each other.

1. XRPL Commons currently provides guidance and support to events taking place in countries of the Council of Europe, on a selective basis.

Community Magazine #08

Next comes the practical part: finding the right time and venue

Think about who you want to attend and what would make it easy for them to show up. An accessible location, a convenient time and a space that allows people to mingle can make a bigger difference than a big production budget.

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Community Magazine #08

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Get the support you need to make it happen. Once your meetup is acc epted, XRPL Commons can provide the material and support needed to get s you started — including presentation slides, roll-up designs, and swag . We can also create the ev ent page and co-lead the marketing of the meetup with you. The idea is simple: you bring the local knowled ge, the community and initiative; we help you the turn it into a successful XRPL Meetup. After three years of organ izing events across Europ e, we know that there is no single formula for a gre at meetup. But we do kn ow that you don’t need a huge budget, a big tea m, or years of experience to bring people together. Sometimes, you just need a good reason to start.

Community Magazine #08

Three Online Tools You Should Know About as an XRPL Dev Whether you’re just getting started in the XRPL space or already a seasoned developer, here are three resources developed by the XRPL Commons tech team that can make building, testing, and experimenting on the XRP Ledger a little easier.

XRPL Connect Who is it for? Developers building applications that need to connect to XRPL wallets. The goal: Make wallet connections simple and framework-agnostic. XRPL Connect provides a single toolkit for connecting applications to multiple XRPL wallets. The package is modular, fully TypeScript-supported and built around an event-driven architecture. It supports Xaman, Crossmark, GemWallet, WalletConnect, Ledger, Xyra, Otsu, and MetaMask Snap. It includes three main components: a Core for wallet management, events, and state persistence; a UI with a pre-built web component; and Adapters for the supported wallets. ↗

Check it out: github.com/XRPL-Commons/xrpl-connect

Bedrock Who is it for? Developers experimenting with smart features and smart-contract-based applications. The goal: Provide a foundation for developing, deploying and interacting with XRPL smart contracts written in Rust. Think of it as Foundry for the XRPL. As smart-contract functionality is still experimental, Bedrock is primarily a toolchain for developers exploring what could be built. Its features include Build, which compiles Rust smart contracts to WASM; Deploy, with automated building and ABI generation; and Call, for interacting with deployed contracts. It also includes a local XRPL test network, automatic ABI extraction, and JavaScript-embedded performance optimizations. ↗

Check it out: github.com/XRPL-Commons/Bedrock

XRPL Confluence Who is it for? Core developers working on XRPL node implementations. The goal: Create tailored XRPL networks for testing new amendments, implementations, and interoperability between different node clients. Confluence acts as a testing harness that can orchestrate mixed networks of rippled and goXRPL nodes. This makes it possible to test everything from peer-to-peer messaging and transaction propagation to ledger synchronization and consensus compatibility — helping developers verify that different implementations behave as expected. ↗

Check it out: github.com/XRPL-Commons/xrpl-confluence

XRPL Insider

Community Magazine #08

Credit Comes On-Chain: Introducing XRPL Lending Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets, XRPL Commons

Stablecoins, Regulation, and the New Credit Rail Over the past few years, digital finance has undergone a shift that is difficult to overstate. The surge in stablecoin adoption, tokenized assets, and on-chain financial activity has moved from the edges of capital markets toward their center– attracting institutions, financial and tech players, regulators, and policymakers who had previously watched from a distance. Regulatory frameworks are now advancing in step. The EU’s MiCA regime, the GENIUS Act in the United States, and a growing body of frameworks across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are establishing consistent standards for reserve quality, governance, and compliance. This clarity matters; it gives players a more reliable basis on which to evaluate, adopt, and scale on-chain financial activities. The result is that many of the world’s leading financial institutions are now actively looking to harness the innovation, operational efficiency, and programmability that digital finance enables–not as an experiment, but as a strategic priority. Yet putting assets on-chain is only half the work. Tokenizing a Treasury bill, or holding a regulated stablecoin, makes an asset programmable. It does not, on its own, make it productive. Capital markets run on what comes next: borrowing against an asset, posting it as collateral, raising liquidity without selling. That layer is credit, and it’s coming on-chain. XRPL’s Institutional DeFi Roadmap The XRP Ledger was designed for this moment from the start. Since 2012, it has settled financial transactions at scale, with deterministic finality, sub-cent fees, and a consensus model that carries

no miners, no gas auctions, and no MEV (Maximal Extractable Value). It was built as financial-market infrastructure, and every capability added since has extended that single premise. Its architecture reflects a deliberate focus: rather than serving as a general-purpose deployment platform, XRPL has concentrated on building protocol-native primitives for financial services and extending them through amendments to a single ledger, preserving liquidity continuity and governance as capabilities grow. XRPL’s institutional DeFi journey is a progressive and deliberate layering of financial capabilities on a stable, proven settlement foundation. This is supported by a working market structure: a protocol-native Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and Automated Market Maker (AMM), Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPTs) as a lightweight RWA standard, and a compliance and identity layer built from Credentials, Deep Freeze, Permissioned Domains, and a Permissioned DEX that brings Credentialbased access to liquidity, based on offchain compliance logic such as KYC, AML, and sanctions screening, into the protocol itself. Each of these shipped as an on-ledger amendment, so every new capability plugs into the same liquidity and the same governance. That is the quiet advantage: the XRPL has grown without fragmenting, and the focus shows in the data. XRPL is now positioned among the top three chains for RWA tokenization, with multiple regulated stablecoin projects live on the ledger. Introducing XRPL Credit On-Chain Now, at precisely the moment institutional DeFi is maturing from concept into production, XRPL is introducing one of its most consequential primitives yet. The Single Asset Vault (XLS-65)↗ and the Lending Protocol (XLS-66)↗ amendments bring native, underwritten credit and yield generation directly into the ledger.

Community Magazine #08

This is a progressive and deliberate layering of financial capabilities on a stable, proven settlement foundation – not a pivot, but a planned evolution of a ledger that has been handling institutional transactions reliably for more than a decade. With on-chain credit markets growing in total value and a new generation of regulated participants seeking capital productivity from their digital assets, this is not a DeFi application built on top of XRPL. It’s credit as protocol infrastructure, embedded at the consensus layer – the missing piece that transforms a settlement network into a full 24/7 digital finance and capital markets platform. “Bringing assets on-chain is the first step; this protocol focuses on what real markets actually need next: borrowing against those assets, using them as collateral, and accessing liquidity while retaining ownership.” What the Protocol Actually Is

The XRPL Lending Protocol is defined in the XLS65 and XLS-66 (currently in voting)↗ specifications and implemented as native ledger objects rather than smart contracts. The distinction carries real weight. Smart-contract lending systems bring ongoing audit burden, composability risk, and governance that can rewrite the rules mid-life. Protocol-level lending inherits the security and throughput of the ledger, with more than a decade of production behind it. XLS-65 defines the Single Asset Vault: an onledger, pooled container for one XRPL-based asset, whether XRP, RLUSD, a bank-issued stablecoin, or an MPT-based RWA. Vaults aggregate deposits, issue LP tokens that track pro-rata ownership, and hold transparent balances. They can run open and permissionless, or gated and permissioned. The vault separates where capital sits from how lending logic runs, which is what lets one vault serve many products instead of being rebuilt for each. XLS-66 (in voting) adds the credit layer: Loan Broker registration, on-chain loan objects that carry principal, tenor, interest, and amortization schedule, configurable fees, optional first-loss capital, grace periods, and default handling that adjusts LP-token value in proportion. Repayments resolve on second-based schedules, with early repayment and overpayment allowed under configurable policy.

What the protocol deliberately leaves alone is institutional judgment. Underwriting and collateral management stay off-chain, with the teams that already hold the policies, the regulatory obligations, and the accountability for a credit decision. XLS-66 standardizes what happens after that decision: how capital is drawn, how interest accrues, how repayments are scheduled, how a default is recorded. The full lifecycle runs several defined stages: pool creation; capital deposit and LP issuance; off-chain collateral management linked on-chain by metadata; loan origination and drawdown; automated repayment with interest and fee allocation; default handling through first-loss liquidation; and pool closure with LP redemption. Every stage is auditable and enforceable without deploying a line of contract code. The XRPL Lending Protocol’s central design principle is a clean separation of responsibilities: institutions retain full control over credit decisions, while the protocol standardizes execution once terms have been agreed. This is the inverse of how most on-chain lending systems have been built, and it is where XRPL’s institutional differentiation is clearest. XRPL Lending Protocol Value Proposition This architecture and design introduce new strategic value propositions where core assets generate native yield within underwritten facilities rather than sitting idle. Market makers, payment providers, and treasuries can finance inventories and bridge settlement gaps using programmable on-chain facilities that integrate with existing backoffice processes. • Unlocking the missing credit layer for tokenized markets: Transforms on-chain assets into usable collateral and real liquidity. Bringing assets on-chain is the first step; this protocol focuses on what real markets actually need next: borrowing against those assets, using them as collateral, and accessing liquidity while retaining ownership. • Yield Generation: Turns XRP and other XRPLbased assets from non-yielding assets into productive ones: users earn protocol-based interest for providing capital. • DeFi-Grade Flexibility: Models the sophistication of the leading Defi platforms leveraging XRPL low costs and instant finality.

Community Magazine #08

Offering and Use Case per Player The protocol meets the different stakeholders in their unique position across the value chain: Stakeholders

Use Case

XRP holders

Gain native, underwritten yield through curated Single Asset Vaults inside exchanges, wallets, and institutional platforms, the first route to XRP yield without wrapping or bridging.

Stablecoin and RWA issuers

Use XRPL as a credit and distribution layer, with RLUSD and other XRPL assets funding vaults and MPT-based RWAs linked as collateral, held in institutional custody, while permissioned controls manage illicit-use risk.

Infrastructure partners

Exchanges, wallets, and DeFi platforms integrate through standardized APIs for deposits, LP management, NAV reporting, and fee sharing, with time-to-market in weeks rather than months.

Institutional LPs

Asset managers, treasury desks, and family offices allocate into permissioned vaults with KYC-gated access, established custody, first-loss protection, and clear reporting. Prime brokers, market makers, fintech lenders, and corporates draw fixed-term, underwritten credit with programmable servicing, while their collateral, documentation, and compliance stay inside existing frameworks.

Borrowers

Prime brokers, market makers, fintech lenders, corporates access fixed-term, underwritten credit lines with programmable servicing on XRPL, while collateral, documentation, and compliance remain within their existing institutional frameworks.

Data and infrastructure providers

Build analytics, NAV, utilization, and default-rate dashboards on vault and loan events, supporting both commercial reporting and regulatory oversight.

• Institutional Liquidity Access: Enables payment providers to draw short-duration liquidity to bridge settlement timing gaps without disrupting core settlement flows. • Capital-Efficient Market Making: Allows market makers to finance inventory without selling core assets, improving balance sheet efficiency while maintaining continuous market presence. • Treasury Deployment: Gives treasury teams a way to deploy idle digital assets into underwritten facilities with clearer terms, risk allocation, and on-chain transparency. • Structured Credit Enablement: Enables lenders to build structured credit products on top of a common infrastructure layer, instead of engineering bespoke protocols for each transaction.

Getting Started The conditions defining the next phase of institutional digital finance are already assembled. The missing layer – credit, yield, and capital productivity for the assets that now live on these networks – is what the XRPL Lending Protocol provides. This is the moment to decide whether to participate in, and help shape, the emerging architecture of on-chain capital markets. XRPL Commons works with different players across the value chain: educating, identifying the relevant use case, mapping roles across the lending architecture, designing structures and operating models, defining integration paths, and identifying partners. Those who move first will define the standards the market adopts. The infrastructure is here. The next decision is who builds on it.● We are here to support your journey: ↗ Reach out at adoption@xrpl-commons.org

Community Magazine #08

Making Waves: A Builder’s Diary By Marcelo Silva

How Balaio found its way to the XRP Ledger June 21, 2026–Let’s Dip In I’m on a global call, finding out about the “Make Waves”↗ hackathon by XRPL Commons. What wave can I make? I’m Marcelo, from the rough streets of Serra, Brazil. Blockchain found me, and I got to teach its use in favelas and farms. My experience led to my next move: to create Balaio, a micro-tasking platform to instigate circular, community-driven economies. A Web3 buddy from Paris told me about the fully online hackathon. Having already integrated Celo to create Balaio,↗ and with the rising tide of XRPL around the world (including Brazil), I figured it was a good place to start on the ledger. July 23, 2026–The French Test

The integration was ready in about 3 weeks. While I am not a pro dev, with a few years in Web3, and a little help from Claude, I got Balaio integrated on the XRP Ledger. I replicated the integration process as I did for other protocols before. Thanks to XRPL Commons resources↗ on GitHub, I realized that I couldn’t create a neutral escrow for the taskCreation function. It needed an oracle, which at first seemed like a limitation, but soon proved to be perfect for the new “Organizations” feature, since each onboarded Organization would be able to define its own oracles. Win-Win. Despite a heat wave in France, I convened with Aurélien and Cyrille from Commons to present my XRPL integration on Balaio. The heat was in fact on me–I had to explain the process of connecting, creating, and completing tasks. It was a bit clunky, going between Balaio and Xaman, with tiny display bugs. But they saw that it worked, gave me some useful advice, and ultimately gave me the stamp of approval (as I implemented the small changes). The tide is rising! Mid-August–At High Sea Balaio on XRPL is now working–bugs are quickly fixed, and we have been testing it with a futebol (football) fan club. The most compelling Balaio use case for them lies in micro-crediting: fulfilling tasks and using XRP rewards for perks, like new jerseys and cheaper tickets; making joga bonito accessible to all. And some extra good news: Balaio’s micro-credit approach has earned it a spot in a Fenasbac program (tech & finance incubation in Brazil)! XRPL will definitely be part of it. September 21, 2026–At Port

What is Make Waves?

Make Waves just ended, bringing many valuable learnings on tech deployments and community use. Not without challenges– namely, that increasing XRPL onboarding and use for Brazilian communities (i.e., beyond formal institutions) will take time. But we’re not in it for a short splash; it’s the first step in bringing real community-run DeFi to Brazil. Finally, we’ve found something of a motto for our early and new adopters: “Faça parte da Onda” (“Be part of the Wave”).●

Make Waves is a 3-month challenge to build a real-world application on the XRPL Mainnet, attract users, and generate onchain volume. The best projects will share 50,000 XRP in rewards. Check out ↗ hackathons.xrpl-commons.org

Community Magazine #08

e Waves: k a s M r e Meet n The Win

Make Waves w as a 90-day cha ll with one goal: build it, ship it enge , grow it. More than 2 0 0 b u il d e rs fr o around the wo rld took part, a m nd new projects w ent live on the 55 XRP Ledger mainne t.

