During the first episode of Ripple Drop 2021, there was speculation about the launch of an NFT art gallery on RippleNet.
During this Ripple Drop, the potential of RippleNet was explored, particularly around the possibility of transforming businesses, and how RippleX is contributing to the XRPL community.
Asheesh Birla spoke about the global growth of RippleNet over the past year, saying that over three million transactions were recorded in 2020, with Southeast Asia leading the way.
According to Birla much of this growth is due to the accelerated digital transformation caused by the pandemic, as RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service “has helped many customers navigate a COVID cash crunch” over the past year. He also believes RippleNet offers CFOs the ability to transfer money instantly around the world via ODL.
But probably the most interesting things were said by RippleX CEO Monica Long.
According to Long, the goal for 2021 is to help build new tools for real-world XRPL use cases, and to support developers with new programs.
The NFT gallery on Ripple
In particular, he talked about a number of new XRPL-based projects, such as a non-custodial wallet, an XRP toolkit and, indeed, an NFT art gallery.
He said:
“NFTs are obviously a very big deal in crypto, and I think there is a lot of opportunity for developers to sink their teeth into NFT use cases on XRPL”.
This would in fact be a first for RippleNet, as to date the most widely used blockchains in the NFT world are others.
However, it is worth pointing out that alternative blockchains, primarily Ethereum, have already won a high market share in this sector, so much so that it is very difficult in reality to introduce new instruments based on technologies that have yet to be invented.
Theoretically, of course, it is possible that a Ripple-based NFT marketplace could be developed, but it remains to be seen how many users it could realistically attract, particularly given the enormous competition from platforms that are already well established in this field.
Ripple’s General Counsel Stuart Alderoty later spoke about crypto regulation in the US, saying he is concerned that it may drive innovators away from other countries that have already established a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
Ripple has been in litigation with the SEC for a few months now, so relations between the company and the US regulator are far from good. To date, the US still seems to be able to attract crypto innovators to its territory, especially with what they are trying to do in Miami and New York.
However, it is fair to say that on a regulatory level there are countries that have already done more work related to cryptocurrencies than the US, primarily Switzerland, which may be more attractive at this time.