Early Ripple users all know that in 2017, Ripple was at its peak, even vaguely surpassing BTC. But since then, over the past 7 years, ETH has exploded with various powerful ecosystem projects such as DeFi, derived from smart contracts, leaving Ripple far behind.
From the perspective of the practical application of blockchain technology, Ripple is more than a match for BTC and ETH. Even traditional financial industry banking institutions, enterprise blockchain SaaS systems, and government service alliance chain systems all have traces of Ripple.
Moreover, the Ripple wallet may be one of the few public chains I have experienced that operates exceptionally smoothly in terms of blockchain technology projects. Low transaction fees, extremely fast transaction speeds, and the built-in gateway transaction order system on the chain, which is equivalent to a natural DEX decentralized exchange.
So why has Ripple always been lukewarm? Instead, it has been firmly suppressed by Ethereum developed by Vitalik Buterin, who once sought employment at Ripple Labs. Even the Tron ecosystem, which is rumored to have plagiarized Ripple's code, is thriving, while the Ripple ecosystem has always been sluggish, with even Ripple Labs' core business of international payments and remittances shrinking.
Furthermore, there were many early enthusiasts in the Ripple community, including technical developers, so why has the Ripple ecosystem been slow to prosper? One significant reason, in my opinion, is that the barrier to entry for Ripple users is too high.
For example, for new users to join the Ripple DeFi ecosystem XRPS, they first need to activate a Ripple wallet, which requires freezing 10 XRP. To add credit XRPS on the Ripple chain, another 2 XRP needs to be frozen. If you want to use the on-chain trading system, you need to freeze 2 XRP for each trading order.
In other words, for users to use Ripple chain normally, they need to keep at least 20 XRP in their wallet for on-chain operations, although the frozen XRP remains in the user's wallet and can be unfrozen at any time. However, according to the cost of XRP since 2017, this undoubtedly raises the threshold for new user access and increases the difficulty of promoting the development of on-chain ecology.
With no new users entering, the ecosystem gradually withers, leaving behind only some old users who are at a loss. Perhaps the rise of XRPS can reverse the decline of Ripple chain, but the issue of the cost of using the Ripple chain wallet remains a hurdle.
Although this problem is very easy to solve, with a community node voting approval rate of over 80%, the frozen parameters can be adjusted to lower the number of XRP frozen in the wallet. However, the entire Ripple community is divided into two factions when faced with this problem.
One side is the conservative faction that adheres to XRP as the core, and the other side is the radical faction led by Japan, which insists on developing the ecosystem as the top priority with XRPS. Community nodes of the conservative faction believe that locking more XRP can reduce the circulation of XRP and increase the value of Ripple chain.
Community nodes of the radical faction believe that reducing barriers and enriching the ecosystem can attract more Ripple chain users and developers, enabling the Ripple chain to thrive again. The divergence between the two factions has never reached a consensus, and several node votes have ended in failure. Perhaps this is also one of the drawbacks of decentralization after blockchain.
It is worth mentioning that more and more old users of Ripple chain are abandoning XRP and turning to XRPS camp, a market-driven choice. As time progresses, blockchain technology also needs continuous innovation, and public chains need more ecosystems to fill in. The performance of XRP's sluggishness has ultimately awakened some people. In the end, whether Ripple chain can usher in a turning point and move towards a new life, let's wait and see. The author specializes in the study of Ripple chain. If you are interested, please follow.