Super Prize Most Live Users

5,000 XRP

prizes to keep Three teams won ork: one for w developing their for Most Volume, e n o , rs se U st o M e ry Prize. Meet th and the Grand Ju below. winners

Jury’s Grand Prize 25,000 XRP

Most Volume on Chain

xBoost

5,000 XRP

POAP

Chris Dangerfield

POAP lets live event organisers issue digital badges to their attendees. The badges are soulbound, meaning they cannot be transferred or revoked, creating a permanent on-chain record of participation.

xBoost brings payments and interaction to X Spaces. The companion dApp runs alongside any X Space, allowing listeners to react, tip speakers and ask paid questions, with payments settling peer-topeer on the XRP Ledger in seconds. It runs directly in a web browser, with nothing to install.

Ashmeen, Sukhmeet, Inderdeep & Mikky from Feooh

Explore: poap.live↗

Super Prize

Explore: xboost.space↗

Bithomp DeFi Viacheslav Bakshaev

Dedicated service-based search for the Bithomp Explorer, across areas including identity, token issuance, AMMs and other DeFi services, simplifying navigating activity on the XRPL. Explore: bithomp.com/ services↗

Community Magazine #08

EUROPE IN THE LIGHT OF MICA, ONE YEAR IN

Policy Corner: Clarity How Regulatory By Florence Tison

The transitional period under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) closed on July 1, 2026, making the EU the first major jurisdiction with a licensing regime for cryptoasset service providers (CASPs). Of the circa 3,000 firms operating pre-MiCA, fewer than 250 secured EU-wide authorization by the deadline. Compliance costs are asymmetric by design: ongoing compliance spending is reported at up to 15% of revenue for smaller firms, against under 2% for large, already-licensed exchanges.

MiCA has not made the European market easier to enter; it has made it more predictable for firms that can meet its bar, and much harder for firms that can’t. It has become a central question for any team building payments, stablecoin, or tokenization infrastructure with EU exposure. A Year of Consolidation The exits have been visible, and often involuntary. Binance withdrew its Greek MiCA application weeks before the deadline, over concerns about its anti-money-laundering history and ownership structure. Tether never applied for the e-money token authorization required for stablecoin issuers; USDT has since been delisted from major regulated EU venues. MEXC and HTX have no MiCA authorization, and KuCoin’s EU entity was barred from onboarding new customers. The effects extend beyond exchanges. Legal advisors in Dubai report a sharp rise in relocation inquiries from European crypto founders, citing the cost, timeline, and uncertainty of EU authorization as the driver, and the UAE’s crypto regulator, VARA, as the draw. None of this means MiCA has failed on its own terms. It means the terms were always going to favor a narrower set of players: firms with the

capital, governance structure, and compliance infrastructure to meet EU-grade requirements from the outset. Where the Compliant Layer Is Forming Ripple secured full MiCA authorization, a CASP licence and an Electronic Money Institution licence, giving it passporting rights for regulated crypto and payments services across all 30 EEA states. Circle has taken a similar path with its stablecoin business: USDC and its euro-denominated counterpart, EURC, are MiCA-authorized and listed on regulated EU venues. Perhaps the clearest signal of institutional intent came from Société Générale’s digital-asset arm, SG-FORGE, which deployed its MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, EUR CoinVertible, on the XRP Ledger in early 2026 — alongside deployments on Ethereum and Solana. It reflects how institutional issuers are approaching post-MiCA Europe: as a multi-chain distribution strategy, where ledger choice depends on a given use case’s requirements. Why Ledger Design Matters Under a StrictLiability Regime MiCA places significant liability on issuers for operational failures, code vulnerabilities, and security incidents involving the assets they issue. For builders on general-purpose smart-contract platforms, that liability compounds the existing cost of the sector’s standard practice: continuous, expensive external audits, flash-loan exploits, and zero-day vulnerabilities. The XRP Ledger takes a different approach for issuer functions, implementing them as native protocol-level primitives rather than custom application code:

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Is Reshaping C rypto t n a li p m o C Infrastructure Issuer requirement

XRPL primitive

What it does

Restricting who can hold a token

AccountSet with the asfRequireAuth flag

An issuer can require a holder’s trust line to be explicitly approved before receiving the token.

Recovering misdirected or compromised assets

The Clawback transaction type

Lets an issuer reclaim tokens they issued from a holder’s account without custom contract logic.

Halting flows to a flagged address

AccountSet with Global Freeze

Freezes an issuer’s own token across some or all trust lines.

Energy and sustainability disclosures

XRPL’s non-mining, validatorbased consensus mechanism

A low energy footprint gives issuers a favorable position for environmental-indicator disclosures required by MiCA.

This matters for two overlapping audiences. First, native primitives reduce incremental build and audit costs for financial institutions extending into tokenized products. Second, the costs on technical and audit components are lower for crypto-native teams pursuing MiCA authorization for the first time; a critical saving when compliance costs remain disproportionately high for smaller entrants (regardless of technical infrastructure). From Regulatory Clarity to Market Adoption MiCA’s core effect has been to raise the cost of entering the market. The firms doing well under the new regime, Ripple, Circle and SG-FORGE among them, have the capital and governance to clear a demanding authorization process. For firms moving into tokenization, ledger choice becomes a technical decision. XRPL’s native compliance primitives measurably reduce the custom code and audit exposure needed to meet many of MiCA’s operational requirements. But a licence is only the starting point. Euro stablecoins still make up less than 1% of stablecoin market value, against roughly 99% for dollardenominated tokens. Regulation has made a euro market possible. Distribution, liquidity and

integrations will decide whether that market actually forms. No single issuer can do this alone. That is the thinking behind the Eurøpe Consortium, launched in October 2026 by European digital-finance firms including Schuman Financial, Coinhouse, SwissBorg, DFNS, XRPL Commons, Solana Foundation and LCX. Its first programme centres on EURØP, Schuman Financial’s MiCA-compliant euro e-money token, which already runs on six networks including the XRP Ledger. It will coordinate work on distribution, infrastructure, practical use cases and market development. “Euro-denominated stablecoins have a meaningful role to play as digital finance matures, reflecting the economic weight of the euro area,” said Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets at XRPL Commons. “Scaling their use depends on coordinated action across the value chain, from issuance and distribution to infrastructure and technology. The Eurøpe Consortium brings these complementary roles together, creating the conditions for euro stablecoins to deliver efficiency and value at scale.” One year in, MiCA has given Europe something no other major jurisdiction has: a clear rulebook for compliant digital money. Next comes building the market on top of it.●

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Where Tech Goes Next: The Trends Shaping 2027 By Simon Luling

We spoke with Jennifer Schenker, founder and editor-in-chief of The Innovator and World Economic Forum Global Future Council member, about the tech trends you should follow in 2027.

The near-future of blockchain may be most defined by adoption at institutional levels, and combined with other technologies. This latter aspect testifies to widespread tech convergence, with AI appearing as the integrations’ common denominator. As AI enters the physical realm, it is combining with robotics, IoT, and sensors to create systems that can perceive, learn, and act in real time.

The technologies shaping the years ahead may increasingly converge into systems that blur the boundaries between digital, physical, and biological worlds. Blockchain may become an increasingly “invisible layer” connecting people, machines, assets and institutions. We are thus confronting a fundamental challenge: as technology operates with ever-greater autonomy, how do we ensure a reliable layer of trust in its operations?

Trend #1 Tailor-Made Meds

This convergence may be particularly transformative in MedTech and BioTech, where AI, connected devices, and advances in biology are beginning to combine into new, increasingly customized forms of diagnoses, treatment, and research. Healthcare could therefore become one of the first sectors to reach its full potential. Personalized medicine appears within reach. In the past, pharmaceuticals, energy generation, and food were produced on the assumption that value accrues at scale. Personalized mRNA cancer vaccines invert ↗ that assumption, making the patient both the start and end point of drug development, with the biopsy and subsequent therapy synthesized in weeks. Within a few years, it is projected to be done within days. The field has moved past proof of concept, toward the harder problem of delivering, at scale, a medicine where no two doses are ever the same. Early treatments could exceed $100,000 per patient,

a price tag that would widen global gaps in cancer outcomes. Beyond costs, to scale, mRNA vaccines will have to overcome challenges, including manufacturing complexity and new regulatory pathways. Where blockchain comes in: Blockchain is already ↗ used in pharmaceutical supply chains to create tamper-resistant records of drug provenance, manufacturing, and distribution. With the complexity of tracing personalized medicine, it will become increasingly relevant to track the chain of custody from patient sample to final treatment.

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Trend #2 Power Struggle

The current accelerations in tech are running into a practical constraint: energy consumption. AI and data centers are driving unprecedented demand just as transport, industry and homes worldwide are becoming increasingly electrified. This is forcing a rethink on energy generation, and how we distribute and manage it. Batteries have become the core linchpin of the energy transition. The International Energy Agency ↗ predicts that global battery demand is set to triple by 2030, with grid storage emerging as the fastestgrowing use case, ahead of electric vehicles. What has changed most is the role batteries play. Battery storage is increasingly acting as a “multi-tool” for power systems, balancing supply and demand in real time, easing grid congestion, and increasingly shifting large volumes of renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed (not merely as backup power). That flexibility is becoming just

as critical for managing the surge of new electricity demand as it is for integrating renewables. The question is whether battery production can scale fast enough to meet tripling demand. If not, will a storage bottleneck become the energy transition’s defining constraint? Where blockchain comes in: Projects such as EUfunded BASE use distributed ledgers for battery ↗ traceability and Digital Battery Passport minting, making the origin of raw materials, carbon footprint, performance, and eventual recycling more verifiable.

Trend #3

Energy’s Horizon

Frontier Energy Technologies are advancing, with ↗ China taking the lead . The hyperscalers are spurring the development of fusion, geothermal, and nextgeneration nuclear power because they are willing to pay a premium to secure contracts with power plants that don’t yet exist.

Where blockchain comes in: Shifting energy markets are putting blockchain to the test, such as through peer-to-peer electricity trading and automated ↗ transactions between energy producers and consumers; these applications could provide the transaction and verification layer for increasingly distributed energy networks.

Trend #4 Space is the Place

For the next trend, look up. Lowering costs, reusable rockets, and increasingly capable satellites are opening space from a purely governmental domain to an increasingly commercial one. From communications to autonomous systems, in-orbit manufacturing and the development of lunar infrastructure, the “NewSpace” economy is budding as an extension of our terrestrial tech ecosystem. Falling launch costs are expected to fuel the global space economy. In just over two decades, the cost of reaching low Earth orbit has fallen from roughly $54,000/kg to about $2,700–3,000/kg on SpaceX’s Falcon 9. This will help usher in Space-based data centers. ↗ Startups such as Starcloud are positioning orbital data centers as standalone infrastructure rather than an embedded satellite capability. If costs keep falling, applications such as zero-gravity pharmaceutical and materials research, orbital

tourism, and factories producing items like fiberoptic cable or 3D-bioprinted organs could become commercially viable. Where blockchain comes in: Blockchain is already in orbit. SpaceChain has operated nodes on satellites and the ISS, while J.P. Morgan has conducted Web3 ↗ satellite-to-satellite transactions. The future may see autonomous spacecraft exchanging data and settling payments directly, without relying on terrestrial infrastructure.●

XRPL Practically

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Where is Blockchain’s Real Value? By Tonia Damvakeraki, PhD candidate, University of Nicosia

Where distributed ledgers create impact. Almost every argument about blockchain is framed by two storylines. In the first, the technology is a price chart: a speculative asset class whose booms and crashes are the whole story. In the second, it is treated as a cure-all that will dissolve the middleman from land registries, elections, medical records, and everything else. If only pilots were allowed to scale… Neither explanation clarifies what the technology does, and three common misconceptions continue to fuel the debate. The first is that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the same thing. They are not, and the confusion leads people to read a token’s volatility as a reflection of the ledger underneath it. A blockchain is a record that multiple organizations can update, and none can secretly rewrite. This feature does not require anyone to hold a speculative asset, so a blockchain can be useful even when its native token is not traded. The second is that blockchain removes the need for trust. It relocates it. Instead of trusting an institution to keep honest records, participants place their trust in a protocol. Its rules are public and transparent, and its history is tamper-evident. This trade-off is valuable when the institution is disputed, absent, or itself controversial. The third, and the most consequential in practice, is that putting data on a chain makes it “true.” A ledger can guarantee that a record has not changed since it was written. It says nothing about whether the record was accurate when it was written, and no amount of cryptography can repair a false claim at the point of entry. A counterfeit drug batch or a low-quality carbon credit remains counterfeit or low-quality, even if its entry on the ledger is perfectly signed and timestamped. “Real value” needs to be tested, or every claim passes. The test has two parts. First: do several parties who do not fully trust one another need to

share a single record, or move value directly between them? Second: would one organization, simply responsible for running the database, fail for reasons of governance rather than engineering? A blockchain earns its place when the answer to both is yes. To put it plainly, blockchain makes sense where the parties’ interests are conflicting, and none of them can be trusted to take the responsibility. Where a single trusted operator could run the system, and everyone would accept it, an ordinary database wins on speed, cost, and simplicity. The cases that matter are those where no such trusted operator exists, or when one becomes the gatekeeper. Most “blockchains” do not pass that test, but a few use cases pass it decisively: humanitarian agencies competing for the same donor funding, coordinating relief on a ledger none of them owns; remittances that settle without waiting on correspondent banks; supply chains in which a false origin claim must survive everyone else’s copy of the record; and public goods funded by an allocation rule no single sponsor can capture. That small set is where the societal impact lives.

Money That Flows; Rivals that Collaborate The clearest example is not in finance at all; it is in a refugee camp. The World Food Programme’s Building ↗ Blocks network lets humanitarian agencies deliver and coordinate assistance on a shared ledger that none of them owns. Since 2017, it has channeled more than 760 million dollars in assistance, across more than 40 million beneficiary transactions, reaching around six million people (WFP / UN Innovation ↗ Network, 2025). The property that carries the impact is not speed or cost, it is neutrality: agencies that compete for the same donor funding are equal co-owners of the network, with none acting as landlord over the others’ data. That is what makes deduplication possible across organizations that would never agree to host each other’s records. In Ukraine, coordinating aid this way is credited with preventing an estimated 270 million dollars in unintended overlap through 2025, with 159 organizations using the network across Ukraine, Syria, and Palestine

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↗

(WFP, 2025). The bank fees it removed (some 3.5 million dollars by 2023) were redirected into additional rations. That is less waste, more food, and a verifiable trail that donors can trust; this reflects in practice the UN goals on ending hunger (SDG 2) and establishing accountable institutions (SDG 16). Then there is the quiet tax on the world’s migrants. For the people who send money home, crossborder transfers still cost a global average of 6.36 percent to send, and close to 15 percent through banks (World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, Q3 2025). The UN target for 2030 is under 3 percent, so currently, the world is running at more than double this commitment. On specific corridors with low competition and quick cash-outs, stablecoin systems can process transactions 24/7, without waiting for traditional banking hours. The BIS puts payment-related stablecoin flows over 2025 at around 390 billion dollars, against roughly 28 trillion dollars of total stablecoin transaction volume; this is a reminder of how much of this activity is still trading rather than payments (BIS, 2026).

