XRP Ledger

The XRP Ledger is a payments-focused layer 1 launched in 2012 that uses federated consensus rather than mining or staking. Each validator keeps a Unique Node List, votes converge over successive rounds, and a ledger closes at 80% agreement with finality in three to five seconds and no rollback. The ledger model is accounts plus objects: trust lines record fiat and issued assets, a central limit order book and the XLS-30 AMM sit natively in the protocol, and escrow, payment channels, multi-signing and decentralised identity need no third-party contracts.

The design centres on cross-border settlement: banks and payment firms convert local currency into XRP, move it across the ledger and convert back, avoiding prefunded accounts abroad. Stablecoins such as RLUSD and tokenised treasuries add dollar-denominated assets, with the order book and AMM sharing liquidity. Its split with EVM chains is that common financial primitives live in the protocol, and adding features requires a validator-approved amendment. The default UNL is published by the XRP Ledger Foundation and holds roughly 35 validators, so governance leans on that curated list.