XRP Was Ahead of Its Time, Ex-Ripple Engineer Says Amid Solana Innovation

Former Ripple developer Matt Hamilton has praised $XRP‘s early design, it being one of the longest-standing DEXs in crypto history.

The XRPL has possibly the world’s oldest decentralized exchange (DEX), operating continuously since the $XRP Ledger’s launch in 2012. The exchange allows users to buy and sell tokens for $XRP or other tokens, with minimal fees charged to the network itself (not paid out to any party).

Hamilton’s comment comes amid the latest innovation unveiled at the Solana Summit Germany.

One of the interesting projects pitched at Solana Summit Germany was Mato, presented by founder Thomas Gehrmann. It is a DEX that boasts a market structure with nothing to front-run, no middlemen, and orders matched directly through auctions.

$XRP gains early headstart

Responding in a tweet, Hamilton draws reference to the $XRP DEX, which he claims solved this intended problem that the Solana-based DEX aims to solve about 15 years ago. Development began on the XRPL in 2011, before it was launched in 2012.

“It still amazes me how people are still trying to re-invent the wheel. This problem was solved 15 years ago on the $XRP Ledger (the very first DEX in existence). And it seems every blockchain since keeps trying to re-solve it. It is great that this might now be solved on Solana, but I fear this is why we never move on as an industry,” Hamilton wrote.

The $XRP Ledger’s CLOB DEX is unique in that it does not require AMMs to swap. Trades on the $XRP Ledger can use AMMs to swap too, but unlike other DEXes, an AMM is not required.

In response to Hamilton’s tweet, $XRP Ledger validator Vet wrote: “I wonder how things would look if the $XRP Ledger launched today.”

The $XRP Ledger DEX continues to evolve, with the Lending Protocol, a DeFi primitive that enables on-chain, fixed-term, uncollateralized loans using pooled funds from a Single Asset Vault being voted on.