It is important to be clear: the ledger simply handles the settlement layer. It does not directly control currency spreads, off-ramp liquidity, or the compliance processes; these are often more costly. Blockchain-based payments can be cheaper on some routes, but they are not free everywhere. For people living in high-inflation countries, being able to hold and transfer a stable digital dollar can be truly transformative. This is where the XRP Ledger is most useful: an open, always available system for settling payments across organizations and countries. Its main benefit is not removing all middlemen, but offering a shared platform where different payment services, issuers, and banks can work together. The overall effect depends on the wider system, like available funds, rules, safekeeping, local access, and consumer safety, not just the ledger itself.

exactly why it works in fragmented chains and stalls in concentrated ones. Used well, it makes responsible sourcing checkable rather than merely asserted, which is the practical content of the UN goal on responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).

Funding Public Goods Without a Gatekeeper A third kind concerns allocation itself. Open-source software, local climate work, and other public goods are chronically underfunded because the beneficiaries rarely coordinate to pay. Quadratic funding rounds (run at scale by Gitcoin) use a matching formula that considers both the number of contributors and their donation size, so projects with many small donors outweigh those with few large ones. More than 60 million dollars has been allocated to over 3,700 open-source and publicgoods projects this way (Gitcoin, 2026). Blockchain’s contribution is credible neutrality: the rules are transparent and enforced by code, not a committee that could be captured. That serves two UN goals at once: on infrastructure (SDG 9) and on partnerships (SDG 17), through a mechanism that no single sponsor controls.

The Through-Line Across every use case that holds up, the impact comes from the same move: removing a trusted intermediary that had become either a bottleneck or a point of capture and handing verifiability and coordination to the people who previously had to take someone else’s word for it. It is a narrow claim, deliberately so. It is also the part of the story that gets the least visibility. In humanitarian aid, crossborder payments, provenance, and the funding of public goods, the technology is already quietly doing measurable work. If we judge blockchain on that rather than on a token’s price, this is where blockchain’s real value lies.●

Provenance: Proof that Travels With the Goods A second kind of real value appears wherever a supply chain crosses many hands, and a false origin claim is profitable. Responsible minerals-tracing and pharmaceutical provenance are honest examples. Each handoff of custody is signed and recorded on a ledger that no single firm controls. Any false claim about where a metal was mined or whether a medicine is genuine then has to survive every other participant’s copy of the record. The value is not the token; it is a shared audit trail among parties with reason to distrust one another. Where one dominant buyer could credibly run the registry alone, this collapses back into a database problem – which is

“For people living in high-inflation countries, being able to hold and transfer a stable digital dollar can be truly transformative. This is where the XRP Ledger is most useful: an open, always available system for settling payments across organizations and countries.”

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This goes beyond putting assets on a blockchain. It invites us to reimagine how an economy can operate: who can participate, how assets are distributed, and where value is attributed. Whether trading real-world assets or exchanging in a community currency, the dawn of decentralized economies is ever-more on the horizon. Tokenization not only contributes to the digitization of the economy. It also redesigns the economy itself.

Tokenization

Every economy, and its core facets, has long been dictated by the top-down powers that be – be it ownership, distribution, regulations, currencies, and their legitimacy. The concept and rise of tokenization see budding legitimacies in many different places.

Why XRPL is Becoming the Future Home of RWAs By Fehmi Fennia and Mikheil Didebulidze, VS1 Finance

Most conversations about tokenized realworld assets start with a question about which blockchain to use. It is the wrong question. The right question is: which network already has the protocol-level primitives that regulated finance actually requires?

The Primitives that Changed the Picture

For corporate bonds, that means the ability to restrict who can hold a token, to freeze or recall it when regulations demand, to embed coupon schedules and maturity dates into the token itself, and to settle payments in a regulated stablecoin. These are not features you layer on top of a general-purpose smart contract. They are design requirements that need to exist at the protocol level, or they become brittle and expensive to maintain.

The Multi-Purpose Token (MPT)↗ standard is the most consequential. MPTs are purpose-built for financial instruments. An issuer can embed structured metadata (coupon rates, maturity dates, legal identifiers) directly into the token. Transfer restrictions and authorization requirements are encoded at the protocol level: every holder must be explicitly whitelisted before they can receive the token. Clawback and freeze capabilities are native, not bolted on through an external contract. ↗ Permissioned Domains and the Permissioned DEX↗ followed. These allow issuers to create

The XRP Ledger now has all of them.

Between February 2024 and mid-2026, XRPL activated a sequence of protocol upgrades that, taken together, amount to a native infrastructure layer for regulated asset issuance.

#01 — Tokenization

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regulated trading environments where only credentialed participants can place orders, providing secondary market liquidity without sacrificing KYC/AML controls. Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and on-chain Credentials enable identity verification at the ledger layer, so compliance is not an afterthought handled by a separate system. And now, the Single Asset Vault (XLS-65) and Lending Protocol (XLS-66)↗ are in validator voting. XLS-65 introduces standardized on-chain pools where liquidity providers deposit a single asset and receive MPT shares. XLS-66 builds fixedterm lending on top of those vaults, with credit assessment handled off-chain by institutional underwriters and loan execution managed onledger. The combination means that once an asset is tokenized on XRPL, it does not just sit there. It can be pooled, lent against, and put to work within the same protocol stack. This is a meaningful departure from how tokenization has worked on other chains, where issuers typically wrap an asset in a generic token standard and then build compliance, lending, and settlement infrastructure from scratch. Why This Matters for Emerging and Frontier Capital Markets The global conversation around RWA tokenization tends to focus on US Treasuries and money market funds. That makes sense: those are the largest, most liquid instruments. Ondo Finance executing the first cross-border, cross-bank redemption of tokenized US Treasuries on XRPL in May 2026 was a significant milestone. But the less discussed opportunity is in markets where the existing capital markets infrastructure is thin, and where tokenization can serve as the primary issuance channel rather than a mirror of something that already works. In Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, the UAE, and Central Asia, corporate bond issuance is constrained by the same structural issues: small deal sizes that do not justify the cost of traditional book-building, limited distribution channels, and settlement processes that are slow and manual. A $10 million corporate bond in Tbilisi faces higher issuance friction, proportionally, than a $500 million offering in London. Tokenization does not solve every part of this problem. Issuers still need to be creditworthy. Legal documentation still needs to be prepared.

Regulators still need to approve the offering. What tokenization does address is the distribution and settlement layer: it allows a licensed broker-dealer to issue, distribute, and service a bond to verified investors across multiple jurisdictions using a single technology platform, with settlement in RLUSD or fiat. What VS1 is Building VS1 is a tokenization and distribution platform built on the XRP Ledger. It provides the technology infrastructure that enables licensed broker-dealers to tokenize fixed-income instruments as MPTs and distribute them to qualified investors through a regulated marketplace. The platform handles the full bond lifecycle: issuance, primary distribution, coupon servicing, and maturity redemption. The asset side is always an MPT on XRPL. The cash side is flexible: investors choose whether to transact in RLUSD or fiat, depending on their preference and jurisdiction. VS1 operates under the National Bank of Georgia’s Regulatory Sandbox through its partner brokerdealer, Foresight Investment Group, which holds the regulatory admission and handles all regulated actions. VS1 provides the technology layer. This separation is deliberate: the platform is designed to work with any licensed broker-dealer in any jurisdiction, not to become one itself. The first live issuance is a tokenized corporate bond targeting Q3 2026. If it closes on schedule, it will be the first tokenized bond issuance in Georgia. On the product roadmap: collateralized lending (Q4 2026), repo markets (Q1 2027), and treasury management (Q3 2027). As XLS-65 and XLS66 move to activation, VS1’s infrastructure is designed to integrate vault-based lending natively, so that a tokenized bond on the platform can serve as collateral or be deposited into a lending pool without leaving the XRPL settlement layer.

Learn more and sign up for early access at ↗ vs1.finance .

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Weia is bringing harvest-based financing for Colombian farmers on-chain, turning signed crop contracts into transparent, investable assets on the XRP Ledger.

#01 — Tokenization

Weia: Financing Colombian Farmers Against the Harvest, on the XRP Ledger

At planting, a farmer pays for the whole season: seed, fertilizer, crop protection. The money comes back about six months later, when the harvest is sold. In Colombia’s most rural municipalities, only 12% of adults had a formal credit product in 2025, against 45.7% in the cities. The credit that does reach farmers often arrives late, asks for land as collateral, or expects monthly payments from a farm that earns once a season. Weia, a Colombian fintech, pays for the season up front and gets repaid from the harvest. It calls the product Farm Now, Pay Later. How it works

With Weia, food and beverage companies can finance the farmers who supply them. Before planting, buyer and farmer sign a forward contract fixing volume, quality, price and delivery date. Farmers apply on WhatsApp, and Weia’s risk model sets each credit limit from the farmer’s sales history with the buyer and credit bureau data. Weia buys the inputs and has them delivered to the farm. The farmer never receives cash or makes a monthly payment. At harvest, the buyer pays Weia, Weia deducts what the farmer owes, and the farmer receives the rest within five business days. “The farmers we finance already have someone who wants to buy their crop. What they don’t have is the money to plant it,” says CEO Jairo Andrés Burgos.

On the XRPL

Weia’s contract platform is live on XRPL mainnet. Each contract’s life, from signatures and field checks to the buyer’s payment, is written to the ledger as it happens, so buyers, farmers and lenders can verify it without asking Weia. Personal data stays off the ledger. Each contract is also issued as a Multi-Purpose Token representing the right to the buyer’s payment: whoever holds it is paid when the buyer pays. Today, that is Weia.

What it changes

The farmer gets the season paid for before planting, without putting up land or making monthly payments. The buyer secures supply at a price agreed in advance. Whoever funds the season can check every contract on the ledger, and each token stands for a signed contract with a buyer committed to pay for a specific crop. Weia has financed tomato, sugar cane, mushroom, aromatic herbs, and maize seasons, and has signed more farmers than its current funding can serve.

What comes next

Today, that funding comes from local lenders, in pesos. Weia wants stablecoin pools on the XRPL, to hold its contract tokens and fund them directly. “We want DeFi liquidity to pay for real harvests,” says CTO Arturo Harker. “A lender should be able to finance a season of maize in Colombia, see every contract behind it on the ledger, and get paid when the buyer pays.” Under its XRPL Commons grant, Weia will bring more than USD 500,000 in forward contracts to mainnet, each issued as a token: an open record to show stablecoin lenders when its first pools open.●

#01 — Tokenization

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Your Gold On-Chain Gold has a universally accepted value and a history of violence spanning civilizations. Contemporary efforts to tokenize it are taking shape as a potential turning point toward a more accountable, sustainable industry. On the XRP Ledger, PhiWallet↗ and Regolda↗ are undertaking some of the most compelling initiatives for gold tokenization.

Regolda: Responsible 28 Gold

Regolda’s CEO Daniele Kielmanowicz’s path to tokenize gold was spurred by awareness of environmental and social risks in the precious metals industry—namely cases of mercury contamination affecting the Yanomami community in her home country, Brazil. She noted that the jewelry sector is characterized by a lack of transparency, often including human rights abuses and environmental degradation caused by illegal mining.

Following 10 years working on sustainability (with the UN, OECD, and Ernst & Young), and driven by questions of circularity in precious stones and ↗ metals, gold’s 60% value increase in 2025 (its greatest rise in nearly 50 years) brought Daniele to act. “Our main realization was that tokenizing gold is not a primarily technical exercise. The real challenge lies in coordinating sourcing, verification, refining, custody, regulation, issuance, distribution, and liquidity,” Daniele says. This led her and Isaac (her brother and co-founder) to develop a two-part model: launching Regolda’s own gold-backed private token platform, while also working on a broader outreach with a public token.

Digital Tools for Real-World Impact Regolda was founded during the XRPL Commons Aquarium Incubator. Initially exploring Digital Product Passports for jewelry, the team pivoted to focus on gold for investment, combined with greater ESG impact. Regolda provides a fully backed, responsibly sourced gold token, leveraging Daniele’s expertise in precious metals and sustainability, and Isaac’s expertise in blockchain, to transform physical gold into a liquid, digital ↗ asset. Its platform launched in the second half of the program. “The Regolda platform enables users to buy, sell, and redeem gold stored in Swiss or French vaults, 24/7. The operation involves registering lots of gold as NFTs— incorporating data on the buyback operation, refinery, and ESG impacts—and minting equivalent tokens. This structure provides full traceability and liquidity, overcoming barriers inherent in traditional gold ETFs, while ensuring that the token supply corresponds to physical gold reserves,” Daniele explains. “Without blockchain, Regolda would essentially be a conventional gold investment product dependent on centralized records, limited operating hours, and multiple reconciliation processes. With blockchain, ownership can be transferred globally, around the clock, with rapid settlement and an auditable transaction history. It also creates a shared record connecting the gold in custody with the digital assets in circulation. Blockchain does not make physical gold sustainable on its own, but it makes verified information more difficult to alter and easier to share.”

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Traceability is crucial here. Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization is projected to reach a $19T market by 2033,↗ and gold is the primary asset with a strong fit for tokenization. Currently, only 0.02% of aboveground gold is tokenized. Digital certification will have a critical role in achieving ethical, sustainable economic models–whether above-ground or under extraction. “To scale our impact beyond recycled materials, Regolda is engaging with miners who utilize sustainable mechanical mining methods without mercury or water usage in Brazil. We aim to verify the entire value chain, utilizing third-party experts like Block Force to ensure provenance.” Ultimately, Regolda seeks to provide institutional investors with a reliable, traceable asset that mitigates the reputational risks currently associated with gold mining. The Landscape for Tokenized Gold Daniele observed that while the gold tokenization market has grown fivefold since 2024, only 1% of this market currently operates on the XRP Ledger. EVM-based blockchains Tether and Pax Gold dominate the tokenized gold sector, holding over half of the market’s value. Minting NFTs on the XRP Ledger, Regolda is evaluating the feasibility of a public token, recognizing that serving institutional users requires significant volume, high technological performance, and rigorous compliance standards,

#01 — Tokenization

The most valuable of common precious metals is being mapped on the blockchain, driving the transformation from extraction to ownership. which the team is actively developing through consolidated partnerships. “We chose the XRP Ledger because it was designed for the efficient movement and exchange of value. It offers settlement within seconds, native asset issuance, cheap and transparent transactions, and reliable decentralized exchange functionality,” Daniele explains. “The Aquarium helped us understand how XRPL’s native capabilities could simplify the product and avoid unnecessary technical complexity.” These characteristics are particularly relevant for gold: a global asset that is still traded through fragmented systems, restricted hours, and multiple intermediaries. Regolda intends to use XRPL to issue and transfer tokens representing allocated physical gold, creating a transparent link between the reserves held in custody and the digital assets in circulation. Regolda does not only provide a framework for owning and managing gold assets. Its operating model for precious metal tokenization may prove exemplary for a quiet, yet worldwide, shift to a more sustainable, ethical, and circular industry.●

#01 — Tokenization

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Gold @ Phi Wallet: Tokenizing Bullion on the XRPL For most of the past decade, financial life has felt less and less stable. Each shock has sent people back to the same refuge: gold. Yet gold is rarely sold in a way that serves the people who need it most. During a stay in Malaysia at the height of COVID, I watched small bars change hands at premiums of up to 30%, simply because they were the only realistic entry point for an ordinary buyer. The same squeeze sits with European savers today, whose cash quietly loses ground to inflation while the honest hedge stays priced out of reach. We built Phi Wallet to close that gap: to let anyone save in gold at the scale they can afford, through an app they know how to use. The offering rests on a simple idea: blending the best financial asset with the best financial technology. Gold is real, stable value, backed by trust earned over millennia. Blockchain brings the digital layer gold needs today, delivering security and transparency with tamper-proof resistance and auditability that no closed database can match. Choosing a blockchain therefore became a question of user needs. Reliability, compliance, and simplicity were our pillars, and the XRPL met all three. Settlement is near-instant and costs a fraction of a cent, which matters when you are matching a moving inventory in real time. And, just as importantly, it lets us abstract away technical complexity so the app is intuitive and focuses on the problem customers actually have. Phi Wallet uses the XRPL in a simple way: Every new user gets an XRP address when they create an account. From there on, every transaction and asset movement is recorded, whether it’s gold sales and repurchases or fiat deposits and withdrawals. Each tokenised unit of gold on the ledger corresponds to 1 gram of physical bullion, held and insured

Bringing the stability and strength of physical gold into the digital economy, Phi Wallet is tokenizing gold, to make it more accessible and usable.

