Episode 1: Demystifying XRPL Development

Welcome to the XRPL Insights Podcast Series. I'm your host, Cassie Hirsh, Director of Content here at XRPL Commons in Paris. Joining us today in the studio is my colleague, Luc Bocahut, Product Director and Solutions Architect, and in town from the UK is Chris Dangerfield, a Senior Software Engineer Consultant and XRP Ledger Educator, cooperating with us on the development of educational resources for the XRP Ledger and blockchain.

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Cassie: So, welcome to Paris, Chris! How was your journey here and your stay so far at the Commons office? Did you pick up any French?

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Chris: Oui, that's about all I've learned so far. It was a good trip. I'm really delighted to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

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Cassie: You're welcome. So, you are developing a course called The Complete XRP Ledger Developer Bootcamp on the basics of the XRP Ledger for Udemy, and eventually, in further iterations, it will be available on other platforms. What are the main topics you plan to cover in this course? And tell us, why Udemy and not YouTube?

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Chris: Right, okay, I'll start with why Udemy. Udemy is, in my opinion, an untapped resource for developers. When I want to learn a new technology, one of the first things I do is jump on Udemy and grab a quick course to get a good understanding of the basics. I did that for Solidity, and I was quite surprised. After completing a quick Solidity course, I searched for XRP or XRPL and found very little there, nothing of significant value to me as a developer. That led me to think it's a missed opportunity. There’s a world of developers out there who don’t even know the XRP Ledger exists, and Udemy is a window to reach those developers. That’s how the idea for the course specifically for Udemy came about.

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As for what I’ll be covering in the course, it’s billed as The Complete XRP Ledger Developer Bootcamp, and that’s the ultimate goal. We’ll be releasing it in phases because this course will take many months, if not more than a year, to fully complete. But we’ll be starting with the basics. It’s aimed at developers but assumes you have zero experience in blockchain. So, we begin with the fundamentals—what is a blockchain? Then, we dive into the basics of the XRP Ledger. There’s an element of theory involved, and we’ll gradually warm you up to coding. Eventually, we’ll jump straight in and get you building something real. By the end of each section, you’ll have built something tangible and functional.

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Cassie: Great! I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Actually, I’m curious—how did you come to work with us?

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Chris: Ah, well, that will be down to Apex. At last year’s Apex, I fortuitously sat next to David Bashiri at dinner, and we got talking. I explained to him what I just explained to you—my experience with Udemy as a developer—and how surprised I was that the XRP Ledger had no presence on that platform. He completely agreed. Over dinner, we chatted it through, and that ultimately led to a conversation after Apex, and everything kind of happened naturally from there.

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Cassie: And you're talking about David Bchiri, our CEO. We will be back at Apex this year, and David will be giving a keynote. So, if you're in Amsterdam, be sure to come and check it out. Now, over to you, Luc. You've had a diverse career spanning finance and technology, from managing a global macro hedge fund to serving as an executive for various companies. Can you share a bit about your transition into the blockchain space and your role at XRPL Commons?

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Luc: Thanks, Cassie. Before I answer your question, I just want to tell our listeners about Apex, which is the worldwide developer conference for XRP Ledger developers. It will take place in Amsterdam this year, starting on June 11th for three days. Developers from around the world will convene to discuss new features of the ledger, projects built this year, and future projects. We're really excited to get everybody together to celebrate the XRP Ledger.

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I came into blockchain through financial use cases, originally building trading platforms and market tools, and then more at the protocol level in the Bitcoin space, working on the Lightning Network. Earlier last year, I was focusing on AI projects and met our CEO, David Purée, and we saw a real opportunity in the XRP Ledger space to bring tooling and products to help developers fully leverage this unique technology. I’m actually excited to talk to you, Chris, about some of the specificities you see in the XRP Ledger. I know you're a seasoned developer in this ecosystem, and I’m curious—how did you get into the XRP Ledger?

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Chris: Funny story, actually. I was ill in bed, bored, flicking through old DM messages, and I messaged Wietse Wind from XRPL Labs. I told him I was stuck in bed and bored. He said, "Build something!" So I asked, "Build what?" He gave me an idea for something he needed help with, so I said, "Okay, I will." I literally just dove in, grabbed my laptop, and 20 days later, launched my first product on the XRP Ledger—an XApp for the now Xumm Wallet. That’s how I got started with development on the XRP Ledger.