By Eslam Anbar, Phi Wallet Founder

in a secured vault. Each gram is minted on-chain and made available for customers to purchase. We are Shariah-compliant, which means we only sell gold we already own. Customers can also sell back or redeem the physical gold they own at any time. By abstracting key management and ledger transactions for our users, we enable non-savvy savers to buy gold with the added benefits of blockchain, without the complexity of on-chain interaction. Today, we operate a gated ecosystem because that’s what everyday people need, but we’re already live on-chain and applying for a MiCA Asset-Referenced Token issuer licence, which will unlock the true potential of gold onchain. We took the unglamorous route to get here. No token sale, no crypto marketing, no promises that numbers will go up. Just reliable technology in the service of a real need, built for people with no blockchain skills at all. We spent the past 3 years building the unseen foundations of a resilient business: supply lines, custody arrangements, compliance, and operations. And it worked. Since our 2023 soft launch, more than 24,000 people have signed up to the Phi Wallet App, with over $10M in sales and a 4.9 rating from our users. Those foundations now stand comparable to far more mature, licensed operators, which means we’re well prepared for the step up to real scale. What comes next is the part we are most impatient about. Under Europe’s MiCA framework, tokenised gold can be licensed as a regulated Asset-Referenced Token. This means that it will be possible not only to hold it, but also to send and spend it. This has been our north star since day one as we built our offering. Gold has outlasted every currency ever printed. We are simply giving it a way to keep up. Sound money, unchained, on XRPL●

Community Magazine #08

The energy industry is one of the most regulated sectors in the world, and that’s no coincidence: it is critical infrastructure.

#01 — Tokenization

Justoken’s Blockchain-Based Operating Systems for the Argentine Energy Market Eng. Ariel Scaliter, CTO and Co-Founder of Justoken

In Argentina, a recent regulatory change allowed generators to distribute energy to multiple clients, something that had previously been limited to a small number of large consumers. Overnight, the question stopped being “who do I sell to” and became “how do I manage hundreds or thousands of contracts in real time, how do I reconcile them against the regulator, how do I invoice, and how do I build new business models on top of this?” That was the challenge we faced when we began working with YPF Luz, Argentina’s largest energy company. As we came to understand better the problem, other opportunities emerged: a secondary market for those future energy contracts, the possibility of using them as collateral for loans, room for users who had contracted more capacity than they could consume to trade it among themselves, and new demand markets like electric vehicles and data centers, which will need to contract energy at a scale and with a flexibility that don’t exist today. That’s how EnerToken was born: the platform we built together with YPF Luz to contract energy, sign contracts, run automatic settlement against the regulator, and invoice, all running on blockchain. “This is a historic milestone for the energy industry,” said Eduardo Novillo Astrada, CEO & Co-Founder of Justoken. “Our technology, and the transparency and liquidity that come with tokenization, are being integrated for the first time into an energy generator like YPF Luz.” We use a mixed tokenization model. On one hand, utility tokens that represent the contracts and future generation capacity. On the other, tokens that represent energy actually delivered. And a third type that represents the status of each contract: committed,

delivered, on the Spot market. The logic of the system lies precisely in how these three layers interact with one another. This doesn’t just solve an operational and scalability problem today; it fulfills the premise set out by the YPF Luz team: enabling new business and financing models. “This development we’re carrying out together with Justoken will facilitate new ways of contracting energy and modernize the electricity market,” said Martín Mandarano, CEO of YPF Luz. Ripple’s technology brought reliable infrastructure that is fully compatible with use in highly regulated markets like energy — a critical requirement given the sector’s regulatory intensity. In addition, XRPL made it possible to connect these tokens to global liquidity options, such as lending protocols and exchanges worldwide, fulfilling one of the project’s core premises: unlocking new sources of financing for YPF Luz while ensuring a reliable, scalable operation for everyone involved. In the near future, this infrastructure will allow YPF Luz to finance critical infrastructure by externalizing these tokens on protocols, exchanges, and various securitization schemes, with end users who, without knowing anything about blockchain, enjoy a system with less friction, more options, more speed, and fewer errors. As CTO and co-founder of Justoken, it’s a source of pride for me to have built this new operating system together with our technology and business team, the Ripple LATAM team, and Argentina’s largest energy company.●

#01 — Tokenization

Community Magazine #08

Dropchan–When Art Becomes the Utility In a market often dominated by speculation and promises of future utility, dropchan↗ offers a new perspective: sometimes, the value of a digital asset lies simply in the connection it creates with its owner and its community.

Its 10,000-piece collection brings together Japaneseinspired art, digital ownership, and collaborations across the XRPL ecosystem. We spoke with Ciana, the artist behind dropchan, about what inspired the collection, and what “utility” can mean when the asset is art. What inspired you to create dropchan?

When the NFT boom first began, I became completely fascinated by this new way of enjoying art through collectible projects. Whenever I draw, I always end up with far more ideas than I could ever fit into a single piece. That made me start dreaming about creating a collection of 10,000 pieces, filled with as many things I love as I wanted, all through my own art. At the time, gas fees on Ethereum were very high, and I felt it would be difficult to create 10,000 NFTs that lots of people could enjoy casually. “If NFTs existed on the XRPL, maybe I could make something that people could easily enjoy.” That idea became one of our starting points. You’re working on the intersection of arts and technology. What are the challenges you have faced so far in this context? Web3 and NFT communities still tend to have a somewhat concentrated user base. So I still wonder whether there is a gap between the people my work reaches and the people I would ideally like it to reach, all around the world. dropchan is a collection centered around very Japanese-style girl characters, so at first I was a little unsure whether this would really resonate with an overseas Web3 community. But in reality, I found people who simply enjoyed the characters themselves, regardless of gender or nationality. Dropchan is explicitly an art-andcollaboration project rather than a DeFi or RWA token. When you hear “utility” applied to NFTs,

what do you think it should actually mean for a project like this — access, creator-economics, or something the industry hasn’t named yet? In the Japanese NFT community, I sometimes hear people say, “kawaii is utility.” As a collector, I really like that idea, and as a creator, I’m grateful for it too. When people talk about NFT utility, they often mean extra functions such as access, perks, or systems that can lead to financial benefits. But with dropchan, I think there is also value in simply being happy to own a character — wanting to look at it, show it to someone, or give it as a gift. Art does not always need another function attached to it in order to have value. It can move someone emotionally or create a small moment of joy in their everyday life. So with dropchan, rather than making utility a major selling point, I feel more comfortable occasionally giving holders small gestures of appreciation. Instead of forcing utility onto the project afterward, I want to focus first on making art that makes someone think, “I like this character, so I want to keep it.” ”The allowlist/gifting structure with projects like PlanetX, XRP Hugs, and ORERA effectively tokenizes social capital between artist communities rather than an underlying asset. Was that interoperability a technical feature of XRPL you leaned on, or more of a community convention you built on top? I never designed any of this thinking, “Let’s create interoperability,” or “Let’s tokenize social capital.” The relationships between people and art came first, and then we naturally found ways to express those relationships through NFTs. PlanetX is a very special project to me. We had already been supporting each other even before XLS-20 existed.

Community Magazine #08

#01 — Tokenization

When PlanetX was released in 2023, we had already decided that one day we would offer Allowlist opportunities and gifts to each other’s communities. So when we finally did that with dropchan in 2026, it felt more like giving form to a relationship that had already been there for a long time. My own characters regularly appear in XRP Hugs and ORERA collections, so I wanted the people who owned those works to feel a connection with dropchan as well. XRPL gave us a foundation that made these easy to realize, but the most important part lies in the relationships created between people. The engineer/artist split: tequ brings deep XRPL technical grounding, ciana brings the illustration and IP. When you disagree about what “utility” a feature should add — say, an on-chain mechanic vs. a purely aesthetic drop — how do you resolve that? I tend to focus on the experience I want users to have, while tequ approaches ideas from the perspective of what is technically possible on XRPL. For example, when we first started developing dropchan, tequ was building a custom minting website. I asked for things like animations during minting, minting several NFTs at once, and supporting multiple Allowlist conditions. He

then worked out how those ideas could function technically and suggested adjustments where needed. That is still how we work today: I usually start from the art or experience, and together we find a realistic way to make it work. How do you perceive the success of dropchan so far, and where would you like to be in a year from now? The fact that dropchan minted out was, of course, a huge moment for me. But for me, the success of dropchan is not only about all 10,000 pieces being minted. There were people who had supported me for a long time, introduced the collection to others, wrote articles, organized giveaways, created fan art, the strong support of xrp.cafe, and many collaborators who helped expand this world together with me. After it finally left my hands, seeing people in different countries enjoy it in their own ways has made me incredibly happy. To me, that feels like a much bigger kind of success. One year from now, if the people who own dropchan today still love their own dropchan, occasionally look at it, show it to someone, and feel even a little happy to have it, that would make me happiest.●

Moving Value in a Changing World Money has always been about movement. Whether it is a payment at the point of sale, a transfer between businesses, or a remittance across borders, its value depends on moving from one party to another–quickly, reliably, and at a reasonable cost. The world around payments, however, has changed faster than the infrastructure behind them. People and businesses operate across borders by default, while digital information travels in seconds. Moving value can still mean navigating intermediaries, multiple currencies, fragmented systems, and settlement times measured in days.

Payments

#02 — Payments

Community Magazine #08

Blockchain offers one way to rethink this infrastructure: a shared network on which value can be transferred and settled. Whether this translates into better payments depends on performance, reliability, accessibility and integration with the financial systems around it.

The XRP Ledger was built with these requirements in mind. Its architecture enables fast, low-cost settlement, creating an environment for new ways of moving value, and for building services people can actually use. So what makes a blockchain genuinely suited to payments? The following pages explore these questions, from the evolution of crypto payments to wallets and financial inclusion projects building on the XRPL.

“I believe the next decade of payments will be defined by programmability. Money will settle around the clock, carry its compliance rules with it, and move between people, businesses and software agents without waiting for a banking day to open. The remaining question is integration. How quickly will card networks, banks and corporate treasuries plug in?” - Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets @ XRPL Commons

Community Magazine #08

#02 — Payments

LOBSTR joins the XRP Ledger: Connecting Ecosystems XRPL Commons partnered with LOBSTR, one of the key wallets in the Stellar ecosystem, to bring native XRPL support into its multichain wallet.

Digital finance is consolidating around multichain, interoperable infrastructure. Wallet distribution is where that shift becomes real for both XRP Ledger and the ecosystems it connects to. Earlier this year, XRPL Commons partnered with LOBSTR, one of the key wallets in the Stellar ecosystem, to bring native XRPL support into its multichain wallet across iOS and Android. Unveiled at XRPL Zone Paris, the integration gives more than 1.5 million LOBSTR users the ability to create, import, and manage XRP Ledger accounts inside the wallet they already use every day. The reasoning is distribution. Reaching a walletnative user base already comfortable managing digital assets removes one of the practical barriers to XRPL adoption: users meet the ledger inside a wallet they already trust. For LOBSTR, native XRPL support gives its users direct access to RLUSD and XRP, one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, while opening the wallet to the broader XRP community for the first time. Phase 1 is now live on iOS and Android. Users can hold and send XRP and XRPL-issued tokens, view full balances and transaction history, add tokens, and run multiple XRPL wallets under one account. RLUSD buy and sell is available through card and fiat on/off-ramp providers. XRP cross-chain swaps between Stellar and XRPL, DEX swaps of XRPL-

issued tokens alongside WalletConnect and direct third-party dApp connectivity. The next phases extend this further: deeper XRPL asset support and flows and wider DeFi integration. “This integration is another step on the XRPL DeFi roadmap and towards a multichain, digital finance landscape,” said Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets at XRPL Commons. “By bringing XRPL natively into LOBSTR, we are making the XRP Ledger accessible to a large, wallet-native user base. It is a strong foundation for the broader connectivity we are building toward.” “XRPL is a natural next step in LOBSTR’s multichain roadmap,” said Dmitry Gmyza, CoFounder at Ultrastellar-LOBSTR. “Our users get direct access to XRPL accounts and assets from day one, and together we help build a bridge between Stellar and XRPL that supports payments, swaps, and future DeFi use cases.” Further details on timelines and feature rollout will follow through LOBSTR and XRPL Commons channels as the integration progresses.● Get the LOBSTR wallet now ↗ lobstr.co

#02 — Payments

Community Magazine #08

From Experiment to Infrastructure: The Brief History of Crypto Payments Looking back at the two decades since Bitcoin’s launch, one might consider crypto-rail payments may be to finance what the MP3 was to the music industry: a technology that reshapes how value moves, much as the MP3 reshaped how music could be stored, shared, and consumed. by Simon Luling Launch of Ethereum + smart contracts

First crypto trade in Bitcoin

2015

2009

2012 Launch of XRP Ledger

Historic Foundations (2008-2009) For context, let us establish a little timeline. 2008-2009 is widely accepted as the genesis of cryptopayments, with Satoshi Nakamoto’s publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and its subsequent network launch for peer-to-peer transfers among early adopters. Over the following years, Bitcoin would be used as an ‘alternative payment method’, outside of traditional financial structures. Eventually, bitcoin-to-fiat conversion was streamlined via BitPay, opening its use to businesses. The Genesis of the XRP Ledger (2012) Not long after, a group of Bay Area computer scientists would address the “bulkiness” of early blockchain and cryptocurrency mining, and would launch the XRP Ledger in 2012, to provide fast, low-cost and carbon-efficient settlements. Its innovation would prove relevant for crypto use at commercial and institutional levels, as well as greatly facilitate international settlements.

2018 Launch of Stablecoins (USDC)

Ethereum and Smart Contracts (2015) As the crypto solutions were taking shape through Bitcoin (1st DeFi currency) and XRP (value transfer across borders and businesses), a third foundational ‘pillar’ would emerge in the launch of the Ethereum blockchain, in 2015. With the conception of smart contracts, it enabled its software to program and automate transactions. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) running the smart contracts would provide the software unlocking crypto-payments’ full potential. Stability and Efficiency Coming a long way from its origins as currency “off the world banking system’s grid”, crypto payment solutions tend towards stable, programmable forms of money onto blockchain infrastructure, leveraged at all institutional levels. Stablecoins, generally pegged to the dollar or another fiat currency, can move 24/7, settle within seconds and cross borders without passing through the traditional banking network.

Community Magazine #08

Transactions on the XRP Ledger illustrate a strong case for such operations. Built specifically for fast, low-cost value transfer, XRPL can settle transactions in seconds; the XRP cryptocurrency can function as a bridge asset between currencies, meaning that a payment can effectively move from, say, US Dollars to Nigerian Naira, Argentine

XRP as bridge liquidity for remittances, B2B transactions

Peso, Korean Won, or any Fiat currency on this Earth. This provides a particularly relevant model for cross-border payments, where fragmented liquidity and multiple intermediaries remain a major source of cost and delay. Meanwhile, XRPL is developing into a broader payment ecosystem, with stablecoins such as RLUSD and USDC available on the ledger, alongside tokenized currencies and assets. This creates possibilities beyond conventional international transfers: merchant settlement, digital wallets, remittances, and even community currencies can all be built on the same underlying infrastructure.

#02 — Payments

Their uses now range from remittances and online commerce to corporate treasury, payroll, supplier payments and cross-border B2B transactions. As such, a company can pay a foreign supplier in a dollar stablecoin, with the transaction settling in minutes rather than days, while the recipient can either retain the digital dollars or convert them into local currency.

in Stablecoins widely embedded ) etc , ipe Str a, (Vis ts duc payment pro

2020

2025 2026

2022

Crypto increasingly embedded in UX worldwide

Early state-level crypto adoptions

An All-Crypto Financial Future? Governments and central banks are increasingly experimenting with blockchain-based payment and settlement infrastructure. Brazil’s Drex project, for example, is exploring a programmable digital version of its national currency – the Real, along with tokenized financial assets backed by its central bank. Internationally, Project Agorá – involving the Bank for International Settlements and seven central banks (France, Mexico, Japan, Korea, England, Switzerland and the US Federal Reserve), is examining how tokenized centralbank money and commercial-bank deposits could improve cross-border payments. What is emerging, arguably, is the integration of crypto-payment solutions into existing, ‘formal’

financial infrastructure. Crypto can now sit invisibly between the payer and recipient: a consumer pays in fiat currency, a merchant receives (the same or another) fiat currency, all bridged by a stablecoin or XRP, for example. The defining innovation of today’s crypto payments may be that the average non-dev user transacts in a web2 interface, not necessarily knowing that crypto was involved at all. It took about fifteen years for a peer-to-peer currency transaction between hackers to become the thing of central banks and international trade. In the next fifteen years, will we witness all global Fiat currencies integrated and exchanged on blockchain itself?●

#02 — Payments

Community Magazine #08

The Rails for Inclusivity The XRP Ledger is not just a vehicle for accelerated growth; these two African projects are leveraging the blockchain to open access to the financially underserved.

Building the rails for agentic finance to manage physical climate risk. Physical climate risks are no longer a matter of ESG. In finance especially, they have moved from being a compliance item to a credit risk item. Floods, drought, heat waves and storms cost the world over US $1.2 trillion annually and affect every economic sector. As the world leans towards an agentic era, with AI agents doing much of our future financial work, there is a need to think about how AI agents will deal with climate risks. But climate hazards present a challenge: an AI agent may be able to assess the likelihood of a risk, but how to transfer that risk becomes the bottleneck. This is where BlockBima comes in. BlockBima is a climate risk intelligence and infrastructure provider for the financial sector, helping lenders profile, map out and quantify how climate risk enters their loanbook. Using blockchain, BlockBima enables lenders to use embedded parametric insurance to de-risk climatevulnerable customers and prevent such risk from cascading to their loanbook. Insurance is parametric, driven by satellite data, while smart contracts receive an oracle report on the weather and assess whether a climate risk threshold has been breached. If it has, the insurance pays out automatically, with payout

correlating to the climate hazard’s severity. Settlement is made through the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger, with the full insurance process and outcome being immutable and auditable. And it works. In a pilot with a lender in Kenya, loan-embedded insurance helped de-risk a customer segment previously deemed too climateexposed to lend to, cutting climate-linked defaults by over 60% and unlocking over US $12,000 of credit over six months to women traders previously locked out of formal finance. This is BlockBima’s innovation: a world where AI agents are able to bundle blockchain-based automated climate insurance into their financial operations. The same technology currently driving financial inclusion and loanbook protection for African micro-enterprises can provide a shield against climate risks for agentic finance. When those agents encounter elevated climate risk, they could embed climate risk insurance into exposed financial products, transferring the latent risk. The future of agentic finance needs to be thought of from an ecosystem viewpoint. It’s not enough to have systems that can trade and invest; it must consider how such systems will deal with emerging real-world developments, particularly on climate change. BlockBima provides a compelling case to drive both resilience and growth in the agentic era.● blockbima.com↗

Community Magazine #08

#02 — Payments

Mandla Money

Everyday micropayments for businesses and users Although one could argue fintech innovation is burgeoning and payments are increasingly digital, the unspoken elephant in the room is that small, frequent payments (under $30 per transaction) in emerging economies are still conducted in cash. There are a few reasons for this. Existing payment rails and mechanisms often impose minimum transaction fees. In tandem, these existing rails also impose minimum transaction amounts. These factors render micropayments economically unviable for day-to-day payments, and cash saves the day. This is at a micro level. The knockon effect is that at a macro level–think a small business paying daily wages–they then do not have a quick and easy mechanism to manage and disburse small but frequent payouts to casual staff, for example. To address this market gap and enable efficient, low-cost micropayments, Mandla Money has developed a B2B2C ecosystem that supports

micropayments across both institutional and retail use cases. Small businesses, NGOs and governments can disburse small amounts through the Mandla Bulk Pay platform, while consumers can make real-time P2P micropayments via the Mandla Wallet at a fraction of traditional transaction costs. Using the Mandla Bulk Pay web portal, a registered business can upload a disbursement list of cellphone numbers and instantly disburse stablecoins; receivers can in turn purchase airtime, pay for daily transport, or make a P2P transfer to another retail user as needed. This previously difficult-to-achieve trifecta of low-cost, instant, and digital payments is enabled by stablecoins on the XRP Ledger, coupled with operational regulatory safeguards in the Mandla Money ecosystem, including KYC and transaction checks. Whether it’s a wine producer paying casual workers in Cape Town or a commuter paying their daily transport fare in downtown Johannesburg, Mandla Money makes it possible. Powered by the XRP Ledger, the platform enables fast, low-cost digital payments in real time.● mandlamoney.com↗

#02 — Payments

Community Magazine #08

The XRP Wallet Landscape in 2026: How to Choose Which Wallet is Right for You By Artur Kirjakulov, XPMarket Founder

The XRP Ledger has gained more wallets in the past two years than in the decade before it, and “XRPL support” now covers everything from a wallet that can send XRP and nothing else to one that can open a DeFi rabbit hole for you.

Wallets divide first by where the private key lives: hardware wallets hold it on a dedicated, isolated chip, software wallets on a general-purpose device, which in practice means a phone. The second division is feature depth, which matters a great deal to anyone active in XRPL DeFi and very little to anyone who simply moves XRP. Mobile Wallets with Full XRPL Support Xaman. One of the most established wallets on the ledger, with the first user-signed transaction dating back to 2019. Nothing on the ledger is out of reach from inside the app: tokens, trustlines, trading, liquidity pools, NFTs, and the more specialised account operations. New features tend to appear as they go live rather than months afterwards. Two architectural choices set it apart. Xaman uses its own signing protocol rather than WalletConnect and runs its own infrastructure rather than depending on public endpoints, and dApps arrive as xApps inside a curated list rather than an open browser. The Xaman Ecosystem Fund also returns a share of the service fee on each integration to the developer behind it, which for a great many XRPL builders is the only on-ledger revenue technically available. That makes the wallet a piece of ecosystem funding as much as a piece of software. XPMarket’s internal figures show over 85% of its users rely on Xaman. One dApp’s own data is not an ecosystem-wide measurement, but it is consistent with the patterns visible on chain,

and nothing else is close. The app is mobile only, though pairing it with a Tangem card moves the keys onto a chip, on which more below. Joey. Released in 2025 and the strongest of the newer arrivals. It covers the XRPL natively, handles swaps and NFTs without fuss, and keeps the technical machinery out of sight. Onboarding is deliberately short: a social account backed by splitkey cryptography, or a conventional seed phrase. It is said that a wallet can be created in less than 10 seconds with Joey! Desktop dApps are reached by QR code through WalletConnect, or directly through the wallet’s own browser. Joey runs its own infrastructure rather than borrowing someone else’s. Girin. Covers the XRPL and the XRPL EVM sidechain, and reaches dApps over WalletConnect. The interface is minimalistic and native assets behave well, but token valuations proved less dependable in testing, so portfolio figures are worth checking against a dedicated tracker such as XPMarket. Well suited as a second or backup wallet. StaticBit. The least known of the four. Full XRPL support is the stated design goal rather than a retrofit, development is active, and dApps connect over WalletConnect. Retail adoption is modest, though it has a following among developers in certain regions.

Community Magazine #08

Hardware Wallets

Bifrost. A multichain wallet with native XRP support and a built-in Web3 browser alongside WalletConnect. The range of operations in the wallet itself is limited, but all of them can be handled through an XRPL interface such as XRP Toolkit or XPMarket, which puts Bifrost ahead of the two below it.

Hardware is where the ledger is still growing. Native assets such as XRP are handled decently by the vendors’ own software, support for issued tokens is thin, and third-party interfaces do most of the work.

Trust Wallet. The largest multichain wallet by reach. Users can hold and send XRP as well as issued tokens, and that is where the support ends. No dApp connectivity, no in-wallet trading against the DEX. Useful for XRP and a short list of tokens, not for participating in the ecosystem. LOBSTR. Primarily a Stellar wallet, with XRPL accounts a recent addition. The integration is minimal: create or import an account, hold and view XRP and issued tokens, and send them. No dApp connectivity, so the ceiling is custody and payments. Partial support is not a reason to dismiss a wallet. A basic integration in a wallet with a large user base is a foothold, and footholds grow when the demand appears.

Complete, in the app Built for the XRPL

Complete, via interface XRP Toolkit, XPMarket

Basic, and closed No route to the ecosystem

Ledger. The fullest support available, though not inside Ledger’s own software. Ledger Live handles XRP send and receive but does not support trustlines, and Ledger’s documentation points users to third-party interfaces instead. Connect the device to XRP Toolkit and all required operations become available. The constraint sits on the other side of the connection, since few XRPL front ends support hardware signing at all. Tangem. One card, two very different wallets, depending on which app is holding it. Tangem’s own app supports XRP and nothing else issued on the ledger. The same card linked to Xaman turns Xaman into the interface for a hardware wallet, with the seed phrase never leaving the card and the whole feature set intact. The chip decides how safe the keys are; the app decides what can be done with them. The wallet can also work without a card, as a pure mobile wallet.

Xaman

Ledger

Joey

Girin

Tangem with Xaman

Trust Wallet

LOBSTR

StaticBit

Bifrost

Tangem app

What the Shape of the Market Suggests Depth tracks intent. Wallets built for the XRPL tend to support it thoroughly, while wallets that added XRPL support typically offer only the features that work across different chains. The remaining gap is filled by interfaces rather than by the wallets themselves. Services like XPMarket are doing work that in other ecosystems sits inside the wallet itself.

Tested side by side, the shortlist is short. Xaman first, Joey the runner-up, StaticBit worth watching, Ledger the most capable hardware option provided an external interface is acceptable, and a Tangem card under Xaman for anyone who wants the interface without the exposure. The rest serve less demanding users, with room to expand.●

#02 — Payments

Mobile Wallets with Partial XRPL Support

“Agentic Finance is where the Agentic Web meets the balance sheet. Once agents hold stablecoins, allocate to vaults and settle invoices, finance faces the mandate question. The XRPL already offers the key building blocks for a solid compliance framework. The next critical pillar is risk: assessing agent identity, authorisation, merchant and transaction risk before settlement, with safeguards scaled to the value at stake.”

The Agentic Web

#03 — The Agentic Web

Community Magazine #08

- Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets @ XRPL Commons

How AI Agents Pay on the XRP Ledger By Chandler Fang, Founder, t54 Labs

An AI agent needs a market signal, a model inference or a piece of proprietary research. It calls a digital service and receives an HTTP 402 Payment Required response with the price and payment terms. The agent signs an XRPL transaction, the payment settles, the resource is released and the agent continues its task.

How One Agentic Payment Works

That loop is already running on XRPL Mainnet. As of late August 2026, the XRPL AI Hub had indexed over 2.6 million agentic transactions. The utility is practical: AI agents can discover, purchase and consume a service without stopping for account creation, subscription setup or a human checkout process.

1. A service becomes machine-payable. A developer adds x402 to an API or digital resource and defines the price, accepted asset and receiving address. The service can accept XRP or Ripple USD (RLUSD) and be submitted to xrpl-ai.org for discovery.

Ripple’s XRPL AI Starter Kit equips agents to interact with the ledger. t54 contributed XRPL support for x402, operates the hosted facilitator and built the XRPL AI Hub. Together, these components connect discovery, payment, and settlement.

Community Magazine #08

3. The service returns payment terms. Instead of opening a checkout page, the service responds with 402 Payment Required: what to pay, which asset is accepted, where the payment must go and how settlement will be verified. 4. The agent prepares and signs the payment. The Starter Kit provides the XRPL knowledge, wallet capabilities and payment tools needed to act on those terms. An x402-enabled client constructs the payment, while the payer signs locally and keeps control of its private keys. 5. The payment settles and the resource is released. t54’s XRPL x402 Facilitator checks that the transaction matches the quoted amount, asset, destination and invoice, then submits it to the XRP Ledger. Invoice binding prevents the same payment from being reused. Once validated on Mainnet, the service releases the requested data, inference or other resource. The XRPL AI Hub makes the ecosystem visible by bringing together agent-accessible services, developer resources and indexed payment activity across XRP and RLUSD.