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Luc: It’s an interesting piece of technology. We’ve been conducting developer training and talking to a lot of developers this past year. What keeps coming back is how accessible the technology is. You can connect to an API, get up and running, and start sending transactions through the network. It’s fascinating.

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Chris: I totally agree. That’s a lesson I teach early in the course: don’t be scared! If you're already a developer, you’ll find it very easy. Many people think what we do is difficult, but for developers, it’s just an API that you connect to. You send a transaction with some properties on an object and get a response. It’s that simple. All the complex stuff is done for you at Layer 1. If you’re a developer, you can jump in, and within 20 minutes, you’ll be up and running. It’s like eight lines of code to connect to the ledger and do something meaningful.

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Luc: It’s immediately fun in that way. What you also nail in the course is the context around blockchain, consensus, and theoretical items—critical components for building meaningful projects.

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Chris: Exactly. The first few modules of the course ensure that everyone is brought up to a certain level. I don’t assume any prior knowledge. You can come into this course with no understanding of blockchain. As long as you know some JavaScript or any programming language, you’ll be fine. The course will take you from zero to a meaningful interaction with the ledger within 15 minutes.

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Luc: Yes, and many developers today know JavaScript, but even if you know another language, you can relate. It's really about learning how to send transactions, and the semantics apply across languages.

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Chris: Absolutely. We’re using an SDK, so whether you’re using JavaScript, Python, or another language, the complexity is abstracted away by the SDK. You’re simply calling an endpoint, passing in an object with some properties. The syntax might be slightly different—squiggles or semicolons where you don’t expect them—but any developer can understand what’s happening and take it into their language of choice. That’s another amazing thing about the XRP Ledger—it offers various SDKs to abstract the complexity. You can do it in Java, C#, Python, JavaScript—you name it. Go nuts!

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Luc: Double-clicking on that for a bit, based on your experience developing educational content, what are some common misunderstandings about the XRP Ledger? How do you plan to clarify those in your course?

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Chris: The first key message is that building on the XRP Ledger is not difficult. If you're a developer, you’ll find it easier than expected. If you’re not up and running with something real within an hour, I’ll be shocked. Another point we’ll cover is that the XRP Ledger is different from other blockchains. People often say the XRP Ledger doesn’t have smart contracts, but that’s a nuanced statement. It sort of does—it’s just delivered differently. For example, if you want to do something like escrow on Ethereum, you need to build an entire contract. On the XRP Ledger, you just call a function, pass in the parameters, and the functionality is baked in. You can have an escrow contract up and running in 15 minutes, and the code underneath is robust and reliable. Why reinvent the wheel?

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Luc: That’s a brilliant point about having audited smart contracts ready to use. You don’t have to write the whole thing yourself. Speaking of features, what are you excited about in the future for the ledger?

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Chris: I’m very excited about the Batch Amendment coming soon. It will be transformative for developers, allowing us to batch transactions, which will improve the user experience. I’m also keen to see how the EVM Sidechain adoption plays out—it’s early days, but the signs are promising. Hooks, especially with the new JavaScript implementation, could be game-changing too. There’s a lot to look forward to in the ecosystem, and I’m thrilled to be part of it.

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Cassie: Wow, amazing! Luke and Chris, thanks for sharing your insights with us today. We’re really looking forward to the Udemy course. Before we go, can both of you tell us something about yourself our listeners might not guess from this interview? Let's start with you, Luke.

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Luc:

I can tell you that I speak French. I am French-Parisian, I four children. And that's maybe it's you haven't heard on the podcast so far.

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Cassie:

And how about you, Chris? Can you tell us something that our listeners might not guess right away from hearing the podcast?

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Chris:

Well from my photo I've got short hair. A long time ago I used to have very long hair and that's because I was very much into music. At the request of Cassie, here we go.

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Cassie:

Excellent. Thank you, Chris. All right. Thank you for joining us in the studio today. Want to learn more about the XRP ledger? Head over to our website, xrp.com.org or YouTube channel. It's always interesting to hear how builders in the XRP ecosystem are applying the protocol to solve real world issues. Are you a developer using XRP in a novel way? Do you have a story for us? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a line on the Discord, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Interested in hearing more about XRPL? I'd like to give a shout out to David Schwartz's podcast, Blockstars, and listen to Lauren Weimel's podcast, All About Blockchain. Thanks for tuning in.

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