What This Utility Enables Today The clearest use cases are digital services that AI agents can price, deliver and verify end to end: APIs, model inference, compute, data retrieval, search, analytics, and research. They are often consumed in small, irregular increments. An agent may need one model call or one data point rather than a monthly subscription. Account creation, prepaid credits and manual billing can add more friction than the purchase justifies. x402 makes payment part of the request. The service states its terms, the agent decides whether the resource is useful and affordable, and XRPL provides fast, low-cost settlement that fits automated workflows.

From Payments to Trusted Delegation Paying a few cents for an API creates limited exposure. An agent booking travel, purchasing equipment or managing recurring business services

raises different questions: Was the merchant approved? Was the amount within budget? Did the user authorize the purchase? What evidence remains if the outcome is disputed? As agentic commerce expands into procurement, physical goods, recurring services and agent-toagent transactions, settlement is only one part of the infrastructure required. Financial delegation must also remain controlled, attributable and accountable. This is where t54’s broader trust layer extends the payment flow. x402-Secure can carry intent and transaction context, while the risk engine evaluates agent identity, authorization, merchant and transaction risk before settlement. These controls can be added when the value or consequences of a payment justify stronger safeguards.

#03 — The Agentic Web

2. An agent requests the resource. The agent may find the service through the Hub, receive the endpoint from another agent or reach it through an existing workflow. It then sends an ordinary web request.

The payment rail establishes whether value can move. The trust layer helps determine whether it should.

Start Building 1. Use the XRPL AI Starter Kit to equip an agent with XRPL wallet and payment capabilities. 2. Add x402-xrpl to a buyer client or merchant service and connect it to t54’s hosted Mainnet x402 facilitator. 3. Submit a payable service to the XRPL AI Hub and inspect its activity through the directory and transaction index. Detailed implementation guidance remains in the XRPL and t54 documentation, where package versions can stay current. XRPL provides the settlement rail. The Starter Kit enables agents to operate on it. x402 makes payment native to the service request. t54 connects that request to validated Mainnet settlement, while the XRPL AI Hub and t54’s trust infrastructure make the ecosystem more discoverable, controlled and accountable. The next wave of utility will come from what builders place on that foundation.●

#03 — The Agentic Web

Community Magazine #08

: t c A n a C t a h AI T s l i a R e h t g n i d l i Bu s t n e m y a P c i for Agent Interview with Jazzi Cooper, Head of Product @RippleX

AI agents are moving beyond answering questions and making recommendations: increasingly, they can take action on our behalf. But for an agent to truly operate independently, it needs more than intelligence. It needs a wallet, access to payments and the ability to interact with financial infrastructure securely. Phase 1 covered the Docs MCP server, Claude skills, tutorials, and x402 integration. What’s planned for Phase 2, and on what timeline?

The AI Starter Kit is designed to provide exactly that foundation on the XRPL. We spoke with Jazzi Cooper about what’s coming next, the rapid growth of agentic activity on the ledger, and what it will take to move autonomous payments from developer experiments into real-world applications.

We’re entering a world where software isn’t just helping people make decisions, it’s increasingly able to act on them. That means agents need more than intelligence. They need a way to securely hold assets, pay for services and interact with financial infrastructure without requiring a person to step in at every stage. That was the starting point for the AI Starter Kit in June. We focused first on giving developers a simple path to build and test agentic payments on XRPL, including wallet and payment tooling, access to XRPL documentation through MCP, and support for x402. We’re now expanding that foundation with the next version of the Starter Kit. A big focus is interoperability. We’re adding XRPL support for the Open Wallet Standard, so developers can use the same wallet infrastructure across different chains and agent environments, as well as support for the Machine Payments Protocol developed by Tempo and Stripe. We don’t think agentic payments should develop as isolated ecosystems; we want XRPL to work with the open standards developers are already adopting and make it easier for agents to move between different tools, services and payment environments.

As these standards mature, we’ll continue expanding the capabilities, controls and tooling needed to take agentic payments from experimentation into real-world applications.

Now that x402 support is live and the kit has been out for over a month, what usage signals are you seeing — active agent wallets, transaction volume, developer sign-ups?

One of the clearest signals is the growth in agentic transaction activity itself. We’ve now seen more than 5 million agentic transactions on XRPL, up significantly from earlier this summer. The Starter Kit is helping by making it much easier for developers to get from an idea to an agent that can actually transact. Instead of having to piece together wallet infrastructure, payment flows and XRPL-specific knowledge themselves, developers have a starting

Community Magazine #08

What are some of the realworld applications and use cases where people are using AI agents on the XRPL, in practice?

What role does XRP play in agentic activity on XRPL?

With x402 on XRPL, developers can build flows where the agent makes that payment directly using XRP or RLUSD and continues the

workflow without a traditional checkout process. We’re still early, so I’d distinguish between what developers are actively experimenting with today and the broader applications this could support over time. The same model could eventually extend to agent-to-agent payments and more business-oriented workflows where software is able to both make a decision and execute the payment attached to it. At the most basic level, XRP is the native asset of the ledger, so it is used for transaction fees and other network-level requirements. With x402, for example, an agent can use XRP to pay for an API call, compute, model inference, or another digital service. Where XRP has an advantage is that it is native to XRPL. An agent does not need to interact with a separate token contract or bridge in order to use it, which can simplify the payment flow and reduce the number of external dependencies the developer has to manage. At the same time, different use cases call for different assets. An enterprise may prefer to transact in a dollar-denominated asset like RLUSD, while another application may use XRP directly. XRPL supports both, and its built-in DEX also makes it possible to move between assets as part of a payment flow.

With the Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines partnership running in parallel, is enterprise interest tracking ahead of or behind grassroots developer adoption?

I don’t think of it as one being ahead of the other. We’re seeing interest develop from both directions at the same time. On one side, developers are experimenting quickly with new payment protocols and agent workflows. On the other, the fact that a company like Mastercard is leaning into agentic payments is an important signal that this is being taken seriously beyond the developer community. That’s why the two sides are so complementary. Developers help prove what’s possible, while enterprise participation helps validate where this could become meaningful at scale. Seeing both happen in parallel gives us confidence that agentic payments are moving from an emerging technical concept toward real innovation.

What spending limits, permissioning, or audit-trail mechanisms are built into the kit today versus still in development?

The Starter Kit gives developers the building blocks around agent behavior. At the ledger level, XRPL already supports features like multi-signing, escrow, deposit authorization and trust lines that can help define who can transact, under what conditions and with what level of oversight. What’s still evolving is how those controls are packaged specifically for autonomous agents. Things like more granular spending policies, permissioning and easier auditability become increasingly important as you move from a developer experiment to an enterprise deployment.

Making it easy for an agent to transact is one problem. Making sure an organization can clearly define what that agent is allowed to do is the next challenge.●

#03 — The Agentic Web

point that gives agents access to XRPL documentation, wallet and payment functionality, tutorials and standards like x402. So while we wouldn’t attribute every agentic transaction on XRPL to the Starter Kit, the broader trend is encouraging. More developers have the tools to experiment, and we’re starting to see that translate into growing activity on the ledger.

Technology does not exist in isolation. Its impact depends on how it is designed, deployed and used. Blockchain is no exception: its ability to make financial systems more accessible, transparent and connected has opened new possibilities for financial inclusion, cross-border transfers, and the delivery of humanitarian aid. The more interesting question, then, is not whether the technology is inherently good or bad, but what we choose to build with it. “Tech for good” begins with the human intention of creating systems and tools that are more open, inclusive, transparent, and sustainable. Blockchain can provide some of the infrastructure for that work. But technology alone cannot reform societies. The direction of change – and the problems we choose to solve – remains ours to determine. In the pages that follow, we look at projects using the XRPL to address concrete social challenges, from financial inclusion and civic participation to access to water, while also exploring broader initiatives bringing together technology, philanthropy and social impact.

Reforming Societies

#04 — Reforming Societies

Community Magazine #08

“Access to finance remains the foundation of inclusion, resilience and private-sector growth across emerging markets and developing economies. Money, assets and credit are becoming programmable, and global banks and payment networks are already building on that shift. On the XRPL, Credentials, Permissioned Domains and native lending allow capital to reach a small business under rules a supervisor can inspect. Get the safeguards right, and inclusion becomes a design feature of the financial system.” - Odelia Torteman, Head of Digital Assets @ XRPL Commons

Community Magazine #08

By Tonia Damvakeraki, Member of the BC100+ Steering Committee

How BC100+ is putting blockchain to work for the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Imagine if blockchain were not just a tool for speeding up transactions, but a catalyst for empowering people to reclaim their influence over the systems that shape their lives. BC100+ brings together builders, communities, researchers, foundations, civil society organisations, public institutions, and UN-connected actors driven by this shared vision. Together they explore how blockchain and DLTs can move beyond speculation, fostering trust, strengthening communities, making institutions more accountable, and promoting fairer ways to create and share value. Why it Was Created As trust in public institutions erodes, the climate and biodiversity emergency makes credible, transparent coordination more urgent. Its founders start with a candid premise: a divide has opened between blockchain’s contribution to the common good and its adverse uses. Rather than arguing in the abstract, BC100+ builds on applications that already serve the SDGs (humanitarian aid, climate finance, supply-chain integrity, financial inclusion, and public-goods funding) and expands from what demonstrably works, pairing an evidence-based debate with a practical action plan to help nations and international organizations accelerate their SDG responses. What it Does • Brings organizations together through a shared Manifesto that defines the initiative’s vision and core values. • Tracks and records practical blockchain applications that deliver measurable public benefits globally. • Encourages innovative, SDG-focused solutions across various countries and industries.

#04 — Reforming Societies

What If Blockchain Could Help Rebuild Trust?

• Facilitates strategic dialogue among stakeholders, including UN entities, governments, protocols, foundations, and grassroots projects. A Coalition for Impact Instead of acting as a standalone platform or endorsing one specific chain, BC100+ functions as a coalition that links existing initiatives, brings together various stakeholders, and highlights credible use cases for testing, sharing, and scaling. Its network comprises organizations like INATBA, the Cardano Foundation, the HBAR Foundation, the Africa Blockchain Institute, LACChain, Blockchain for Europe, the Ethereum Climate Platform, and the Dunia Bora Foundation. Recent work features a hybrid roundtable in Cotonou focusing on a digital governance framework for peace and prosperity during the just transition, emphasizing biodiversity and critical minerals. This type of gathering aligns with BC100+’s main goal: transitioning from dialogue to tangible collaboration and from promising concepts to actual results. How to Join Membership is open to organizations across sectors, including protocols, enterprises, research institutions, NGOs, public bodies, and startups, that share the initiative’s values. Joining is a single, deliberate act: sign the BC100+ Manifesto, committing to advance SDG-aligned blockchain applications and to contribute use cases, evidence, and partnerships to the shared action plan.

The Manifesto and sign-up are available at bc100plus.org↗

#04 — Reforming Societies

Community Magazine #08

Incubated Utility Social Projects You Should KnowAbout arium Incubator and Projects from our Aqu ting highly creative hackathons, demonstra fficult societal approaches to tackle di le through the ssib challenges. All made po er. XRP Ledg

ImpactBee A novel method for fundraising

ImpactBee provides funding & verification infrastructure for social spending. It pairs two things that usually live in separate systems: fundraising, and proof of where the money actually landed. Their mission is simple to state and hard to deliver: make verified impact the default rather than the exception. Its first deployment partnered with Food Banks Mississauga (Canada), and has been extending toward education and environment, so any organisation putting money behind a cause can show precisely what it achieved. Where the Utility Lies Through its partnership with Food Banks Mississauga, 60+ food programs and over 500,000 annual client visits will be documented on chain. Yet the relevance runs far wider than food banks. Most sustainability and social-impact data today is self-reported and unverified, at the very moment upcoming regulations are requiring tens

of thousands of companies to report impact they can stand behind. That gap is currently filled by estimates and attestations; it should be filled by evidence. Education, healthcare, climate, and housing are all natural next verticals for ImpactBee’s next steps. Where XRPL Comes In Take their first use case in verified giving: a donor funds a programme run by a delivery partner, the donation settles on-ledger in XRP or RLUSD, and an impact certificate records the delivery, giving the funding entity auditable proof rather than a thank-you letter. The platform processed its first live donations on XRPL mainnet, validating the full funding flow. A community campaign run during the Aquarium incubator drew completed mainnet donations from distinct contributors, including members of XRPL Commons and several ecosystem teams. Two payment paths were validated in production: native XRP and RLUSD for Food Banks Mississauga campaigns. The impact-certificate mechanism, which issues proof of delivery as Multi-Purpose Tokens on the XRP Ledger, was implemented and successfully demonstrated on testnet. Mainnet certificate issuance is the next milestone.●

Community Magazine #08

Auditing made easy

TrustBond was founded on a blunt fact in the nonprofit sector: only a handful of large NGOs capture most of the funding thanks to heavy marketing, large teams, and the paperwork donors are already familiar with. Smaller organisations do a lot of work on the ground while waiting for limited funds, losing potential donors who cannot clearly see where their money goes. TrustBond’s protocol was built on the XRP Ledger and pressure-tested in the XRPL Commons Aquarium incubator in Paris, then in Ripple’s UDAX programme with FGV in Brazil. Where the Utility Lies Trustbond addresses a problem around transparency. NGOs spend up to 20% of their resources proving that they are not corrupt. Grants and contracts can take 6–12 months to pay out, so operations stall even after the project is approved. For this, TrustBond provides a straightforward

solution: NGOs join its platform, donors give by credit card, and funding flows are tied to on-chain traceability and proof of impact: who got paid, what was delivered, with GPS and supporting files when possible. The long-term loop creates a virtuous cycle: greater verified integrity leads to more capital and visibility. Where XRPL Comes In The ledger’s cheap, fast settlements along with easy auditability are at the solution’s core. Payments are treated as integral to the audit trail, instead of a PDF uploaded three months later. Metadata and IPFS hold photos and documents; the ledger holds the money movement. RLUSD is the path to settle without forcing an NGO to take crypto volatility on a school roof. Blockchain here is infrastructure for trust and compliance: a way to see that money meant for a classroom reached a supplier and a wall went up, not a slogan on a landing page. The Aquarium Incubator in Paris was the moment TrustBond stopped being a slide and became something you can demo: an NGO portal, a score, a proof flow, a public explorer instead of a PDF.●

#04 — Reforming Societies

TrustBond

49 HerVoice Reproductive Rights in Europe

HerVoice was founded to address a gap between a political win and real life. In early 2026, the European Commission decided that member states could use the European Social Fund Plus, close to 143 billion euros, to fund crossborder abortion access. Yet millions of women in Europe still travel across borders for basic care, often paying out of pocket, with concerns for safety and privacy. For its female-first engineering team, who came together through hackathons and UDAX Oxford, the problem felt personal. The team has created a payment rail to alleviate donor concerns about sending money into a space where patient privacy is so fragile. Where the Utility Lies A patient reserves her treatment, with full anonymity. The moment her case is approved, the

funds are locked in escrow. They are only released when she arrives at the clinic and her identity is verified locally, in person. Donors and clinics can follow the status of every euro, but they never see who she is. There is no searchable database of patients anywhere in the system. Where XRPL Comes In In the case of HerVoice, blockchain solves a very specific problem: How do you prove that money moved properly, without exposing the recipient? XRPL was deemed a strong fit for a few reasons. Its native escrow feature locks funds and releases them only when a clear condition is met, which maps exactly the “verified at the clinic” step. Settlement on XRPL is fast and cheap, so crossborder payments do not get stuck or cut by fees. The key point is that this transparency lies in the money, not with the patient. Identity is safeguarded behind the clinic doors, off the ledger entirely. XRPL gives funders the accountability they need, while giving women the anonymity they deserve. Currently, the infrastructure works end-to-end on testnet. Soon, HerVoice will be safely accessible in the real world.●

#04 — Reforming Societies

Community Magazine #08

Hydro-Economics: The Global Impact of Water.Org The organization, founded by actor Matt Damon and environmental engineer Gary White, has brought safe water access to millions around the world. Through the Get Blue program, Ripple joins the efforts as an exclusive fintech partner.

For more than 30 years, the mission of Water.org Group has been to bring water and sanitation to the world. How they do that has evolved a lot.

In the early days, they worked primarily through community-based, direct impact solutions. That work taught something important — access to affordable financing, not infrastructure alone, was the primary barrier standing between people living in poverty and the safe water and sanitation solutions they needed at home. So in 2003, the group created WaterCredit, making small household loans for water and sanitation possible through local financial institution partners. As WaterCredit scaled, a new challenge arose: more capital was needed to fund loan portfolios. So in 2017, they established WaterEquity, an impact investment manager dedicated to ending the global water crisis, with an exclusive focus on raising and deploying capital for water and

sanitation solutions throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. And in 2024, the Water.org Group established WaterConnect with the purpose of addressing the lack of investment-ready water and sanitation infrastructure projects where they work. Today, these range of solutions work together — enabling small loans for household access, bringing in more capital through impact investing, and developing infrastructure to expand reach — to break down the barriers between people living in poverty and access to safe water and sanitation. The biggest lesson across all of this: people living in poverty are reliable, paying customers when given the opportunity to access safe water and sanitation solutions. WaterCredit loan repayment rates are 98% and they’ve proven that millions of people in need can pay for access to safe water at home — that insight has shaped everything the Water.org Group built since.●

Brands for Water Access: Introducing GetBlue Get Blue was created to scale a solution that’s already working: today, more than 95 million people have access to safe water or sanitation through Water.org’s solutions, and Get Blue brings together brands, artists, creators, and everyday people to help extend that impact to millions more. When someone shops a Get Blue product, streams music, shares content, or donates, they’re helping power Water.org’s local bank partners to provide small, affordable loans to families, who use them to get the pipes, pumps, or plumbing they need to bring water home. When a loan is repaid — and 98% of Water.org-supported loans are — that money goes right back out to help the next family, and the next, so it’s a pay-it-forward system, not a handout. The bigger vision is simple: no one should have to wait, walk, or overpay for safe water, and Get Blue turns everyday actions — a purchase, a stream, a donation — into a collective force to help bring water home for everyone.●

Community Magazine #08

#04 — Reforming Societies

Community Magazine #08

Why Your Vote Should Be Nobody’s Business, Including the Counters’ By Atharva Lele, Trinity College Dublin

How zero-knowledge proofs could make elections private, verifiable and trustless Trust in democratic processes is eroding. Turnout is falling, fraud allegations multiply, and digital voting pilots keep stumbling on a paradox: how do you prove an election was fair without revealing how anyone voted? This piece is written by Atharva Lele whose work focuses on public blockchain security. Most recently, he integrated CRYSTALS-Dilithium, a quantum-resistant signature scheme, into the XRP Ledger, earning him the XRPL Contribution 2025 Award and invitations to teach at XRPL Commons Bootcamp 2025 and speak at Cryptography

at Work II, Paris Blockchain Week, and other international venues. That same focus on building robust, trustworthy cryptographic infrastructure led to zkBallot. While XRPL is not suited to zeroknowledge proof-based voting, Zcash’s native zk-SNARK support makes it a viable foundation. The underlying question remains the same: how do we build public infrastructure that people can actually trust? This is the question our research at the Applied Crypto Lab set out to answer, and the answer lies in zero-knowledge proofs.

The Problem with Voting Today

Traditional voting systems force a brutal trade-off. Paper ballots preserve privacy but are hard to audit at scale. Digital systems are an efficient and auditable but expose voter data. The core tension: for no election to be legitimate, you must prove every ballot was valid, s one voted twice, and the count is accurate. Yet, conventional system a risk, lance surveil a is That end up recording who voted for whom. coercion risk, and in authoritarian contexts, a physical safety risk.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Proving Without Revealing

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) let one party convince another that a statement is true, without revealing anything beyond the truth of that statement itself. Applied to voting: a voter can prove they are eligible, their ballot is valid, and they have not voted before without the syste m ever learning their identity or choice. Our platform, zkBallot↗, implements this using zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Know ledge), the same cryptographic primitive underpinning Zcash↗, a privacy-fo cused blockchain. Each vote is processed as a shielded transaction. The proo f of validity is published. The voter’s identity is not.

Community Magazine #08

ecifically? But Why Blockchain, Sp ut the ut cryptocurrency. It’s abo

not abo Blockchain’s utility here is nsparency, and d ledger: immutability, tra properties of a decentralize inistrator can of trust or failure. No adm the removal of a single point The vote count hority controls the record. alter the tally. No central aut one. matical fact, verifiable by any is not a claim; it is a mathe s something ble ena n ledge proofs, blockchai Combined with zero-know vate, pri sly election that is simultaneou previously impossible: an t. You can do not have to trust zkBallo verifiable, and trustless. You verify it yourself.

What’s Next

zkBallot is currently in public beta, free for any organisation or individual to use. Our research is focused on scaling zk-SNARK proof generation, extending support for ranked-choice and weighted voting schemes, and integrating with institutional identity systems. The goal is not to replace democratic infrastructure overnight. It is to offer a cryptographically sound alternative where current systems are failing and to demonstrate that privacy and transparency are not opposites.●

Check it out: zkballot.com↗

#04 — Reforming Societies

What This Looks

ike in Practice Imagine a universit y student council ele ction. A student au through the institu thenticates tion’s existing syste m and casts a vote. generates a cryptogr Th e system aphic proof confirm ing that this person student, has not vo is an enrolled ted before, and their ballot is correctly fo proof is written on rmed. That the blockchain, whe re it is publicly visib immutable, and mat le, permanently hematically verifiab le. What the blockc record: who the stu hain does not dent is, or what they chose. After the election, an yone – a student, a journalist, an audito the result without tru r – can verify sting the organiser. The blockchain is th The same model sc e auditor. ales to corporate bo ard votes, DAO go elections, and NGO ve rn ance, club referenda.

#04 — Reforming Societies

Community Magazine #08

Scaling Real-World Impact Through Blockchain Interview with Jonathan Perri, Director of Global Social Impact, Ripple

Ripple Impact is moving beyond traditional philanthropy, using blockchain infrastructure to expand financial inclusion, humanitarian aid, and build resilience. From helping small businesses access $53.6 million in capital to delivering humanitarian funds in minutes, Ripple is working with nonprofit partners to put digital assets and blockchain infrastructure to work on some of the world’s biggest challenges. We spoke with Jonathan Perri about how RLUSD is becoming a tool for nonprofits, how the XRP Ledger is changing crossborder aid, and what it will take to scale today’s pilots to millions of people.

Before joining Ripple, you led social impact at advocacy organizations like Change.org. What made blockchain feel like the right next chapter to work on social impact? I’ve always been interested in the intersection between technology and social impact. Ripple surprised me with the scale and depth of its commitment to philanthropy and doing good. It’s woven into the DNA of the company, from our founders down, with social impact and financial inclusion considered across its business and investments. What’s particularly inspiring is seeing how an asset like XRP or a stablecoin like RLUSD

can give underbanked people access to the global financial system. About 1.4 billion people around the world are unbanked, with hundreds of millions more underserved by these systems. With a blockchain like the XRPL, which can settle transactions in 3–5 seconds for a fraction of a cent, we’re going far beyond charity. We’re letting more people participate in the global economy.

Ripple’s 2025 Impact Report↗ highlights a $25 million RLUSD commitment to expand capital access for small business owners and create careers for veterans. Why RLUSD specifically, rather than a traditional grant or cash program? RLUSD made a lot of sense for our nonprofit partners, ↗ including Accion Opportunity Fund , the leading nonprofit lender to small businesses in the US, and ↗ Hire Heroes USA , which runs veteran employment programs. It was the first time they had handled digital assets at this scale, so a stablecoin pegged to the dollar was a natural starting point. Beyond grants, we’re helping these organizations learn how to use a new financial tool. A $15 million donation to AOF in RLUSD settled in five seconds for a fraction of a cent. That demonstrates the potential of stablecoins for nonprofits. The capital outcomes have been remarkable. That $15 million catalyzed into $104 million in capital deployed. AOF has supported 1,400 small business owners and created or retained more than 3,900 jobs through the grant.

Ripple also donated $25 million in RLUSD to DonorsChoose and Teach for America. Beyond the funding itself, what are you hoping these organizations accomplish and learn through this partnership?

Community Magazine #08

You’re also working with Water.org on microfinancing and water and sanitation loans. What’s different about running these programs using digital assets and blockchain infrastructure? ↗

Water.org’s model is unique. It uses microfinancing to enable people to access plumbing, sinks, and water filtration systems. Traditional wire infrastructure is slow and expensive, so we’re working with Water.org and its MFIs to move funds using RLUSD and Ripple Payments. So far, we’ve reached more than 50,000 people through 12,000 loans, with $500,000 loaned turning into $6 million in mobilized capital. We’re also proud to join Get Blue, which directs funds from purchases at Amazon, Starbucks, Gap, and Ecolab to Water.org initiatives. Ripple is the exclusive digital asset and fintech partner.

Together with Prosper Global Ventures, Ripple is equipping entrepreneurs from emerging markets with Web3 tools for financial and climate resilience. What’s a use case that shows what “resilience” means in practice? ↗

Prosper Global Ventures (formerly Mercy Corps Ventures) invests in emerging-market fintechs, where founders experience a significant financing gap. Over five years, Prosper Global has invested in 29 startups, with more than $500 million in follow-on funding. Its lab also tests Web3 solutions through 20 frontiertech pilots. One example is a program on anticipatory action in Kenya, using RLUSD for aid or insurance before a climate event happens. We worked with pastoralists to monitor vegetation growth and drought risk. When indicators showed an imminent drought, RLUSD was triggered via smart contracts to a microfinancier, who then paid farmers so they could prepare for the crisis. Through this work, we’ve reached about 14.4 million

people across Africa and Latin America. We’ve learned that resilience means having the resources to act before a crisis peaks, not just surviving it.

What’s the plainest example you can point to where the ledger did something a bank wire or a check simply couldn’t? ↗

It would be our work with World Central Kitchen , which provides humanitarian rapid response globally. When a climate disaster happens, they need to get funds into affected areas quickly, often while the crisis is still unfolding. During the floods in Veracruz, Mexico, they were deploying within hours, working with local restaurants to provide warm meals. We got $98,503 to their partners in around five minutes, with total fees of around $100. The same transfer through traditional banking infrastructure would have cost around $1,600 and taken multiple days — a 94% reduction in transfer costs. Across the full $250,000 deployment, that meant around $3,700 saved and kept in the mission. That’s a really tangible example of utility.

Ripple has been around for more than a decade. As new blockchains emerge, what keeps bringing impact partners back to the XRP Ledger? There are technical fundamentals that hold up really well with the XRP Ledger: its sustainability, with an incredibly low environmental impact, and its reliability, having run for more than a decade. The other piece is trust. Through Ripple Impact, we’ve built partnerships with global nonprofit organizations and provided some of their first digital asset experiences, along with technological support and education. That combination of proven technology, education, and long-term partnerships has helped us build strong relationships with our impact partners.●

#04 — Reforming Societies

↗

DonorsChoose is a great example. It was one of the first and largest cryptocurrency donations of its kind, and we funded every project on the DonorsChoose website. Five years later, that donation is in our stablecoin. We funded 48,108 classroom projects across all 50 states, supporting 2,300 new teachers and 141,600 students. 86% of those schools are in low-income areas. There’s also an institutional learning point. Donations can be disbursed immediately, rather than weeks or months after they’re intended. This isn’t something organizations can treat as a future possibility; they need to understand these tools now.

Events & Opportunities

Community Magazine #08

The Latest Opportunities in the XRPL Ecosystem Whether a newcomer or an XRPL pro, these opportunities are waiting for you!

The Aquarium

The Aquarium is a 9-week fully online incubator program by XRPL Commons. It is designed for pre-seed and seed teams building on the XRPL — or looking to migrate from another ecosystem — with a focus on DeFi, Social Impact, RWA tokenization, Agentic web, and Infrastructure/ Security. Through workshops, structured learning, personalized 1-1 coaching (technical and business), and access to XRPL experts, you’ll gain the insights and accountability needed to propel your venture forward. We look for teams with at least one full-time founder and an MVP ready to build on. Cohorts run twice a year — Spring and Fall.

Learn more www.xrpl-commons.org/the-aquarium↗

UBRI Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX)

Apply now to the UBRI Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX), a 7–10 week hybrid accelerator for startups building native solutions on or bridging to the XRP Ledger. Delivered in partnership with universities like Fundação Getulio Vargas, University of Oxford, and University of California, Berkeley, the program provides hands-on technical instruction, mentorship from the XRPL community, and in-person Launch and Demo Day events at Ripple offices globally. Pre-applications for the 2027 cohorts are now open. Submit once to be considered for upcoming cohorts as locations, host universities, and program dates are announced.

Apply here to be considered for the 2027 cohorts: forms.gle/BP8Lr3JFJtfReuaZ7↗

XRPL Grants

Ripple provides full lifecycle support to startups building institutional-grade financial applications on XRPL Mainnet. Participating teams will receive dedicated guidance in XRPL integration, product strategy, and navigating the financial ecosystem, to turn early-stage ideas into production-ready financial products. Offerings include: regional accelerator programs and startup competitions, builder awards, and incentive-based grant funding.

More details to come in late fall 2026 xrplgrants.org↗

Glow

Glow is a retroactive funding program developed by XRPL Commons to recognize and reward impactful open-source contributions within the XRPL ecosystem. Unlike traditional grants, Glow supports work that has already been completed and demonstrated value. Whether you’re a developer fixing bugs, an engineer improving protocol performance, a writer producing documentation, or a maintainer leading SDK projects, Glow exists to highlight and support the essential work that powers the XRP Ledger.

Support your favourite project: glow.xrpl-commons.org↗ For all available ecosystem opportunities, check out xrpl.org/community↗.

Community Magazine #08

The XRPL Commons Grants Program: How We Support Builders XRP Ledger’s next phase of growth is being built, and funded, by many. Here’s our part. The XRPL ecosystem is entering a new phase. Over $550 million has been invested in the XRPL ecosystem since 2017, and the model is shifting toward a distributed network of independent organizations. XRPL Commons is one of those pillars.

Glow

Funding

the Protocol’s Builders

Building on the XRPL

Incubate, Ship, Scale

Since 2023, we’ve run The Aquarium Incubator, trained hundreds of developers, and launched the Glow retroactive funding program for open-source contributors. In 2026, we have crystallized how we support projects at all stages.

Glow is our retroactive funding and bounty program for open-source contributors to the XRP Ledger. It’s for devs who’ve built opensource tooling, documented something that saved developers time, or significantly contributed to protocol infrastructure. Glow runs on a quarterly cadence: open applications, no referral required. The program runs through December 2026. glow.xrpl-commons.org↗

This track supports early-stage projects building on the XRP Ledger, from first idea to live product. It spans three mechanisms that work together. Make Waves is a 90-day live challenge that kicked off on June 21st, 2026. Builders had until September 21st to ship and grow an app on the XRPL mainnet.

The Aquarium↗ is a 9-week incubation program. The program is run online for widest accessibility. It supports devs and founders building within the XRP Ledger ecosystem, providing mentorship, technical guidance, and direct access to the XRPL Commons network.

Early Stage Grants provide individual grants for projects building on XRP Ledger rails. Grants are milestone-based and cover both technical integration and growth targets. Grantees also get support from the XRPL Commons team on architecture, integrations, and go-to-market strategy. What we look for: a live, working product, a clear path to generating volume on XRPL, and a team that knows what they’re building. We’re currently focused on EMEA, with priority for hackathon winners and Aquarium alums.

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Strategic Integrations Established Projects

New Rails

The third track works with established products — proven teams with user bases on other chains — to integrate XRP Ledger infrastructure where it fits. It comes with hands-on support from the XRPL Commons team on technical integration and go-to-market planning. One recent example: LOBSTR, a powerful wallet on Stellar, has integrated XRPL support in partnership with XRPL Commons, enabling its users to access the XRP Ledger directly.

We’re actively identifying further partners in DeFi, agentic finance, and payments. If you lead such a project and want to explore what XRPL rails could do for your product, reach out directly at adoption@xrpl-commons.org↗.

A full-stack approach to ecosystem development

XRPL Commons is combining funding and team support for ecosystem growth. The grants program sits inside a broader infrastructure: training programs, The Aquarium, builder challenges, a developer community, and a team that works alongside grantees through technical integration and go-to-market.

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Inside the Four APAC Programs Building on XRPL In February, Ripple set out how ecosystem support would work in 2026. Funding would flow through more channels, with independent operators, regional hubs and venture partners taking a larger role. Four Financial Innovation Programs across APAC have followed that pattern. Each is run locally, and each points teams at the same goal: enterprise-grade financial infrastructure on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Japan

Web3 Salon and Asia Web3 Alliance Japan ran the Japan Financial Infrastructure Innovation Program (JFIIP) with JETRO and Ripple as main partners, structured as a venture studio. Demo Day fell on 24 February at JETRO’s Tokyo headquarters, a certified Japan FinTech Week event, with a $30,000 prize pool split into a $10,000 grand prize and four $5,000 funding awards. High performers also became eligible for fast-track consideration into Ripple’s grant ecosystem. Two projects stood out. Laplace is tokenizing real estate and has been testing the XRPL Lending Protocol on Devnet as a HELOC model. Mynawallet has integrated XRPL into wallets keyed to government-issued ID cards.

Hong Kong

Brinc, working with Ripple, selected ten startups for the Hong Kong Financial Innovation Program (HFIP): Aegis.im, Altair, Anchored, Arco, ArrivalX, AXC Labs, Elephants Inc., Heron, STRIDE and Payment Cards Group. Over twelve weeks they get XRPL integration support, corporate access with partners including Hex Trust and OSL, and investor introductions. Project highlights are coming soon.

What to watch

• Hong Kong Demo Day during Hong Kong FinTech Week, 2 to 6 November. • Singapore Demo Day during the Singapore FinTech Festival, 18 to 20 November. Program details at tenity.com/program/sfiip-2026.

Korea

Seoul Fintech Lab and XRPL Korea co-hosted the Korea Financial Innovation Program 2026 with Ripple as title sponsor, open to fintechs, startups and individual builders. Twelve teams reached three weeks of building and mentorship, ending with Final Pitch Day on 25 June at IFC Seoul. Winners took cash prizes plus a year of legal counsel, overseas conference support and Seoul Fintech Lab residency. Among the cohort, RiskX is building structured products on XRPL aimed at institutional XRP yield.

Singapore

The Singapore Financial Infrastructure Innovation Program (SFIIP) 2026 opens 5 October with Tenity, covering payments and FX, credit and financing, collateral and liquidity, and AI agent payments. Teams have to ship a live XRPL Mainnet integration by Demo Day. Highlights to follow.

• Apply. Routes are open at xrplgrants.org for XRPL Grants and the XRPL Accelerator, through XRPL Commons for GLOW and The Aquarium, XAO DAO microgrants, and UDAX cohorts at Oxford, FGV São Paulo and UC Berkeley. • Follow. Next-cohort calls surface with local hosts first: XRPL Korea, Web3 Salon, Brinc and Tenity.

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Closing Notes

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Books of Great Utility

The Geek List We’re back in the Classroom - The dedicated XRPL Commons learning space. The library continues to grow, with books on blockchain, tech, and the ideas shaping the now and the future. For this list, we kept an eye open on utility - for you, for startups, and for society at large.

Self-Sovereign Identity Alex Preukschat

Drummond Reed

Starting with Identity: Self-Sovereign Identity↗ by Alex Preukschat and Drummond Reed explores how individuals can take greater control over their digital identities, moving away from systems where platforms and institutions hold the keys to our personal data.

Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code Primavera de Filippi

Aaron Wright A deeper dive into blockchain’s legal implications: Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code↗ by Primavera de Filippi and Aaron Wright looks at how blockchain-based systems challenge traditional ideas of contracts, property, governance and regulation – and how code itself can become a new source of rules.

What book or podcast should we add to the next Geek List?

Send in your recommendations to mag@xrpl-commons.org!↗

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The Cold Start Problem

Andrew Chen

Protocols for People: The Cold Start Problem↗ by Andrew Chen examines the challenge every networked business faces: how do you get the first users, and then turn their activity into the momentum needed to grow? A useful guide to building and scaling network effects.

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software Nadia Eghbal

Open Source: Working in Public explores how open source has evolved from a model of public collaboration into an ecosystem increasingly sustained by individual developers—and what this shift reveals about the hidden work, costs and value behind the software and online content that millions rely on every day.

Community Recs

We asked the community for suggestions beyond our own bookshelf. Here’s an extra book, two websites and a podcast for your consideration. Good old harrowing Sci-Fi: Ashes, Ashes↗ by René Barjavel (original title: Ravage) imagines a world brought to its knees when electricity suddenly disappears. Originally published in 1943, this French classic remains a striking reflection on technological dependence, resilience, and what happens when modern civilization loses its foundatio ns.

By popular design: OnePageLove↗ showcases single-page websites, highlighting clever layouts and effective calls-to-action. Going a little further, Awwwards↗ presents the most creative and technically ambitious websites around; a fantastic resource for seeing where web design, UI and UX are heading.

Something to listen to: Founders↗ by David Senra is a podcast built around the lives and lessons of history’s most fascinating entrepreneurs. Each episode dives into a different founder’s biography, making for an addictive source of business wisdom – and plenty of rabbit holes for curious geeks.

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XRPL Glossary AI Agents / Agentic Web

Autonomous software programs that can perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with systems or users on behalf of individuals. In a Web3 context, agentic systems operate across decentralized networks to execute workflows without constant human input.

Allowlist

A list of approved blockchain addresses given exclusive or early access to a specific event, service, or feature.

AML / KYC

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) refer to regulatory frameworks and identity verification processes used to ensure compliance. AML focuses on detecting illicit activity, while KYC aims to verify users’ identities.

AMM (Automated Market Maker)

A decentralized exchange mechanism that uses algorithms and liquidity pools to automatically price and facilitate trades without order books or intermediaries.

API (Application Programming Interface)

A documented set of rules that lets one program call another program or service to request data or trigger a function. Unlike a user interface, it is meant to be used by code, not by a person.

Bridge Asset

A digital asset used as a middle step to convert one currency or token into another (A → bridge asset → B) when that route is cheaper or more liquid than a direct market. On the XRP Ledger, auto-bridging is designed to use XRP in that role.

CASPs (crypto asset service providers)

A business that provides services to buy, sell, store, or manage digital assets built on blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies)

A digital payment instrument, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank (BIS).

Consensus

The process by which independent XRP Ledger

validators agree on the next set of transactions and the resulting ledger state, without a central operator.

Cryptography

The use of mathematical techniques to secure data, verify transactions, and control access within blockchain networks.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Encompasses a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols that enable individuals to access financial services, such as lending, borrowing, trading, and asset management, without relying on centralized institutions like banks.

DEX (Decentralized Exchange)

A platform that allows users to trade digital assets directly with one another without relying on a central authority or intermediary.

DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) A shared record of transactions kept on many computers and updated together by agreed rules. The network can be public or private, and open to anyone or limited to approved members. Blockchain is one kind of DLT.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

A framework used by investors, companies, and regulators to measure an organization’s sustainability and ethical impact.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)

A type of investment fund that holds multiple assets—such as stocks, bonds, or commodities— and trades on a stock exchange.

GENIUS Act

A United States federal law enacted on July 18, 2025, that establishes the first comprehensive regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.

Interoperability

The ability of blockchain networks to communicate with each other, sending and receiving messages, data, and tokens.

Liquidity pool

A shared pot of two tokens that people trade against, instead of waiting for a matching buyer

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or seller. The price comes from how much of each token is in the pot. On many blockchains this runs in a smart contract. On the XRP Ledger it is built into the protocol.

Mainnet

The live production blockchain, where digital assets have real value and validated transactions cannot be undone for free.

MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation)

EU regulations for governing cryptocurrencies and related activities, aiming to balance innovation with consumer protection, sustainability, and financial stability.

Microfinance

The practice of providing financial services—such as small loans, savings accounts, and insurance—to low-income individuals or new businesses with limited access to traditional banks.

Multi-Purpose Token (MPT)

The XRP Ledger’s newer fungible token standard. An issuer defines one token, then can attach onchain metadata and rules such as transfer limits and compliance controls. The same design can represent issued assets like stablecoins, or a realworld asset.

Node

A computer that participates in a blockchain network by maintaining a copy of the ledger and validating or relaying transactions.

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

Unique digital assets that can’t be replicated or replaced.

Protocol

The shared rules computers follow so they can work together. In a blockchain, that includes how a transaction is written, how it is checked, how nodes talk to each other, and how they agree on the next ledger.

Real World Assets (RWAs)

Physical or traditional financial assets, such as real estate or bonds, that are tokenized and represented on a blockchain.

Ripple USD (RLUSD)

A USD-pegged stablecoin issued on the XRP Ledger, Ethereum, and other networks, designed to maintain a 1:1 value with the US dollar and support compliant on-chain finance.

Sidechains

An independent network with its own consensus algorithm, transaction types, rules, and nodes. It acts as its own blockchain, running parallel to the mainchain and enabling value or data to move between the two.

Stablecoins

Digital assets designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to a reference asset, such as a fiat currency.

Tokenization

The process of converting real-world assets or rights into digital tokens on a blockchain or distributed ledger system. These digital tokens represent ownership or access rights to the underlying physical or digital assets, and they can be bought, sold, or traded like cryptocurrencies.

Trustline

A feature of the XRPL which lets users decide what tokens they are willing to hold.

Validator

Validators are crucial components responsible for verifying and validating transactions on a decentralized network. Acting as distributed nodes, validators authenticate the accuracy and integrity of digital transactions and vote on which to include in the next ledger.

Vault

A smart contract or protocol that securely holds assets, often used in DeFi for lending, staking, or yield strategies.

Web3

Refers to the next evolution of the Internet, leveraging blockchain technology to create a decentralized and user-governed digital ecosystem.

Web4

The hypothetical next-generation internet where artificial intelligence (AI) agents, the Internet of Things (IoT), and decentralized networks blend to create an autonomous, highly personalized, and invisible digital environment.

XRP

The native asset (cryptocurrency) of the XRP Ledger.

ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof)

A cryptographic method that lets one party prove a statement is true without revealing the secret behind it. In blockchains it is often used for privacy.

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Get Involved! Your Voice Matters!

Thank you for reading the XRPL Community Magazine! Your feedback shapes each issue, helping us capture what truly matters to our readers. We’re committed to highlighting diverse voices, and we want to hear from you!

What topics are you most excited to explore in our next edition? Reach out to us at mag@xrpl-commons.org,↗ and let’s craft the next magazine together!

Our Website

www.xrpl-commons.org↗

The Aquarium

www.xrpl-commons.org/the-aquarium↗

Become an Instructor at XRPL Commons! At XRPL Commons, we’re on a mission to make blockchain accessible to everyone! Ready to inspire curious minds? In this role, you’ll teach blockchain concepts to learners at all levels, tailoring your approach to diverse educational needs. We’re looking for someone who’s passionate about technology, loves to teach, and has excellent English communication skills. Fluency in other languages is a plus! Sound like you? Send your CV to ↗ education@xrpl-commons.org

Like us on Instagram @xrpl_commons↗

Check out our X ↗

@xrpl_common

Check out our YouTube @XRPLCommons↗

Read the Latest Issue of the XRPL Community Magazine www.xrpl-commons.org/engage/ community-magazine↗

Become an XRPL Ecosystem Curator! Be part of our live XRPL Ecosystem Map featuring all live projects on the XRPL – share your insights, projects, and knowledge to help grow the community together. You can actively contribute to this opensource database, ensuring it remains a reflection of the ever-evolving XRPL community. Is your project already on our map? ↗ Find out: map.xrpl-commons.org

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Copy Zsofi Borsi

Design & Collages chilli drop.

Contributors Allegra Melli Ariel Scaliter Artur Kirjakulov Arturo Harker Roa Atharva Lele Chandler Fang Ciana David Bchiri Elisa Bailly Eslam Anbar Emma Nasseri Fehmi Fennia Florence Tison Jazzi Cooper Jonathan Perri Joy Sethi Julia Heitner Julian Kanjere Kennedy Nganga Krippenreiter Marcelo Silva Mikheil Didebulidze Odelia Torteman Simon Luling Tatsuya Kohrogi Tonia Damvakeraki Vera Radeva

Photography Angela di Paolo Sasha Malka Anna Pitoun Rae Oswald Unsplash

Thank You

October 2026